On The Wall

ON THE WAll
A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR
CaRrie HarRis
This adventure was made awesome thanks to our Patreon patrons at patreon.com/evilhat—thanks folks!
INSIDERS
__skwrl__ Christopher Frédéri POCHARD Jeff Craig Keith Stanley Michael Dean Rich Spainhour Timothy Carroll
A.D. Hardman Gunning Gavran Jeremy Tidwell Ken Ditto Hannah Richard Bellingham Tristan Levasseur
Alan Bartholet Christopher Hatty Giuseppe Jim Nicholson Kyra Michael Meriwn Rick Tristan Smith
Andrew Pomfret Christopher Vollick D'Aristotile Joakim Andersson LilFluff Michael Pedersen Rick Jakins Troy Ray
Andrew Turbott Clyde Clark Graham Owens Joe Trzos Linda Larsson Mike Lavery Robert Hanz Tyler Hunt
Andy Arminio D.C. Upton Graham Wills John Rogers MAINGUET Francois Mitchell Evans Roger Eberhart vargr1
Arjun Comar David Dorward Griffin Mitchell John Rudd Marc Mundet Morgan Ellis Ryan Singer Will Goring
Arknon David Fergman Howard M Jon-Pierre Gentil Mark Nick Reale Sarah Vakos William J. White
Arlo B Evans David Hayes Thompson Joshua Forisha Mark Fentz Nicola Urbinati Scott Vesely William Lee
Ben Mullen Declan Feeney Ian Petiford Joshua Lutz Mark Stevenson Nicolas Marjanovic Sean M. Dunstan William McDuff
brian allred Demian Buckle J Quincy Sperber Justin Evans Martin Terrier Osye Pritchett Sean O'Dell Zach
C. J. Hunter Don Arnold Jamie Smith KT Marty Chodorek Peter Gates Selene O'Rourke Zach Hunt
C.K. Lee Doug Jan Heitger Katie Baker Matt and Nykki Peter Schumacher Shawn White
Charles Albrecht Dusan Frolkovic Jason Cotton Katie Berger Boersma Philippe Herve Stephen Rider
Chris Angelini Dustin Evermore Jean-François Tremaine Matt Anderson Polyhedral Crew Tara Zuber
Chris Flipse Edward MacGregor Robillard Keith Adams Michael Bowman Rachael Hixon The Roach
Chris Matosky Frank Jeff Chaffee Keith Mantell Michael Cambata Rhel Tim N
ADVENTURERS
A Person C Didier Bretin Jackson Hsieh Juan Francisco Gutierrez Michael D. Blanchard Randall Orndorff Stephanie Bryant
Adam Gutschenritter Carl Dillard James Beal Julianna Backer Michael D. Ranalli Jr. Randall Wright (Mortaine)
Adrian Arias-Palomo Carl McLaughlin Dirk Methner James Endicott Jussi Räsänen Michael Friese Randy M. Roberts Stephen Figgins
Adrian Chaluppka Carlos Martín Don Bisdorf James Hoag Justin Michael Hill Raun Sedlock Stephen Fleetwood
Aharon sharim Cedar Skye Don Schlaich James Husum Justin Michael Hopcroft Rebecca Harbison Stephen Waugh
AJ Real (lunarsapphire13) Doug Bolden James O'Neill Kaarchin Michael McCully Rebecca Hubbard Steve Discont
Al Billings Cerity Drew James Odom Karl Thiebolt Michael Riabov Red Dice Diaries Steve Kunec
Alan Phillips Charles Evans Duane Cathey James Pacheco Katherine Malloy Michael Thompson Remy Sanchez Steve Radabaugh
Alan Timothy Rogers Chip Dunning Duncan James Winfield Keith Fannin Micheal Elliott Renzo Crispieri Steven Code
Alan Twigg Chloe Wandler Dylan Green Jamie Wheeler Kent Snyen Mike DeZarn Rich Hewett Steven D Warble
Alexander Gräfe Chris Caporaso Ebenezer Arvigenius Janet Oblinger Kesh Mike Vermont Richard Steven desJardins
Alexander R. Corbett Chris Little Edward Sturges Jared Hunt Kevin L. Nault Mirko Froehlich Richard Greene Steven K. Watkins
Alexandre Malette Chris Newton Ehedei Jarrett Kevin Lindgren Mook Rick LaRue Steven Markley
Alexandros Tsourakis Chris Nolen Eirch Mascariatu Jason Bean Kevin McDermott My Humble Assault Riggah Stu Adams
Alfred Garza Christian Elizabeth Creegan Jason Best Kevin Payne Nat Rishi Stuart Dollar
Alistair Christoph Thill Elsa S. Henry Jason Pasch Kielo Maja Nat Rob Knop Sune Donath
Allan Samuelson Christopher Allen Elsidar Amhransidhe Jason Penney Klaas Bock Natalie Ash Rob Meyers surtr
Alloyed Christopher Avery Emmanuel Jayna Pavlin Kris Herzog Nathan Barnes Rob Voss Svend Andersen
Amanda Kauer Christopher Mangum Emmanuel Genot Jeff Mahood Krista Nathan Fritz Robb Neumann Teppo Pennanen
Amanda Valentine Christopher Mason Enrique Esturillo Cano Jeff Pitrman Krzysztof Chyla Nathan Reed Robert Bersch Teresa O
Andrew Betts Christopher Smith Adair eric Jeff Vincent Kyle Neil Macbeth Robert Huss Terry
Andrew Dacey Christopher Stone-Bush Eric Bontz Jeffrey Boman Larry Hollis Nichlas Dyhr Robert Rees Tevel Drinkwater
Andrew DeLorenzo Christopher W. Dolunt Erich Lichnock Jeffrey Collyer Laura Hummelsberger Robert Rydlo Thomas
Andrew Grant Chuck Dee Erik Ingersen Jens Laurie Koudstaal Nicholas Hopkins Robert Slaughter Thomas
Andrew Horn Clemens Schmitz Ernie Sawyer Jens Alfke Lester Ward Nicholas Pilon Robinson Taylor Thomas Balls-Thies
Angus Colin Matter Fabrice Breau Jeremiah McCoy Lore Graham Nick Rodrigo Thomas Elmeblom
Anthony Damiani Corey Johnston FelTK Jeremy Glick Loren Nick Daly Roger Carbol Thomas Maund
Arlene Medder covert-banana Fide Jeremy Hamaker Lowell Francis Nick pater Ron Müller Thomas Off
Arthur Lace Craig Maloney Florian Greß Jes Jacobson Luca Agosto Nicolas Decomble Roy Tim Davis
ArthurDent Craig Mason Francisco Castillo JF Paradis M. Sawi Nikkelitous Roy Wilson Jr. Tim Popelier
Ask Charly Leetham Craig Wright Frank Beaver Joanna m.h. Nikos Lima Ruben Smith-Zempel Timothy Miller
B. Bredthauer Creative Play and Frankie Mundens Joe Anderson Madelyn Chappell Nos Doughty Ryan C. Christiansen Todd Estabrook
Barac Wiley Podcast Network gamedave Joe Mason Manfred Olav Müller Ryan Junk Todd Willey
Bean Lucas Curt Meyer Garrett Joel Short Marc Kevin Hall Olivier Nisole Samuel Hart Tom Lommel
Becca Curtis Hay Garrett Jones Johannes K. Rasmussen Marcel Lotz paolo castelli Sarah Mayfield Tony Ewing
Ben Dain Gary Anastasio Johannes Oppermann Marcel Wittram Paolo Jose Cruz Sarah Williams Torolf de Merriba
Benj Damon Richard Genevieve John Marcus Patrice Hédé Schubacca Travis Stodter
Benjamin Cush Daniel Byrne Geoff John Marinho Tobolla Patrice Mermoud Scott Acker Trevor Crosse
Benjamin Patrick Huff Daniel Chapman Geoffrey Walter John Beynon Mario Dongu Patrick Chapman Scott Dexter Tsht
Benjamin Wandio Daniel Ellingsen Lund George Harnish John Bogart Mark Patrick Ewing Scott Greenleaf Tyler Duckworth
Benjamin Welke Daniel Gallant Gian Domenico Facchini John Fiala Mark A. Schmidt Patrick Fittkau Scott Millward Tyson Monagle
Bill Daniel Kraemer Glenn Mochon John Halsey Mark Diaz Truman Paul Scott Puckett Ulises Gomez
Bill Eastman Daniel Ley Glenn Seiler John Helmuth Mark Harris Paul Arezina Scott Thede Urs Blumentritt
Björn Steffen Daniel M. Perez Glynn Stewart John Lake Mark Widner Paul Harmelink Sean Smith Veronica Hamilton
Bo Madsen Daniel Maberry Graham Meinert John Lambert Markus Haberstock Paul Maanen Sean Walsh Victor Allen
Bob Hiestand Daniel Markwig Greg Matyola John Portley Markus Sauerbrey Paul Olson Sean West Money Victor Serrano
Braden Walker Daniel Taylor Gregg Workman John S. Fetzik Markus Wagner Paul Rivers Seth Clayton Ville Lavonius
Bradley Eng-Kohn Darin Henley Gregory Fisher John Taber Martin Åhlenius Pavel Zhukov Seth Halbeisen Viveka Nylund
Brandon Metcalf Dave Joria Gregory Hirsch John Tobin Martin Deppe Pete Curry Seth Hartley Vladimir Filipović
Brandon Wiley David Guillermo Calvo John William McDonald Marty Gentillon Peter Bingham Shadowmyre Kalyn Volker Mantel
Brandt Bjornsen David Bellinger Gustavo Campanelli Johnathan Wright Matt Houck Peter Griffith Shai Laric waelcyrge
Brendan Conway David Bowers Haakon Thunestvedt Jon Smejkal Matt Landis Peter James Burczyk Shervyn von Hoerl Wayne Coburn
Brent Ritch David Bruns Harry Mills Jonas Matser Matthew J. Hanson Peter Kahle Shoshana Kessock Wayne Peacock
Brian David E Ferrell Heather Jonathan Matthew Price Petri Leinonen Simon Brunning Welsh History Podcast
Brian Colin David Goodwin Herman Duyker Jonathan Finke Max Kaehn Phil Groff Simon Streubel Wes Fournier
Brian Creswick David Maple Hourousha Mokujin Jonathan Korman Megan McKinney Philippe Marichal Simon White William Hutton
Brian S. Holt David Millians Ian Charlton Jonathan Young Methorphan Philippe Saner Sion Rodriguez y William Johnson
Bruce David Olson Ian Toltz Jose A. Mic Phillip Webb Gibson Wulf
Bruce Laing David Silberstein Impington Joseph Michael Pint Wakefield Sławomir Wrzesień Yara Ohrt
Bruno Haack Vilar David Starner Imunar Joseph Formoso Michael Pocket Meeple Sophie Lagace Z. Daniel Esgate
Bryan Brake Davide Orlandi Indi Latrani Joseph Gamblin Michael Porter Stefan Feltmann Zachary Deane
Bryan Gillispie Denis Ryan Irene Strauss Josh Rose Michael Barrett R Roy Stefano Monachesi Zeb Walker
Bryan Wiltgen Dennis Groome Istrian Gray Josh Salyers Michael Bradford Radosław Grzanka Stephan Zeph Wibby
Bryce Perry Derek Hiemforth Jack Gulick Joshua Reubens Michael Brewer Ralf Wagner
ON THE WALL
A WORLD OF
ADVENTURE FOR
WRITING & ADVENTURE DESIGN

CARRIE HARRIS
DEVELOPMENT
PAUL STEFKO
EDITING
JOSHUA YEARSLEY
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
SEAN NITTNER
ART DIRECTION
CARRIE HARRIS
LAYOUT
FRED HICKS
INTERIOR & COVER
ARTWORK
STIPE KALAJŽIĆ
MARKETING
CARRIE HARRIS
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
CHRIS HANRAHAN
An Evil Hat Productions Publication
www.evilhat.com • feedback@evilhat.com
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On the Wall
Copyright ©2017 Evil Hat Productions, LLC and Carrie Harris.
All rights reserved. Game based on the graphic novel ON THE
WALL, text ©Carrie Harris, illustrations ©Stipe Kalajžić,
published by One Peace Books. Used with permission.
First published in 2017 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC.

10125 Colesville Rd #318, Silver Spring, MD 20901.
Evil Hat Productions and the Evil Hat and Fate logos are trademarks
owned by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior express permission of the publisher.
That said, if you’re doing it for personal use, knock yourself out.
That’s not only allowed, we encourage you to do it.
For those working at a copy shop and not at all sure if this means
the person standing at your counter can make copies of this thing, they can.
This is “express permission.” Carry on.
This is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible,

impossible, glorious things. All the characters and events portrayed in this work
are fictional. Any resemblance to real people, kids who can sense your emotions
by licking you, mean teachers with psychic powers, fenced-in subdivisions with
armed guards, cape-wearing teens in tracking bracelets, or heroes and villains
in ridiculous spandex costumes is purely coincidental, but kinda hilarious.
CONTENTS
Introduction....................................................................................... 3
The World of On the Wall................................................................ 4
More About Superpowers.........................................................................6
Schools for the Supernaturally Skilled..................................................7
Daily Life........................................................................................................ 12
Making Your Characters...................................................................14
Cliques............................................................................................................ 14
High Concept............................................................................................... 16
Other Character Aspects......................................................................... 17
Stunts and Powers...................................................................................... 18
Sample Character Generation............................................................... 22
System Mechanics and Story Tools............................................... 24
A Clique-Related Q&A............................................................................. 24
Predictable Approaches.......................................................................... 28
Story Development...................................................................................30
Using Powers............................................................................................... 33
Bringing the Outside World In..............................................................34
Antagonists.................................................................................................. 35
Sample Characters.......................................................................... 37
Mira Mason
Ethics of Supernatural Abilities
2nd Period
In class today, we talked about whether we’d rather be

ion
movie superheroes or real life ones. I think that quest
is stupid. Anybody with half a brain in their head would
s
rather be a movie superhero. The bad guys in those movie
really want to hurt peopl e; they just
are so lame. They don’t
want to look cool and make money. If you’re serious about
o into
wanting to do damage, you don’t turn an island volcan
a laser. Seriously, peopl e. That’s dumb .
to
Dealing with that kind of thing would be easy compared
Those dry-h and-w ashin g
the life of a teenage supe like me.
avera ge high schoo l.
morons aren’t half as scary as your
Maybe that comes off as an exaggeration, but look at the
realities—drug addiction, internet bullying, abusive rela-
tionships, absentee parents, the constant pressure to
any
succeed. Given the choice, I’d take the megalomaniac
unpow ered folks who are
day. Add in a world full of normal,
scared witless by us mutants, and it’s a pretty scary place
to grow up.
s.
So if you gave me a choice, I’d be a superhero in the movie
for things . If I
But I’d rather just be normal, if we’re wishing
in a heart -
could give up my supernatural abilities, I would
beat. After all, what use are they?
ing.
wish ing for anyth
We’re n o t
a iryta le s, Miss M ason.
or f
Wishes are f
2
INTRODUCTION
On the Wall is a game about super-powered teenagers living in a segregated, dysto-
pian society where supernatural abilities are feared and tracked by the government.
Think the X-Men meets a dark teen drama. This isn’t a world full of colorful span-
dex suits and supervillains with grandiose schemes involving volcanoes. Instead,
these teens deal with real-world problems like teen pregnancy, drug abuse, and
cheating…as well as the problems caused by having a superpower in a world full
of people who are afraid of what they cannot explain. Like superpowers.
In order to play this game, you’ll need a copy of Fate Accelerated Edition, which
you can obtain from DriveThruRPG, the Evil Hat store (www.evilhat.com), or
other places that carry games. Fate Accelerated contains all the basic rules you’ll
need to play the game. In this book, you’ll find rules specific to superpowers and
the high school world of On the Wall.
This game is based on the graphic novel of the same name, but you don’t have
to read the book in order to play the game. Although certainly, the graphic novel
could provide inspiration and story ideas if you’re looking for a ready-made plot.
Lastly, this book is rated PG-13. This game is about some of the very real
problems facing high schoolers today, including drug abuse, sexual assault, and
a variety of other difficult moral dilemmas. The book makes passing reference
to these issues, so please use discretion when recommending it to young readers.
However, it’s very easy to run a PG version of the game by focusing on more
black-and-white issues.
ON THE WALL 3
THE WORLD OF ON THE WALL
On the Wall is set in an alternate America. In the 1950s, people around the world
began to show signs of strange abilities. At first, Americans disavowed the stories
as a bunch of poppycock. Newspapers reported on a man in Singapore who could
breathe underwater, but the American people scoffed at what they considered a
ridiculous hoax. But the stories grew and grew until scientists confirmed that Grace
Kilroy, a ninth grader from Ohio, could in fact levitate. People panicked, throw-
ing around theories about alien invaders who could take human form. “Normal”
humans united against people they suspected to be the supposed aliens, and the
situation escalated to the point of no return. On March 14, 1958, a group of
terrified farmers in Kentucky lynched Theodore Muldoon. He could reportedly
talk to animals, and the community had recently lost a toddler to a freak bear
attack. The townspeople blamed Muldoon and took matters into their own hands.
Clearly, something had to be done. The government established a task force to
look into the strange phenomenon. They established a testing center in Jefferson
City, Missouri, that was colloquially known as the Alien Farm. Its purpose:
determining whether these creatures were in fact extraterrestrial. At first, the
organization was nothing more than a witch hunt. American citizens suspected of
alien origin were brought in on the basis of the shoddiest excuses—often against
their will—and subjected to a barrage of testing, blood work, and interrogation.
This situation lasted into the early ’60s, when a group of scientists at the Jefferson
City testing center made the shocking announcement that the powered individuals
they’d been testing weren’t aliens at all. Instead, they were humans with the first
discovered genetic mutations.
That changed things. The government replaced the Alien Farm with a new
organization called the Bureau for the Regulation of Supernatural Powers and
tried to figure out what to do with the subset of American citizens that scared the
crap out of everybody else. It was a difficult dilemma, one faced by nations all
around the world as the mutations became increasingly common. The US govern-
ment could have gone with widespread executions, like in some of the Central
American nations, or mass incarceration and testing like in the Soviet Union. Or
they could have followed the lead of the British prime minister, who invited a
group of powered chaps for a nice spot of tea and a chat over the whole hullabaloo.
But the Bureau team had been hard at work on a solution to this problem, and
they produced it with fanfare. Their scientists had discovered that, regardless of
what ability a person had, their body emitted a specific bioelectric pulse when
they used their powers. They’d developed a tracking tattoo which, when placed
on the skin of a powered individual, would detect that pulse. This allowed the
government to track the use of supernatural abilities and, when necessary, punish
anyone who misused them.
4 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

This new development helped mitigate people’s fear of unknowingly coming
into contact with someone who could emit fog from their pores, even though
fog isn’t particularly harmful. Just knowing who the supes were seemed to make
people feel safer. However, the system only worked if the government managed
to identify people with powers before they could use them to steal money from
banks or commit other heinous crimes like messing up the morning commute
with a giant fog emission, so maybe those people who were afraid of the person
with fog pores had a point. After some research into this, the Bureau instituted a
testing system. Their research had demonstrated that most supernatural abilities
manifested during puberty, and it was found that exposing teens to the bioelectric
pulse would forcibly activate their powers, even if they didn’t know they had any.
A system was enacted by which all students were tested at age 13 and then again
at 15. All powered individuals were sent to special schools, where they’d be taught
to control their abilities before they were allowed to graduate.
It was the beginning of a new era of segregation. Many non-powered individu-
als, now commonly referred to as normals, refused all contact with powered ones,
now called supes. A few keen property developers seized the opportunity and
created the first private subdivisions for normals only, complete with fences and
private security forces. Other neighborhoods quickly followed suit, and by the
1980s most Americans lived behind fences. Subdivision chains sprung up, like
Uncle Bob’s Safety Zone: A Normals Only Neighborhood, Diversity Acres (which
welcomes all residents regardless of ability), and Capetown, USA (in which every
household has at least one powered resident).
Although supes didn’t have a particularly high rate of criminal behavior thanks
to the tracking tattoos, supes who broke the law could pose a significant problem
depending on their abilities. It was easy for authorities of any stripe to apprehend
someone who could sense people’s emotions by licking them, but things got much
more complicated when trying to capture and retain Guy Ranger, whose body
was completely double-jointed and hyperflexible. After the Ranger manhunt,
which lasted eight months and claimed the lives of three responding officers and
an innocent bystander, the government expanded the Bureau’s mission, making
it the home of the supe police.
Since the mid ’90s, all investigations involving supernatural abilities have been
handled by the supe police. The Bureau detectives are all supes, with abilities that
help them identify and apprehend their suspects. Some people with anti-supe
leanings distrust the Bureau as a result, running on the assumption that the supe
police are aiding and abetting criminal behavior rather than working to eliminate
it. But the Bureau’s employees work under close supervision, and no proof has
ever surfaced to support these allegations.
It’s a difficult world to live in, especially as a supe. Even more so as a teenage one.
ON THE WALL 5
More About Superpowers
Approximately 20% of the population has a supernatural ability, and mutations
can strike anyone regardless of gender, race, or location. Most supes manifest their
abilities during puberty, but there are rumors about the rare supe who manages
to make it through their teenage years with an undiscovered mutation and goes
off the deep end when said ability finally manifests. The government roundly
denies that this has ever happened, but everyone has heard the stories about the
middle-aged secretary who suddenly grew scales and claws and took out her creepy
ambulance-chaser boss, or some variation thereof.
Numerous attempts have been made to determine what causes mutations to
occur, but with no success to date. Attempts to cause the mutations or to sup-
press them have so far been unsuccessful. Familial genetic testing has proven
that these mutations aren’t inherited. Instead, they appear to be spontaneous,
with no exterior stimulus yet identified. As a result, there is no way to anticipate
whether a child will eventually manifest abilities—short of fully mapping their
DNA—since new mutations are being discovered all the time. This can and has
caused problems when the cherished eldest son of a staunch anti-supe family
ends up growing quills at age 13. In situations like these, the children are often
sent to supe boarding schools, breaking off all contact with the family, although
on occasion the entire family changes their tune and becomes more accepting
of supes in general.
This can mean that a teenager with a newly discovered ability might be the only
one in their family to have one. They may be resented or misunderstood by family
members, or they may be fully accepted. The presence of other supes in the family
doesn’t always mean happy sailing either. Mutations manifest themselves randomly,
so children almost always have different abilities than their parents. For example,
a parent may have the ability to breathe underwater, while their child has the
ability to control probability, as in the case of Nicole “Nyx” Vega (page 38). As
one might imagine, probability control has much more widespread ramifications
than fish breath, so the two don’t really have much in common beyond being
empowered. This disconnect isn’t a problem for the Vegas, but other families don’t
handle it as well as they do.
WHAT ABOUT MULTIPLE ABILITIES?

So far, we’ve only discussed supes with one ability, but if supernatural
abilities are caused by mutations, then couldn’t someone have more than
one? While this is possible, most supes are limited to one ability because of
simple statistics. And, for some reason that is not fully understood, supes
with multiple abilities are more likely to exhibit problems like learning dis-
abilities, mental illnesses, and birth defects. They’re also more likely to die
at puberty, when their abilities manifest. Some researchers hypothesize
that the metabolic load needed to fuel these abilities puts so much stress
on the body that it affects growth and development. Others say that the
bioelectric pulse that accompanies using these abilities may stress the body.
Either one of these things may be true, but clearly there are mechanisms
at work that need to be investigated further.

Schools for the Supernaturally Skilled
As soon as their abilities are identified, supe kids are pulled out of regular schools
and enrolled in government-run Schools for the Supernaturally Skilled. Attendance
and graduation from these schools is mandatory, and dropping out isn’t permitted.
Regardless of their ability, all supe students must graduate from school. Anyone
who fails to pass is braceleted. Braceleted supes are fitted with a permanent metal
cuff that reacts to the bioelectric pulse emitted when powers are used, shocking
them into unconsciousness every time they try to use their abilities. Braceleted
supes are given a wide berth and mistrusted by most people, including other supes.
Overall, these schools are fairly similar to the average high school in terms of the
curriculum. Students study language arts, math, and science just like the normals
do. But they’re also required to take classes like Ethics of Supernatural Abilities,
in which they discuss the rights and responsibilities involved with being a supe as
well as the rules governing supernatural powers around the world. International
travel is extra complicated when you have tentacles.
Students are also required to pass a customized yearly Control of Supernatural
Abilities class, which requires each student to dig into their particular ability,
learning more about how it works, networking with other supes who have simi-
lar powers whenever possible, and learning to exercise complete control. The “I
couldn’t help it” excuse doesn’t work when you’ve just coughed stinging darts
into some innocent fellow’s face. Control classes are often conducted one-on-one,
unless two students in the same school happen to have the same ability. But the
abilities themselves are so random that this doesn’t often happen, and students
are instead assigned to a mentor who designs a personalized program of study.
Abilities that are considered less dangerous tend to have a less rigorous system of
study than those that are not. So the underwater breather will have a much easier
time in Control class than the probability manipulator.
As one might expect, the student body is full of many of the same cliques that
normal high schools have. At your average School for the Supernaturally Skilled,
you’ll find jocks, nerds, popular kids, mean girls…all the usual tropes, but with
one notable addition: the super supes. The super supes, or SS, are really into
the whole supernatural ability thing. They make a big show of wearing capes
and spandex, and many of them look down on normals as inferior, echoing the
hegemonic views of another organization that used the same initials. Members
of the SS often have more physical abilities or abilities that can be used aggres-
sively. They’re more likely to grow up to work in supernatural rights advocacy or
for other pro-supe organizations.
Student activities and competitions are completely segregated, meaning that
students only compete against other supe schools. The rationale is that supernatu-
ral abilities might give supe students an edge over normals, but in reality a very
small percentage of supe students have skills that would apply to a given activity.
ON THE WALL 7
Control Exams
The Control exam is a big part of a supe’s education, and each one is tailored to
the student. In the first few years after a student’s powers have manifested, the
exams simply cover being able to start and stop powers on command. However,
as the student gets older, the exams are developed to exploit their weaknesses and
put them under stress. A student who is easily embarrassed might be put in a
potentially humiliating position. A student who is afraid of failure will be given
an impossible task. The idea is that it’s easy to control abilities when things are
going well, but students must be able to do so under extreme stress in order to
function out in the world safely. This theory is sound, but it also leads to some
really strange Control exams—one exam, which might be familiar if you’ve read
the graphic novel, included an observation room, a mirror suspended on concrete
blocks, and a baby pool printed with happy octopi and starfish.
SAMPLE SCHOOL:
NORTHWEST REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
FOR THE SUPERNATURALLY SKILLED
NRHSSS, known simply as Northwest, is located in the suburbs of Columbus,
Ohio. The neighborhood is upper middle class, and certainly the colonial-
style building and rolling campus grounds suggest money behind the
school. If that doesn’t, the security precautions definitely do. The entire
school is surrounded by an electrified chain-link fence topped with con-
certina wire. During the day, the grounds are monitored by guards in full
riot gear armed with automatic rifles, and all visitors must check in and
out with them at the gate. At night, the grounds are guarded by vicious
attack dogs. While these precautions may seem extreme, about ten years
ago a group of anti-supe demonstrators got onto the grounds of a supe
school and planted a homemade bomb in the gym rafters. Since that
tragic event, security at supe schools has been extra tight.
The principal’s name is George Hotchniss, although most of the stu-
dents call him Principal Rabbit, and he’ll actually answer to it. Hotchniss
is spineless, and we’re not talking superpowers here. (Actually, he’s a very
weak telekinetic. Once, he managed to move a pencil two inches to the
right.) He’s the kind of guy who will cave to the slightest pressure. The
real power in the school is Esmerelda Elrich. Ms. Elrich—commonly known
to the students as El Witch…or worse—is a former Bureau employee who
now supervises all Control classes at Northwest. Although there are rumors
that her government ties aren’t exactly severed, El Witch takes her teach-
ing duties seriously. So seriously that her Control classes are infamous
for their difficulty. She seems to have an uncanny knack for getting into
her students’ heads, but no one knows for sure if it’s supernatural or not.
Northwest is well known for its track program, musical groups, and
spectacular art offerings.

9
Government Supervision of Supes
The Bureau for the Regulation of Supernatural Powers still oversees all supernatural
activity in the United States. To the teens of On the Wall, Bureau detectives are
something of a boogeyman, and kids are encouraged to behave and do well in
school or the Bureau will come for them. Any disappearances or runaways are
automatically attributed to the Bureau, although no one ever really has proof that
this is the case. Bureau agents are like the Men in Black, with numerous rumors
and few facts surrounding them, at least among most teenagers. Perhaps some
have real experience with these agents and are simply unwilling to talk about it
in public lest people assume that they’re dangerous.
All rumors aside, the Bureau is currently run by a moderate non-supe by the
name of Kiera Otatungo. Director Otatungo is a consummate politician and has
done a fairly good job of playing both sides of the fence. She hasn’t angered anyone,
but she hasn’t really achieved anything either. However, Director Otatungo is
reaching retirement age, and the inevitable appointment of a new director will
likely issue in an era of change for the Bureau.
Currently, most of the Bureau leadership are normals, although there are a few
regional heads with supernatural abilities. All of the field operatives and detectives
are supes, as noted above. However, the history of the Bureau—along with its
reputation—means that sometimes the organization struggles to find supes to fill
open positions. As a result, a large majority of the current field corps is quite young
and untested. The organization as a whole seems poised on the cusp of change.
Along with its detective and research arms, the Bureau maintains all supe-related
registries and tracking data. All tracking tattoos upload their information to the
Bureau via local satellite offices. When crimes do occur, Bureau statisticians can
easily pull a list of suspects based on the powers involved and quickly access their
tracking data to determine who used their powers at the time the crime occurred.
This often results in quick apprehension of the supe involved, who is sent to the
Jefferson City central office and never seen again.
Given the Bureau’s ability to identify supe criminals, the crime rate among the
supernaturally skilled—or, at least, crimes committed with the use of powers—is
relatively low. Most supes who do commit crimes have the common sense not
to use their powers in the course of the illegal activity. But of course, there are
exceptions to the rule in the case of crimes of passion or insanity.

Laws Governing the Use of Powers
The use of supernatural abilities is highly restricted in the world of On the Wall.
Supes cannot use their powers for financial gain beyond the limits of gainful
employment, so a supe who can tunnel through rock with their hands could
legally use their ability as a construction worker and get paid for it, but they
couldn’t use that ability to break into a bank. It’s also illegal to use abilities to
harm others physically, mentally, or financially. That rock tunneler couldn’t get
back at her worst enemy by tunneling under his house and causing it to collapse,
not without earning a visit from the Bureau.
Some have attempted to sue supes for libelous use of powers, such as when a
teenage probability controller jinxed the pants of her principal, making them fall
down in the middle of a state board of education meeting, but those suits have
found limited success.
These laws can pose particular danger to teenagers who haven’t yet learned to
control their abilities. Those with dangerous or wildly uncontrolled powers are
often sent to boarding schools, where they can’t hurt anyone except other supes.
This seems like an adequate solution to some. Entering or leaving the grounds
of those schools requires special permission. Needless to say, those students don’t
compete with the other supe schools in intramural sports; they’re too busy trying
to learn how to avoid getting detained by the government for powers run wild.
HOW MUCH DO ALL THESE POLITICS

AFFECT TEENAGERS?
In this game, you play teenage supes. With that in mind, is all the
political background really important? After all, these teens have
grown up in an America where segregation is not only the status
quo but in some cases preferable to the alternatives around the
world. They don’t sit around wishing things were different, because
they’ve never known different. Their parents don’t sit around wish-
ing for the good old days either, because supes and normals have
never mingled.
So, while you could use this game to tell a story about teenag-
ers rebelling against The Man, it’s more likely that the teens of On
the Wall are trying to lead their lives and deal with their problems
against the backdrop of a society on the brink of fracture. Simple
actions like going to the mall are potential brushes with danger.
Someone’s abilities could misfire, drawing the attention of store
security. They could run into anti-supe picketers. Or they could
see Bureau agents at work, taking one of their classmates into
custody for unknown reasons. Regardless of their attempts to lead
a normal life, all this politics will affect their actions in subtle or
even invisible ways.
ON THE WALL 11
Daily Life
While the teens of On the Wall enjoy a lot of the same activities we do, from sports
to movies to going out for ice cream, their world feels much smaller. Everything is
walled off or fenced in and patrolled by private security forces armed with lethal
weapons. Depending on the location, those guards may be there to protect supes
from hate crimes, or to protect normals from becoming the victim of a supernatu-
ral predator. Each neighborhood is covered in signs that advertise their policies,
whether they be pro- or anti-supe. The most militant of neighborhoods—in either
direction—are policed by drones and continually monitored by security cameras.
Public service buildings such as government offices, police stations, and fire
stations are open to all. However, many neighborhoods maintain their own public
services and shopping complexes to ensure that their residents don’t have to step
outside the walls. This is a society that lives in fear, although the actual crime rate
doesn’t appear to justify the level of paranoia and precaution exercised by many.
Pro- and Anti-Supe Organizations

As one might imagine, this world is full of political organizations and militant
groups on both sides of the proverbial wall. The Coalition for American Safety
advocates for internment camps for all supes. The Supernatural Superiority
Society—or the SSS, not to be confused with the SS, although the two groups
do sometimes cross-pollinate—believes that supes are a superior race and should
revolt against the normals.
Luckily, these extremist groups remain fairly small, while most people take a
more moderate approach. They might belong to the ASLU (American Supernatural
Liberties Union), who advocate for a wall-less society where all citizens are free to go
where they please. Or they might belong to the Society for Open Communication,
which advocates for open records on supes and their abilities.
Many of these organizations are open to teens, although it’s perhaps more likely
that one of their older relatives or acquaintances might belong to one of them.
Particularly civic-minded teens, or those looking to pad their college applications,
might join one of these organizations as well.
12
Superheroes in the Media
In a world full of supes, of course superheroes are common in movies, music, and
television. Although there are some forms of media that are designed to appeal
to the anti-supe crowd, full of villainous supes who are put to rest by brave and
stalwart normals, superhero stories still sell well to more accepting folk, and music
made by supes with vocal mutations has ruled the charts for decades. Sometimes,
the use of supes makes special effects unnecessary, such as in the long-running
nighttime drama, Hearts of Atlantis: the two stars can both breathe underwater,
and one of them actually has functioning gills.
The most famous supes are Alterna Girl and The Shade. Alterna Girl has a
popular scripted reality show in which she travels around the world to fight crime
using her very uncommon ability, super strength. Although the network claims
that it’s all real, it’s difficult to imagine that your average criminal wouldn’t see
Alterna Girl coming from a mile away, what with her neon catsuit and gigantic
mohawk, not to mention her short fuse and tendency to pick fights for very little
reason with about half of the people she meets. Her handlers definitely have their
hands full, and about half of the episodes deal more with the aftermath of AG’s
over-the-top behavior than they do with her fighting crime. That hasn’t stopped
the merch deals from pouring in, though. From action figures to Alterna Girl
underwear, you can get just about anything with her face plastered on it.
The Shade is slightly more…shady, if you will. He used to be a movie star of
the brooding Batman variety, and all fourteen of his films were smash hits. But
unexpectedly, in the middle of shooting the fifteenth—The Last Fight of the
Shade—he quit Hollywood altogether and became a hermit, locking himself in
his mansion and entirely refusing to come out. No one except for his servants have
seen him since, and no one quite knows what caused this sudden, strange behavior.
ALTERNATE REALITIES
In the On the Wall graphic novel, the character Mira Mason discovers
that she has the ability to travel into the Mirrorrealm, an alternate
dimension that is accessed through mirrors. Alternate realities like the
Mirrorrealm carry their own sets of physical rules and characteristics.
For example, when supernatural powers other than mirrorwalking are
used in the Mirrorrealm, the bioelectric pulse can shatter the mirrors
and open a hole into the void beyond. The Mirrorrealm isn’t the only
other dimension, either. Teleporters and shadow-walkers can also pass
through other dimensions, each with its own rules and aspects to be
developed at the discretion of the player and GM.
ON THE WALL 13
MAKING YOUR CHARACTERS
In this game, all of the player characters are supes who attend a specific School
for the Supernaturally Skilled. They might be as young as 12 or as old as 18, and
their abilities might be new to them or feel like old hat. Depending on when they
changed and their previous attitudes toward supes, they might find themselves
feeling a bit like a fish out of water, excited at their transformation, or angry at
their misfortune. In short, it’s a fairly standard teenage experience—full of angst
and worries about belonging—except for the quills, tentacles, and strange mind
abilities.
In this chapter, you’ll learn about how to create a character, develop your
character’s power, and build the relationships that will bind all of the player
characters together. You’ll make characters in On the Wall much like you do in
Fate Accelerated Edition, so you’ll need to read “How Do I Make the Character?”
(page 8) in that book in order for this chapter to make sense.
The player characters in On the Wall are members of the same clique. As a result,
we recommend that you start with creating your clique as a group and then move
on to defining your individual characters.
Cliques
In a typical high school, a person’s reputation and social standing are highly
influenced by the people they hang out with. These cliques come with a certain
reputation. For example, you might describe a jock as someone who is physically
fit, loyal to their team, and highly competitive. But there are different types of
jocks. A group of meathead jocks would probably be quite different from a group
of silver-spoon jocks, who would be different from some sporty girl jocks. These
groups not only define who a student’s closest friends are, but also help determine
how other people see them.
Before making your characters, your group must decide what clique your char-
acters belong to. What do they have in common? They could all belong to the
same club or organization. Perhaps they’ve been friends since Mrs. Warburton’s
first-grade class. Maybe they’re all in detention together, or they work at the same
afterschool job. Maybe they’re friends by convenience who live on the same street.
People can be linked by a wide variety of things, and now it’s time to figure out
what brought your group together.
Once you have a general idea of what links your characters, define that thing
with a short aspect that will represent your clique. It could be a simple description
like “friends from Mrs. Warburton’s first-grade class,” or it could be the nickname
that your characters use to refer to their group, like “The Breakfast Club.”
Each player then contributes one clique aspect that helps to define how other
people see your group, goals shared by the group’s members, or characteristics
that describe the group as a whole.

The players have decided to build their clique based on characters
from The Breakfast Club. These characters are very different from
each other, so the players must focus on clique aspects that hold them
together. One player could focus on the group’s goal and say, “We want
vengeance on the assistant principal,” making the aspect Revenge
on Bender! The second player might tackle the group dynamics with
“We’re pretty rebellious. When we’re together, we tend to drive each
other to break the rules.” In aspect form, that could be Competitive
Rebellion. The third player might say, “Something about this group
brings people’s walls down. We say things here that we wouldn’t say
elsewhere,” which could be recorded as Brutal Honesty, and so on.
Because each player contributes one aspect, larger groups will tend to have
bigger and more complex reputations and group dynamics.
Note that membership in the clique doesn’t mean all of the characters need
to be the same. Some cliques are built on a shared interest, like Meathead Jocks,
while others are built on an experience shared by wildly different people, like
The Breakfast Club. The clique doesn’t determine who your character is, but who
the group is when they’re together and how they relate to each other. It’s possible
for a Meathead Jock to choose to be kind to his nerdy next-door neighbor, even
though you might expect otherwise from a Meathead Jock.
However, if the Meathead Jock starts hanging out with the nerdy next-door
neighbor, playing RPGs every night, eventually the other Meatheads might quit
talking to him, so he’ll have to change cliques. Cliques are fluid things—members
may come and go, or the reputation of the group might change. The friends from
Mrs. Warburton’s first-grade class might be teacher’s pets all through grade school
and junior high, but after a wild summer at camp before ninth grade, they could
end up starting high school as boy-crazy troublemakers. Or in-group problems
could arise if some of the members become boy-crazy while others become more
into political activism.
With that in mind, if your group decides to play a longer campaign, then at
the end of each story arc, you’ll want to evaluate the clique’s aspects and decide
if any of them need to be changed. Teenagers tend to change pretty quickly, and
their relationships do the same, so there is no limit on the number of clique
aspects that can be changed. Adjust as many or as few as you like, so long as the
group reaches consensus.
Clique aspects can be invoked and compelled for any member of the group,
just like regular aspects. Reputation is everything in high school. Teachers might
assume that the Meathead Jock was bullying the Science Nerd in the hallway,
simply because the Meathead Jock hangs around with a group of people who
tend to do that kind of thing. A group of Perfect Princesses might be able to get
away with cheating on the Supe Ethics final simply because most people won’t
believe that they’d do that kind of thing. Similarly, other Meatheads might compel
a fellow Meathead to pick on the Science Nerd.
ON THE WALL 15
High Concept
Once you’ve settled on a clique, it’s time to move on to the clique’s individual
members—your characters. The starting point for your character is their high
concept, a short phrase that summarizes who your character is. Think about the
characters from The Breakfast Club or any other teen ensemble story. There’s the
Princess, the Athlete, the Criminal, the Brain, and the Basket Case. Those phrases
give you an instant image of what kind of person you’re dealing with. However, they
tend to lead toward clear stereotypes that make characters feel a bit cookie-cutter.
When we say the word “princess,” it comes with a set of assumptions about the
character. We might assume that she’s an overachiever, a bit stuck up, or spoiled.
To create a well-rounded character, add an adjective to the stereotype. So the
Princess might become a Brainy Princess, a Neurotic Princess, or a Rebellious
Princess. Unexpected adjectives create more realistic, unique, and multifaceted
characters, so it’s worth taking the time to come up with good ones.
Here are some example concepts, taken from the pages of the graphic novel:
• Mira Mason: Reluctant Heroine
• Nicole “Nyx” Vega: Perky Rebel
• Angela Laine: Tragic Perfectionist
• Zach Schroeder: Idiotic King of the School
• Bubbles McMasters: Desperate Mean Girl
The trouble aspect is the same as in Fate Accelerated—it’s a thing that always
gets you into trouble or makes your life complicated. Your trouble may be related
to being a supe, or it may be a personal characteristic or relationship that tends
to complicate your life.

Other Character Aspects
Beyond their high concept and trouble, each character gets other three aspects.
The first aspect is related to the character’s power and helps to define their attitude
toward being a supe. Perhaps she wants to be a normal and resents the fact that
she has a mutation. Perhaps she wishes she had a cooler power and assumes it
would make her life easier. Perhaps she resents her parents, who are normal, or
her parents resent her. Perhaps her first experience with manifesting her ability
was particularly traumatic. In this world, being a supe or a normal and your feel-
ings about that are a very vital part of who you are. This aspect works to reflect
that. Examples include: My Power Is So Lame, It’s Not Worth My Time;
My Mom Doesn’t Trust Me Now That I’m a Supe; and Can’t Control My
Powers, Don’t Want to.
The second aspect has to do with your secondary clique, as described in the
next section.
The third aspect is just a plain character aspect, as defined in Fate Accelerated.
It can be about anything you want.
Secondary Clique
Can someone belong to more than one clique at the same time? Of course! There
are kids who hang out with the band nerds and the theater geeks, so which one do
you choose when making a character? The answer is that you don’t have to choose.
Each character has a primary clique, which represents the relationships they
have with the other characters, as well as a secondary clique aspect, which gives
you the opportunity to establish a relationship with another clique. Your character
might not be the center of the secondary clique, but they hang around with them
sometimes and share in some but not all of the benefits and drawbacks of being
part of the group. Being connected to another clique helps keep characters from
being too stereotypical, and it more accurately reflects the complex web of high
school relationships.
Similar to the high concept, the secondary clique aspect has two parts. Part one
is the clique in question, like the Quiz Bowl Team Members, Gamer Geeks, or
Honor Roll Students. The second part is a limiting factor that keeps the charac-
ter from being a full-fledged member. Perhaps a character is a Reluctant Quiz
Bowl Team Member who really doesn’t want to be there, or a Fill-In Quiz
Bowl Member who’s gung-ho but doesn’t really have the trivia chops to fit in.
Unlike the clique aspects, your secondary clique aspect isn’t shared by everyone
in the clique, but characters can sometimes leverage their connections to create
advantages or be compelled by those same bonds.
ON THE WALL 17
Stunts and Powers
Each character starts with one power and two stunts. Both powers and stunts
work like the stunts described in Fate Core (page 87) and Fate Accelerated (page
31), but they allow your character to do different things.
A stunt represents something that normal people can do, but your character
happens to be particularly good at. It could involve being good at sports or musi-
cal instruments or getting people to confide in you.
A power reflects something that normal people simply cannot do no matter
how hard they try, like sprouting tentacles, spawning mold, or something equally
weird. It only does one thing, though, so we recommend that you select a power
that can be used in more rather than fewer situations. Go for “eating metal” rather
than “eating 24-karat gold.”
While we don’t advise playing characters with multiple powers, you can pur-
chase a second power if the other people around the table agree. If you do, your
character also gains a drawback aspect.
The drawback aspect represents the body’s reaction to the extreme physical
pressure of having multiple powers and the side effects of multiple mutations,
reflecting some physical or mental challenge that the character has to overcome.
Some examples include a club foot, dwarfism, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The GM can compel the drawback, although it may occasionally be invoked to
create advantages as well. For example, a blind character will have many hurdles
represented by compels of their drawback. However, if all of the lights go out
at prom, that won’t be a problem for the blind character. In fact, they’ll likely
have the advantage, because they’re used to moving around without sight, while
everyone else bumbles around in the dark. So in this case, the character could
invoke their own drawback to help create an advantage and save the day.
What Do Powers Do?

As we’ve said elsewhere in this book, the supes of On the Wall aren’t the typical
superheroes that you see on the big screen or in comic books. Those superheroes
tend to have combat-oriented powers. They solve problems with their fists and
a loud soundtrack. These supes are different. Because their mutations manifest
randomly, they can do a wide variety of things. Some of these skills may be
applicable in a fight—if you think creatively—but overall, powers that can be
used in many situations are the best option. Remember, supes who break the law
can be braceleted or carted away by the Bureau, so beating people up with your
thunder fists isn’t a good idea.

While it might be tempting to replicate a superpower from your favorite super-
hero series, in most cases it’s not advised. Most pop-culture superheroes have the
kinds of combat-related abilities that get kids sent to boarding school in On the
Wall. So unless you’ve decided to play a game about the “problem kids” at board-
ing school, you’ll want to steer away from the standard butt-kicking powers like
super strength, super speed, and laser eyeballs.
The easiest way to think of a power is to think about which parts of the body
are mutated and what those mutations would do. A mutated brain could manifest
a wide variety of psychic powers. Mutated eyes could see in the dark, see through
things, or weep acidic tears. And so on.
Depending on the power you choose, it might make sense for the power to
be passive, where it just always works, or active, requiring a roll. Discuss this as
a group and come to a consensus. In general, passive powers are fairly limited
in scope. For example, a winged character like Angela Laine can fly. Period. It
doesn’t make sense that sometimes she’d be able to fly and other times her wings
just wouldn’t work. The only time she’d have a problem taking to the skies is if
she suffered a Damaged Wing.
In contrast, a broader active skill like Nyx’s probability control requires a roll
every time it’s used, because it has a variety of uses and therefore a range of dif-
ficulties. Angela’s wings can only be used to fly. They aren’t sturdy enough to be
used as weapons, nor agile enough to do anything other than beat the air. But
Nyx’s probability control can accomplish a lot of things. It can be used to increase
her chances of choosing the right answer on the Control test she forgot to study
for, or to sneak unnoticed out of a crowded detention room. In the first situation,
the test question might have four options to choose from, so Nyx already has a
25% chance of guessing correctly on her own, so it would be a fairly easy applica-
tion of her power, against Mediocre (+0) difficulty. But in the second situation,
it would be very unlikely for her to get out of the room without anyone looking
in her direction or anyone hearing her. Making it happen would require success
against Good (+3) difficulty.
Generally speaking, active powers are more powerful than passive powers, but
they also have a higher chance of going out of control, especially with a poor
roll. Passive powers, in contrast, are usually easier to control, if a bit more limited
in scope. Supes don’t take off into the air or start breathing water on accident.
However, a character using a passive power might still need to make a roll if they’re
also attempting a skilled action. For example, a winged supe can take off into the
air without rolling, but performing evasive maneuvers while flying might require
a Flashy roll, just as they would on the ground. Along the same lines, carrying a
fallen friend while flying to safety might require a Forceful roll.
ON THE WALL 19
EXAMPLE STUNTS
Sports Star: Because I’m a natural athlete, I gain a +2 to Forcefully overcome
in any game or physical contest.
Natural Liar: Because I’m good at convincing myself of untruths, I gain a +2
to Sneakily overcome when telling a tall tale or a fib.
Voracious Reader: Because I’m so good at digesting written material, I gain
a +2 to Cleverly overcome when I spout off academic material at length.
Not-Quite-a-Bard’s Tongue: Because I’m such a great singer, I gain a +2 to
create an advantage when distracting others with my Flashy vocals.
Natural Prepper: Because I’m so paranoid, once per session, I can pull one
needed item out of my backpack.
On the Ball: Because I’m so adept at reading situations, I gain a +2 to Quickly
create an advantage when diffusing a problem in the making.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE OUT THE GROUP?

Some powers are naturally going to be more useful than others. For
example, the character who can sense emotions is going to have many
more opportunities to use that power than the one who can breathe
underwater. Discuss any perceived inequalities with your group. One
way to even these things out is to impose limits on the more powerful
abilities so they are more difficult to use. So, maybe the character who
can sense emotions has a mutated tongue. She can’t just sense emo-
tions; she has to taste them. As a result, she has a reputation as the
weirdo who licks people all the time. A limitation like this can make a
broader power more difficult to use and provide opportunities for fun
scenes and tricky situations.
20
EXAMPLE POWERS
Dehydration: Because of my mutated skin, I can remove the moisture from
any nonliving thing with a simple touch.
Directional Voice: Because of my mutated vocal chords, I can Sneakily throw
my voice anywhere but still limit the number of people who can hear it.
Eating Abilities: Because of my mutated digestive system or teeth, I can eat
metal, wood, or plastic (choose one) and draw nutrients from it.
Emotion Tasting: Because of my mutated tongue, I can sense the general
emotional state of anyone I lick. Which is sometimes awkward.
Eternal Stamina: Because of my mutated cardiovascular system, I never get
tired or fatigued. I can literally run for days.
Fast Hands: Because of my mutated muscles, I can roll to Quickly do things
with my hands without anyone seeing that I did anything.
Flight: Because I have wings, I can take flight whenever I am free to move
into the air.
Fog Emission: Because of my mutated pores, I can emit a vision-obscuring fog
from my skin at will, filling an area of about ten square feet.
Forgettable: Because of my mutation, I can roll to Sneakily make people
completely dismiss me and ignore my presence.
Hyper Growth: Because of my mutation, I can make my hair, nails, and teeth
grow up to twice their size. What I can’t do is shrink them back later.
Mesmerizing Gaze: Because of my mutated eyes, I can roll to Flashily make
someone follow my commands after I make eye contact with them.
Mindreading: Because of my mutated brain, I can roll to Cleverly pick some-
one’s current thought out of their head.
Mirrorwalking: Because of my mutation, I can roll to Carefully step through a
mirror or reflective surface, emerging on the other side or in the Mirrorrealm.
The difficulty of this roll depends on the situation.
Mold Growth: Because of my mutated skin, I can make mold grow on any
surface with a touch.
Probability Control: Because of my mutation, I can roll to Forcefully bend
chance to my will and make unlikely things happen.
Super Hearing: Because of my mutated ears, no sound escapes me. I can hear
hair grow.
Underwater Breath: Because of my mutated lungs, I can breathe in any fluid,
although I still suffer the effects of contact with toxins and acids.
ON THE WALL 21
Sample Character Generation
Carrie is running a game of On the Wall, and her players—Connor, Lily, and
Renee—are making their characters. Because the group is having a tough time
coming up with character ideas, Carrie begins by asking them questions about
their clique. Renee suggests that they play a group of best friends who’ve known
each other a long time, and Connor says it would be cool to play kids who are
pretty average like them. Lily wants them to be nice to everyone regardless of
whether or not they have powers. Carrie suggests a clique name, “Old Friends
from Diversity Acres.” Together, the group decides on the clique aspects We Go
Way Back, Middle of the Social Ladder, and Friendly to All.
Using this clique as a starting point, the three players decide on character
concepts. Connor decides he wants to play someone who’s got a lot of potential
but hasn’t realized it yet, so he decides on a Reluctant Hero high concept. Lily
wants to play someone who seems really amazing but has problems she doesn’t
talk about, so she writes down Tragic Perfectionist as her high concept. After
some discussion, Renee decides that the group is going to need some comic relief,
so she settles on a Perky Rebel high concept.
Having good high concepts makes choosing troubles easy. Connor decides
that his character Mira is reluctant because her power is pretty weak, so he puts
My Power Sucks! as her trouble. Lily has already established that her character
Angela has issues, but she doesn’t know what they are yet. Ultimately, she decides
that because Angela has a really cool power, everyone comes to her for help. She
writes down Everyone Wants a Piece of Me as her trouble. Renee decides
that Nyx, her rebel, gets a kick out of causing trouble and records Poor Impulse
Control as Nyx’s trouble.
The players select their approaches and record their approach ratings on their
character sheets.
Then each player chooses their remaining aspects, selecting one that reflects how
they feel about supes, one that designates a secondary clique, and one additional
aspect. Given what he already knows about Mira, Connor decides that she Really
Wants to Be Normal. Because she wants so badly to be liked, he decides to focus
on other people with his remaining two aspects. He decides Mira is a Reluctant
Gymnast because the captain of the team is constantly making fun of her, and
she’s Crushing Hard on Zach Schroeder, the most popular boy in school.
22
Lily has a harder time with Angela, because she hasn’t quite established what
makes her tick. But she decides that Angela should have some kind of visible
power that she can’t hide, and that’s a big part of her problem. She’s incredibly shy
and can’t handle the attention. With that in mind, Lily easily completes the three
aspects: Would Love to Rip My Wings Off, Popular but Shy, and Forced
to Model. She decides that Angela’s mother is making money off her daughter’s
striking appearance, which is why Angela’s so uncomfortable in her own skin.
Renee’s character Nyx is a fairly happy-go-lucky sort of person, so Renee figures
she’s the only one in the group who Thinks This Whole Powers Thing Is a
Blast. Given that and her troublemaking tendencies, Nyx probably gets held
after school sometimes, but Renee wants her to have a secondary clique that
could help keep her from getting caught, so she’s a Sometimes Member of the
Detention Crew. But beneath it all, Renee wants her character to have a heart
of gold, so she decides on Loyal to a Fault as her final aspect.
Now, it’s time for the players to select supernatural powers. Connor already
knows he wants Mira to have a somewhat limited power, but one that Mira can
grow into and use in unexpected ways, so he settles on Mirrorwalking, since it’s
a fairly specialized skill. Lily can’t think of anything more impressive than giant
feathered wings, so she selects Wings for Angela. And Renee decides that Nyx
can only get away with her crazy schemes by chance, so Probability Control is a
natural fit for an adrenaline junkie like her.
Each player selects two final stunts that reflect additional skills that their
characters have. At first, Connor almost takes a gymnastics skill for Mira, but he
decides that the conflict with the captain has really held Mira back gymnastics-wise.
Instead, he decides that Mira is an incredible artist, with the ability to remember
and draw anything she’s seen, so he writes a stunt that reflects that. Lily decides
that because of Angela’s inner torment, she’s probably quite good at relating to
people when they’re upset and helping them calm down, so she creates a stunt to
that effect. And lastly, Renee creates a driving stunt for Nyx, figuring that she’s
so fearless behind the wheel that she’s probably developed the skills of a stunt
driver all on her own.
Each player adds the finishing touches, writing down a name and refresh,
and they’re ready to play. Full stats for these characters are available starting on
page 37.
ON THE WALL 23
SYSTEM MECHANICS AND STORY TOOLS
Once your group has created your characters, it’s time to play the game. Again,
the general rules can be found in Fate Accelerated. In this chapter, we focus on
tools that the GM and players can use that are specific to the characters, situa-
tions, and world of On the Wall.
A Clique-Related Q&A
While the Making Your Characters chapter provides basic information on how
to create a clique and how it’s used in play, you may run into a variety of ques-
tions or unexpected situations. The following questions and answers may be of
assistance, but of course we encourage you to develop your own house rules if a
different answer appeals to you more.
Can a character be cliqueless?

Characters who’ve had a falling-out with their current clique, are loners, or are
new in school aren’t cliqueless; they simply belong to a clique with one member.
If a character becomes cliqueless and has an active secondary clique, they can try
to establish that clique as their primary. Of course, that’s not possible for someone
who is new to a school and has to start from scratch to establish their place in
the proverbial pecking order.
Joining a new clique—either making your secondary clique into your primary,
or when starting at a new school—requires an extended challenge as the character
attempts to prove themself to the new group. Usually, this will involve working
through the limiting factor in the secondary clique. So the Fill-In Quiz Bowl
Member will need to prove her worth to the rest of the team by volunteering to
lead study sessions, outscoring the top-ranked member in a practice session, and
so on. Once she’s proven that she deserves to be a full-fledged member of the
team, she can officially join that clique as a primary member. If your character is
a new student, they would need to create advantages with members of the group.
More-exclusive groups would require more advantages to be created before the
character became a full member.
Can the player characters belong to different cliques?

While it’s possible for the PCs to belong to separate cliques, at minimum those
two cliques should be friendly, to avoid a situation where the two groups refuse
to work together. This could result in a game where half of the players take action
while the other half are idle, and the two never manage to cooperate on anything.
One way to bind the groups together is to have the characters from one clique
carry secondary membership in the other clique and vice versa. However, multiple
PC cliques mean more clique aspects for everyone to keep track of, so make sure
everyone in the group is on board with this decision before you make it.

Does the GM need to create a clique for every NPC?
Using cliques for NPCs can actually make the process quicker. For nameless mooks
(hangers-on, people in the lunchroom, and so on), the character can be defined
by their clique. The GM can simply designate three Snobby Cheerleaders who
are good at athletics and making snide comments but bad at deep thought. The
title “Snobby Cheerleader” does double duty as the characters’ clique. Based on
that title, it’s likely that these mooks would be hostile to, say, a group of Uptight
Class Brains.
Better developed or established NPCs should also have a clique, and key
antagonists or allies might have a fully fleshed-out clique complete with followers.
Again, this is an easy way to quickly give these characters context and background.
Here is a short list of sample mooks and hangers-on.
Snobby Cheerleaders Meathead Jocks

ABILITIES ABILITIES
Skilled (+2) at: Athletics, Skilled (+2) at: Violence, drink-
making snide comments ing games
Bad (-2) at: Deep thoughts Bad (-2) at: Empathizing with
others
Apathetic Stoners
ABILITIES Anti-Supe Protestors
Skilled (+2) at: Being chill, man;
ABILITIES
being weirdly insightful
Skilled (+2) at: Offensive chants,
Bad (-2) at: Taking swift action
making snap judgments
Bad (-2) at: Being open-minded
Uptight Class Brains

ABILITIES
Skilled (+2) at: Trivia, think-
ing outside the box
Bad (-2) at: Social interactions
25
How do I use cliques during play as a GM?
Cliques can be used in various ways. They can add tension to an existing story
when someone from a rival clique becomes involved in a problem, causing further
complications. They can drive the story, creating problems for the characters. Or
a character from a rival clique can be used as a red herring, drawing attention
away from the real villain or throwing suspicion onto the player characters. The
On the Wall graphic novel uses cliques in these ways and can provide inspiration,
but we’re not giving spoilers here!
When introducing a new character, the GM or players will at minimum need to
decide what clique the character belongs to, and how well members of that clique
tend to get along with the PCs’ clique. To add tension, think of the stereotypical
high school rivalries like jocks versus nerds or mean girls versus girls next door.
A source of conflict that’s somewhat less expected is conflict within a group. The
Meathead Jocks might not get along well with the Silver Spoon Jocks, causing
tension and conflict at the big homecoming game. When powers get involved in
a situation like that, it can get complicated fast.
Mira, Nyx, and Angela are confronted by Bubbles McMasters, head of

a rival clique. Bubbles is claiming that Mira tried to spy on her in the
locker room, while Mira claims innocence. The gymnastics coach gives
each girl a chance to make her case before making a decision.
Bubbles tells a melodramatic tale about what happened in the locker
room, and it sounds really bad. Like, getting suspended or maybe
arrested levels of bad. Connor decides that Mira’s a bit speechless after
hearing it. She just gapes, leaving room for Angela and Nyx to react.
Angela decides to capitalize on the fact that their clique is known to
be Friendly to All. She points out that Mira isn’t the kind of girl who
would do such a thing and kindly suggests that maybe Bubbles was
mistaken, creating the advantage Sympathetic Coach.
Nyx follows up by compelling an aspect from Bubbles’s clique, Known
to Be Catty, and suggests that Bubbles might lose her cool as she
sees Coach’s positive reaction to Angela. The GM agrees and takes
Nyx’s fate point, describing how Bubbles makes a catty remark under
her breath, but it’s not quite quiet enough. The coach hears what she
says, producing another situation aspect, Bubbles Looks Petty. Now
it’s a simple matter for Mira to make her case—the coach is already
inclined to believe what she has to say, so she Cleverly explains why
she couldn’t have done what Bubbles says, invoking both situation
aspects and succeeding with style.

Do adults belong to cliques?
They don’t really belong to cliques, but some cliques can have adults—particularly
teachers or administrators—as allies. Think of the group of troublemakers who
always seems to get off scot-free no matter how extreme their pranks are, or the
girls who always skip Algebra and never get detention. These groups have somehow
managed to establish a relationship with an adult, which can be reflected in the
clique’s aspects. One interesting story hook could be to find out how a particular
clique got the ear of the assistant principal. Perhaps their parents are friends from
long ago, or maybe it’s something more sinister…
Can a clique have a leader?

Some high school groups clearly have a leader who directs the group’s actions.
In some cases, this leadership is subtle, while in others the leader is practically a
dictator. In the movie Heathers, for instance, the leadership of the group clearly
passes from Heather to Heather as the girls are killed off. Whichever Heather is
in charge quite literally rules the actions of the rest of the group. A similar situ-
ation exists in the On the Wall graphic novel, where Bubbles McMasters holds
sway over her group of flunkies.
Clique leadership can be designated in one of two ways. If a clique has a clear
leader, that can be designated in its clique aspects, with the approval of everyone
at the table. That aspect can be invoked to allow the leader to issue orders, but it
also makes them the figurehead in the event of trouble.
If the PCs have a leader, though, the leader should get a limited number of
orders per game, to avoid taking agency from the other players. The second
option is to reflect the desire for leadership or presence of leadership abilities in
the leader’s character aspects. This approach would be appropriate for a character
who is a natural leader but only chooses to exert that leadership under very par-
ticular circumstances, or for a leader who hasn’t quite realized their potential yet.
ON THE WALL 27
Predictable Approaches
With only six approaches, it’s easy to default to the
approach that best defines your character. If your
character tends to be a punchy kind of person, they
probably have a high Forceful approach, and as a
default, when something happens that they don’t
like, they put those talents to good use and whack
someone in the face. To a certain extent this makes
sense, but it also runs the risk of making the charac-
ter predictable and play less fun, since many actions
will end up feeling a bit like foregone conclusions.
In reality, people tend to be more complicated,
and even the punchiest bully has moments where
she is deliberate, caring, or thoughtful. Life would
certainly be boring if we always behaved in the
same manner. However, there are also moments
when you can call what your best friend is going to
do in a given situation because he is so empathetic/
temperamental/silly/whatever.
On the Wall encourages variability in approaches
by tracking how often they’re used. Simply put, if
a character uses the same approach three times
during one scene, they’ve become predictable, and
they gain an aspect reflecting that. For example, a
character that keeps relying on their Cleverness
over and over again might become Predictably
Overthinking. This aspect gets a free invocation
and lasts until the end of the scene.
In game, this will require each player to keep a
tally of approaches used in a scene. You’ll want a
system that can withstand being restarted every
scene. Dry-erase tallies are a great way to do this.
Either give each player a card or use a larger board
with each player designated by a color. You can also
keep track on plain index cards and simply add or
erase hash marks as necessary.
Based on your group’s play style and the story
in question, you can adjust the number of times
an approach needs to be used before it becomes
predictable. If you tend to roll a lot of dice at your
table, three times may not be enough, but if you’re
less dice-heavy, two may be a better number. You
won’t want every scene to end with multiple pre-
dictable approaches, but a predictable approach
should come into play on occasion, so adjust the
trigger as necessary.

Mira, Nyx, and Angela are trying to break into Mrs. Elrich’s office after
hours to look through her student files. Nyx’s brazen ways have almost
gotten them caught by the guards once, and Angela’s player saved
their hides by rolling to make a Careful plan. Now Angela has taken the
lead, and Mira brings up the rear. Nyx is sulking, at least for the moment.
Angela makes a second Careful roll to sneak through the halls, avoiding
the guards who are walking down each hall in five-minute intervals.
When they get to the office, Nyx uses her Probability Control stunt to
guess the combination that opens the door. When they enter the office,
they see that someone has already ransacked the place. Debris litters
the floor, and the contents of all the files are strewn all over the place.
“What a mess,” says Connor. “We didn’t see anyone on our way here,
did we?”
“No,” replies the GM. “You didn’t.”
“They could still be in here, then,” says Lily. “I remember the Control
classes were held in the conference room attached to her office. Is the
door to that closed?”
The door is indeed closed, and the group decides that Angela will
be the one to open it, since she’s the strongest of the three. Because
the guards are still moving around outside, Angela has to make a third
Careful roll to avoid alerting them or any potential intruders on the other
side. She succeeds easily, but she becomes Predictably Cautious in
the process. It’s obvious that she’s terrified of being caught, and that
worry has preoccupied her.
When Angela opens the door, Bubbles McMasters tumbles out.
She was listening with her ear to the door and heard everything. She
threatens to go and find the guards, intending to pin the whole thing
on them. Angela attempts to intercept her before she can make her
getaway, but the GM compels her Predictably Cautious aspect, explain-
ing that the floor is covered in broken glass, and suggesting that Angela
hesitates, worried that the noise of the crunching glass will alert the
guards. As Angela hesitates, Bubbles makes her getaway while Nyx
gives loud pursuit.
ON THE WALL 29
Story Development
This game depicts a world in which superheroes have extraordinary abilities, but
most are terrified of using them in ways that are against the law. How exactly do
you tell a superhero story without punching people through walls, blowing up cars
with your laser eyes, and generally wreaking havoc on your general surroundings?
And how do you create a villain without resorting to the default dry-hand-washing,
bald-cat-petting, volcano-laser, overly complicated villain who likes to monologue?
That’s actually easier than it sounds. At its core, On the Wall is about everyday
heroes living in a world that doesn’t really appreciate them. The idea nugget that
eventually developed into this game was about seeing superheroes deal with
real-life problems. So the key to creating a plot for this story is quite simple—
take a real-world problem that high school students might face, and then add
a complication related to supes or supernatural abilities. The graphic novel
does exactly that. It takes the real-world problem of sexual harassment—in the
form of a peeping Tom—and complicates it with the fact that the culprit is a
Mirrorwalker. Mira Mason, the hero, is the only registered Mirrorwalker in the
area, so suspicion naturally falls on her. Combined, the two elements create a
fairly realistic superhero story.
These stories can be one-shots or part of a broader story, leading to an under-
standing of a bigger picture. The drug addict next door might be reacting to his
parents’ rejection of his being a supe, and the whole problem might be solved by
getting him the support he needs and deserves. Or it might turn out that the drug
problem seems to be limited to him at first, only to be followed by an expanding
pattern of addiction at the school, which leads the characters to expose a drug
ring that points to the teachers, a fringe anti-supe group with a vendetta against
the school, or even the Bureau’s new program, which attempts to control young
supes chemically without so much as notifying them. The material on the world
at large in The World of On the Wall (page 4) can help if you decide you’d like
to size up to a full campaign.
In the interest of getting you started, on the next page you can find a few story
seeds and supe complications to fuel your first game. You can select your favorites
as a group, mix and match, roll dice, or ask your magic eight ball. Or, if you
prefer, take inspiration from the graphic novel and run through that story using
the pre-made characters starting on page 37. The graphic novel combines the
story seed “sexual harassment” and the supe complications “a PC’s power makes
them a suspect” and “a rogue supe is on the loose.”

Story Seeds Supe Complications
Drug addiction A PC’s power makes them a suspect
Sexual harassment The PCs’ powers aren’t under control yet
Abusive relationships Alterna Girl is filming in town
Rival cliques Bureau investigators in the area
Theft at school The PCs are new supes
Favorite teacher is fired A rogue supe is on the loose
Student Council election cheating A prejudicial anti-supe law is passed
School sports scandal Tracking tattoos stop working
Party gone out of control One or more PCs can’t pass Control
exams
Corrupt school administration PCs fall victim to a hate crime
Example Plots
It seems like a big leap to go from two phrases to a full-on plot, so how does
that work? The following example plots will show you how. You can add more
complications to fuel a longer campaign, or you can just use one pair of story
seed and complication to start a shorter arc.
ICARUS RISING
Story Seed: Drug addiction
Supe Complication: PCs fall victim to a hate crime
A new drug has been running through the school—one that only seems to work
on supes. The drug is called Icarus, and all the popular kids are doing it. It ampli-
fies powers while giving the user an unworldly high. Someone the PCs know—or
maybe even the PCs themselves—try it for the first time and get into big trouble.
Maybe they even break the law. Either way, things are serious, but they get even
more dire when the PCs are attacked by an anti-supe group. Maybe the PCs lose
and wake up handcuffed somewhere in the dim recesses of the group’s headquarters,
or maybe the PCs triumph in the fight and trail the group members when they
retreat. Either way, they discover that this group is dealing Icarus, and it’s not just
a drug. It seeks out and destroys mutated DNA. Long-term users will become
normal again. But the process is dangerous, and it could kill.
Possible Twists: Any PCs who are unhappy with being supes may want to take
Icarus too, once they know what it does. The anti-supe group might try to frame
the PCs as Icarus suppliers. A school administrator or teacher might be involved
in distributing Icarus and stand in the way of the PCs. Perhaps no one will listen
to the PCs, since their clique has gotten a terrible reputation after breaking the
law while on Icarus.
ON THE WALL 31
PARTY DOWN
Story Seed: Party gone out of control
Supe Complication: Alterna Girl is filming in town
A member of a rival clique is throwing the party to end all parties, and everyone
who’s anyone is going. Perhaps the PCs want to go and have to find a way to
finagle an invitation…or counterfeit one. Perhaps they don’t have any intention
of going, but one of their friends is there and has gotten into trouble. Regardless
of the reason, they find themselves on the spot with all kinds of illegal activity
going down. It could be as tame as underage drinking or as wild as a bunch of
drunken teens using their powers in ways that aren’t legal. Things are bad enough,
but they get worse when Alterna Girl shows up. The erratic reality star has been
drawn in by all the commotion and wants to party down, and she decides that
the PCs are her best buds. Can they stay out of trouble and avoid breaking the
law—or looking totally lame—on camera?
Possible Twists: The rival clique member could try to woo Alterna Girl over
to his side and enlist her help in booting the PCs out of the party. The police
could show up and turn out to have anti-supe sentiments, driving Alterna Girl
to the brink of violence. The next-door neighbor might turn out to be someone
important—a crush, a potential employer, the PCs’ Control teacher—and might
be witness to some of the happenings at the party.
RUNNING A GAME WITH YOUNGER PLAYERS?

This game tends to fall a bit on the gritty dystopian side of the superhero
spectrum, but it can easily be played by younger players if you make a few
simple tweaks. Focus on story seeds and complications that are a bit more
black-and-white such as theft at school or election cheating—stories with
a clear culprit who needs to be brought to justice. Make sure to balance
out villains in power with trustworthy characters in power too. Sending
the message that all teachers are evil and out to get their students is
probably a bad thing. Focus on a clear win, and make sure that failure is
exciting and interesting. There are opportunities in every failure, so make
sure that everyone at the table can tell how failure moved the story along
and perhaps even gave the characters opportunities to succeed later.

Using Powers
This game encourages you to tell a different kind of superhero story. So many
similar tales involve a lot of smashing and punching, and the villains are brought to
justice by beating the crap out of them—sometimes with a good deal of collateral
damage. But in this world, supes are prohibited from using their powers to hurt
others, and the tracking tattoos do a darned good job of enforcing that law. It’s
pretty difficult—although not impossible—to work around it. And even if you
could, would you want to? On the Wall offers the opportunity to tell a different
kind of story about superheroes with the kinds of powers you don’t usually see.
Finding creative applications of non-combat powers is kind of the point.
So what is allowed, power-wise? The law says that supes can’t use their powers
to hurt others, but what if you shoot a bunch of fog out of your pores, someone
gets lost in the fog, and they walk off a cliff? The touchstones here are the same
as in our laws—there’s a difference between an accident and a deliberate action.
Anyone who wants to prove that a supe has broken the law has to prove intent to
harm someone or gross negligence before the supe can be prosecuted. Of course,
this doesn’t stop anti-supe groups from skewering people online and in the media,
but at least it’s something.
One way to encourage creativity with supernatural powers is to have players
think about what kinds of things their characters would have had to do in their
Control exams. The whole point of Control exams is to make sure these teens
have full control of their powers, and the exams do that by giving them difficult
things to do with said powers. So the person who can emit fog might be asked
to simply fill a room in their first year. But as they gain in control and power,
their teachers will ask them to try new and increasingly difficult tasks. Can they
emit colored fog? Can they emit fog in a particular shape? How long can they
make the fog last? Can they make it so thick that people choke when they try
to breathe it? Thinking through what these exams might contain in advance can
help give a player more options. At the end of the day, the fog-emitter can do a
lot more than obscure people’s vision.
Likewise, a character’s age can have a fairly sizable effect on how much they
can do. Since powers tend to manifest at puberty, older teens tend to have better
control over their powers, and said powers are further developed because of
their Control classes. So, another way to balance the PCs is to make a character
with a more potent power younger, and reflect that in their aspects. A younger
character may be more likely to lose control of their power, or may not have fully
developed it. However, youth doesn’t always equate to lack of control. Some kids
just seem to have a knack for their powers, and others go through puberty early.
That comes with its own set of problems, though, since all supes go to a special
school. A kid who starts puberty and manifests powers at nine may be the only
nine-year-old in the entire school.
ON THE WALL 33
Bringing the Outside World In
On the Wall is set in a dystopian America where society has become incredibly
fractured and many people live in fear, regardless of whether those fears are real-
istic or not. As in our world, teenagers respond to this atmosphere in a variety of
ways. Some don’t notice it at all. Others note it but write off politics and morals
as “adult stuff.” Still others spout off whatever their parents are saying at home,
blindly accepting it as truth. And then there are the teens who have their own
political stances. Perhaps they’ve been personally affected by the public’s attitudes
toward supes, or someone in their family has. Maybe someone in their family is a
public servant, or the teen has aspirations to work in that sector when they grow
up. Or maybe they’re just interested in that kind of thing. For whatever reason,
some characters will choose to engage with the world at large, and others won’t.
Sadly, the kids who would rather keep their head in the sand can’t do so indefi-
nitely. Even the most dedicated homebody has to walk to school or get on the
bus to go to the library. Remember, everything in this world is gated. For a supe,
passing through the gates means having their tattoo scanned under the stern watch
of guards with automatic weapons. Furthermore, there are some subdivisions
where they’re not welcome at all. Areas like Uncle Bob’s Safety Zone are plastered
with posters explaining that any supes on the property will be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law, but everyone knows they’d be lucky to reach prosecu-
tion—supes who trespass on the property of the most ardent anti-supe protestors
would be lucky not to be shot on sight.
To incorporate this into your game, players should keep their supe-related
aspects in mind, particularly whenever their characters are not at school or home.
While many normals are perfectly accepting, others aren’t, and the bar code tat-
tooed on the outside of each supe’s right hand makes it pretty difficult to conceal
one’s powers in any way short of wearing a Michael Jackson glove all the time.
How does the character react to this? Are they envious of normals? Resentful? Do
they not care at all? The varying reactions of the characters can make for some
interesting situations and internal tension as well.
As a GM, you can bring these situations into your game as situation aspects.
Remember that this is a society full of frightened people who count on external
sources of security to help combat that fear. Electrified fences, guards in full riot
gear, and fancy security cameras are a matter of course everywhere except in the
poorest of neighborhoods. Although the characters might see these fixtures as
normal, they definitely can pose a danger. While the guards for the subdivision
you have to walk past to get to the movie theater can’t shoot you unless you’re
an active threat, they can still be really scary and threatening, simply because the
characters know the guards want to shoot. In this setting, even the motivations
of regular people can be quite murky. Maybe the angry old lady who yells at kids
to get off her lawn is super protective of her prize mums, or maybe she’s not so
happy that her son moved her to Diversity Acres, and she’s looking for an excuse
to take out her frustrations on the local supe kids. You can use a variety of larger
and smaller problems, some supe-related and others not, to keep the campaign
moving and fresh.

Antagonists
Compelling antagonists can make the difference between a healthy, long campaign
and one that dies a slow and painful death. Ideally, the characters (and the players
too) will feel extremely invested in bringing the bad guy down, even if they’re
not so sure who the villain is. However, On the Wall brings with it a few unique
issues when it comes to developing antagonists.
First of all, telling a story featuring teenage protagonists can make your villains’
age extra important. Older villains—particularly those in positions of power—can
be untouchable to a group of teenagers, which may make for a frustrating play
experience. GMs, you can work around this problem in various ways. Perhaps the
seemingly untouchable villain has a specific vulnerability—less Kryptonite and
more skeleton in the closet—that, if exposed, could ruin them. The characters
then have at least one way to topple their antagonist, if only they can discover it.
You could also create a tiered structure of antagonists. The big boss might always
get away, leaving seeds for the next game, but story arcs can end with the charac-
ters apprehending a sub-boss, leaving them with the knowledge that at least they
thwarted this plan and saved the day. This time. This kind of semi-resolution fits
well with the dystopian, rather tragic setting. Regardless of what you choose, it’s
important to keep age discrepancies in mind when designing antagonists.
To complicate matters further, this is a superhero setting without supervillains.
As we’ve repeatedly pointed out, no one is turning remote islands into lasers here.
They’re not monologuing and developing convoluted plans to take over the world.
And they’re not behemoths who can withstand the combined assault of a whole
group of superheroes, many of whom can punch holes in walls. That’s the kind
of thing that happens in the movies, but not in this game.
With that in mind, how do you make the bad guys feel bad enough? How do
characters take down the bad guys without the ability to beat them into submis-
sion? The following vignettes will give you some starter ideas to create your own
adversaries. For one-shot bad guys, these short-form stats should be enough to
get you through, but of course we recommend fully statting the big bad if your
game has one.
Simply put, bad guys are scarier the more unexpected they are. The subdivision
guard discussed earlier is frightening for a few reasons. He has a giant gun and
presumably knows how to use it, so that’s pretty scary. But he’s also a person who
was supposedly hired to keep people safe. He has access to homes and security
systems in order to do this job. But if he’s harboring supe-related hatred, he’s
extra dangerous. If he wants to do something naughty, he likely has the know-
how to break into a supe’s house and not get caught. That guy is scarier than any
monologuing supervillain.
ON THE WALL 35
Bureau agents could be antagonists or allies depending on the situation and
the agent. Certainly, having them arrive on the scene ups the ante of any supe-
related situation. You can think of Bureau agents about the same way as any of
the Feds—if they show up on the scene, things have just gotten real. They have
the authority to detain any supe without proving probable cause, so a Bureau
agent with a vendetta, or worse, a rogue agent with a hidden agenda, could prove
particularly dangerous.
Corrupt teachers and administrators present a particular danger to supe students
simply because their education is so important. A student who doesn’t pass Control
must be registered with the Bureau and will end up getting braceleted, ruining
a lot of their future prospects and making them an outcast. No one will want
to be associated with them. So, a threat to fail someone in Control holds great
weight. Gaining the ire of your Control teacher is never recommended, although
any teacher can be a formidable adversary. They have access to all of the Bureau
registries, and a poor report from a teacher can open up a Bureau investigation.
Anti-supe extremists provide another natural villain for any On the Wall game.
These people can be found anywhere. Although you’d expect them to stick to
jobs in normal-only subdivisions and buildings, perhaps one of them with an
ulterior motive might decide to take a position in an open subdivision…or even
a school. Although all of the teaching staff and administration must be powered,
supplementary staff such as custodians and lunch ladies can be normals. And
what better place for someone with anti-supe sympathies to hide than at a school
for supes. Such a person could do a lot of damage there. They could engage in
blackmail, frame students for crimes, or gather information about the young supes
to take back to their friends with nefarious purposes in mind.
Guard with Ill Intent Bureau Agent with

ABILITIES Hidden Motives
Skilled (+2) at: Sharpshooting,
ABILITIES
security systems
Skilled (+2) at: Supe-related
Bad (-2) at: Hiding his true
knowledge, investigating
feelings
things
Bad (-2) at: Dealing with
normal people
Corrupt Teacher
ABILITIES
Skilled (+2) at: Teaching their Anti-Supe Extremist
subject matter, hiding what
ABILITIES
they’re really up to
Skilled (+2) at: Hiding in plain
Bad (-2) at: Putting the welfare
sight, causing problems for
of others before their own
supes
Bad (-2) at: Being open-minded

SAMPLE CHARACTERS
The following characters are taken from the pages of the graphic novel to use as
PCs or NPCs in your own games. No worries, we’ve avoided spoilers.
Mira Mason
ASPECTS
High Concept:
Reluctant Hero
Trouble:
My Power Sucks!
Other Aspects:
Really Wants to Be Normal;
Reluctant Gymnast;
Crushing Hard on Zach Schroeder
APPROACHES
Careful: Fair (+2)
Clever: Good (+3)
Flashy: Mediocre (+0)
Forceful: Average (+1)
Quick: Fair (+2)
Sneaky: Average (+1)
STUNTS
Mirrorwalking: Because of my mutation, I can try
to Carefully step through a mirror or reflective
surface, emerging on the other side or in the
Mirrorrealm. The difficulty of this roll depends
on the situation.
Beautiful Drawings: Because I am an artist with
a keen eye for detail, I gain a +2 to overcome
or create an advantage by Carefully replicating
the details of a scene or face in my drawings.
Gymnast’s Balance: Because I have a gymnast’s
coordination, I gain a +2 to overcome by making
Quick moves without losing my balance.
STRESS [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):
REFRESH: 3
ON THE WALL 37
Nicole “Nyx” Vega
ASPECTS
High Concept:
Perky Rebel
Trouble:
Poor Impulse Control
Other Aspects:
Thinks This Whole Powers
Thing Is a Blast; Sometimes
Member of the Detention
Crew; Loyal to a Fault
APPROACHES
Careful: Mediocre (+0)
Clever: Fair (+2)
Flashy: Good (+3)
Forceful: Average (+1)
Quick: Fair (+2)
STUNTS
Probability Control: Because of
my mutation, I can Forcefully
bend chance to my will and make
unlikely things happen. The dif-
ficulty of this roll depends on the
likelihood of the thing I’m trying
to make happen.
“Who, me?”: Because I have a poker
face, I gain a +2 to overcome by
Cleverly lying my way out of a
sticky situation or escaping blame
for one of my pranks.
Stunt Driver in Training: Because I
have no fear, I gain a +2 to create an
advantage by making Flashy moves
behind the wheel of a vehicle.
STRESS [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):
REFRESH: 3

Angela Laine
ASPECTS
High Concept:
Tragic Perfectionist
Trouble:
Everyone Wants a Piece of Me
Other Aspects:
Would Love to Rip My Wings
Off; Popular but Shy; Forced
to Model
APPROACHES
Careful: Good (+3)
Clever: Average (+1)
Flashy: Average (+1)
Forceful: Fair (+2)
Quick: Fair (+2)
Sneaky: Mediocre (+0)
STUNTS
Flight: Because I have wings, I can
take flight whenever I am free to
move into the air. I can perform
the same actions in the air that
I can on the ground, subject to
the same rolls and limits.
I Feel Your Pain: Because I’m so
empathetic, I gain a +2 to create
an advantage by Carefully gain-
ing the trust of someone who is
afraid or hurting.
Moral Obligation: Because I
have a strong sense of right and
wrong, I gain a +2 to defend
when Forcefully standing up for
someone in pain.
STRESS [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):
REFRESH: 3
ON THE WALL 39
Zach Schroeder
ASPECTS
High Concept:
Idiotic King of the School
Trouble:
Secretly In Over My Head
Other Aspects:
Everyone Knows Supes Are
Superior; Too Popular to Be a
Track Star; Everyone Loves Me
APPROACHES
Careful: Average (+1)
Clever: Mediocre (+0)
Flashy: Good (+3)
Forceful: Fair (+2)
Quick: Fair (+2)
STUNTS
Mesmerizing Gaze: Because of my
mutated eyes, I can Flashily make
someone follow my commands
after I make eye contact with them.
The difficulty of this roll depends
on the complexity of the command
as well as how contrary it runs to
the person I’m influencing.
I Can Go All Day: Because I have
such stamina, I gain a +2 to over-
come when Forcefully exerting
myself beyond the limits of normal
ability.
Silver Tongued: Because I’m so good
at kissing up to people, I gain a +2
to attack with Flashy attempts to
sway people to my opinion.
STRESS [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):
REFRESH: 3

Bubbles McMasters
ASPECTS
High Concept:
Desperate Mean Girl
Trouble:
Can Never Prove Myself
to Dad
Other Aspects:
Politics, Schmolitics—I
Don’t Care; Too Mean to Be
Truly Popular; Appearances
Are Everything
APPROACHES
Careful: Mediocre (+0)
Clever: Average (+1)
Flashy: Fair (+2)
Forceful: Fair (+2)
Quick: Average (+1)
Sneaky: Good (+3)
STUNTS
Hyper Growth: Because of my
mutation, I can make my hair,
nails, and teeth grow up to
twice their size. What I can’t
do is shrink them back later.
Under the Bus: Because I’m so
good at covering my butt, I
gain a +2 to overcome when
Sneakily shifting the blame
onto someone else.
Natural Leader: Because I’m so
good at telling people what
they want to hear, I gain a +2
to attack with Flashy attempts
to get people to follow my lead.
STRESS [1][2][3]
CONSEQUENCES
Mild (2):
Moderate (4):
Severe (6):
REFRESH: 3
ON THE WALL 41

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ON THE WAll

WRITING & ADVENTURE DESIGN

First published in 2017 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

This is a game where people make up stories about wonderful, terrible,

In class today, we talked about whether we’d rather be

4 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

WHAT ABOUT MULTIPLE ABILITIES?

6 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

8 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

10 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

HOW MUCH DO ALL THESE POLITICS

Pro- and Anti-Supe Organizations

14 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

16 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

What Do Powers Do?

18 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

HOW DO YOU BALANCE OUT THE GROUP?

Can a character be cliqueless?

Can the player characters belong to different cliques?

24 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Snobby Cheerleaders Meathead Jocks

Uptight Class Brains

Mira, Nyx, and Angela are confronted by Bubbles McMasters, head of

26 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Can a clique have a leader?

28 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

30 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

RUNNING A GAME WITH YOUNGER PLAYERS?

32 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

34 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

Guard with Ill Intent Bureau Agent with

36 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

38 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

40 FATE: WORLDS OF ADVENTURE

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