Credits

Writers: Chris Allen, Jacqueline Bryk, Matthew

Dawkins, Monica Speca, Eric Zawadzki
Developer: Eric Zawadzki
Editor: Sándor Gebei
Artists: Michael Gaydos, Alex Sheikman
Art Director: Mike Chaney
Creative Director: Richard Thomas
Development Producer: Dixie Cochran
Special Thanks
My writing team, for sticking with this project through
the worst pandemic in a century.
The Chronicles of Darkness forum and Discord
communities for giving me more recommendations for
Devoted chronicle inspiration than I can read or watch
in a lifetime.
My tabletop group, for always letting me use them as
my lab rats.
Beth Kinderman, for absolutely everything. Requires the Use of the
Deviant: The Renegades Core Rulebook

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Keep up to date with Onyx Path Publishing at http://theonyxpath.com/

2 THE DEVOTED COMPANION

Introduction 4
Theme: Fanaticism 4
Mood: Disordered Attachment 4
How to Use This Book 5
Spliced Cells and Grotesque Appendages 5
The Devoted Companion 7
Devoted 8
Transcendent Devotion 8
Devoted Origins 9
Your Devoted Servant 9
Changing Sides 11
Devoted Cohorts 11
Devoted Surveillance 11
Node Assignment 12
Objectives 12
Setting the Stage 13
Made-to-Order Tools 14
Mental Merits 17
Social Merits 18
Conspiracy 19
Conspiracy Actions 19
Conspiracy Actions and Linchpins 20
Common Conspiracy Actions 20
Privileges 23
Icons 25
Agent Icons 25
Organizational Icons 26
Projects 28
Divergence Projects 28
Expansion Projects 30
Management Projects 30
Narrative Projects 32
Synergy 33
Charting Devotion 33
Unleashed 33
Controlled 33
Constructive 34
Destructive 34
Cross-Referencing 35
Seeds of Devotion 35
Conspiracy Wars 35
In from the Cold 36
Men in Black 36
Mercy-Killers 37
Policing Secrets 37
Spinning the Web 38
Devoted Among Renegades 38
Creating Conspiracies 39
Step One: Mission Statement 39
Step Two: The First Node 39
Step Three: The Second Node 40
Step Four: The Third Node 40
Appendix: Conspiracy Conditions 41
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
 “But these weren’t the kind of monsters that
had tentacles and rotting skin, the kind a
seven-year-old might be able to wrap his mind
around — they were monsters with human faces,
in crisp uniforms, marching in lockstep, so
banal you don’t recognize them for what they
are until it’s too late.”
— Ransom Riggs

The Devoted walk the hallways of the conspiracy’s power. They sit in its brightly lit
offices and lecture halls. They lurk in its secret laboratories in dark sewers and abandoned
hospitals. They are its eyes, its hands, its heart, and its very soul. The conspiracy may have
strapped these Broken to operating tables and altars to reshape them, but the Devoted
reshape the conspiracy in turn — creating ripples and waves in power structures meant to
smother their freedom.

Theme: Fanaticism
Devoted have free will, which they turn toward the next objective in their current project.
They put their Variations at the disposal of the conspiracy even if it demands they kill or die in
the service of the cause. Devoted can question the conspiracy’s tactical and strategic decisions,
and they can nurse grudges against other conspirators that would make the most cutthroat office
politics seem tame, but at the end of the day, they are true believers who seek out opportunities
to prove the depth of their devotion to the conspiracy and those who serve it alongside them.

Mood: Disordered Attachment

Just because a Devoted is a true believer doesn’t mean she’s happy in her faith. People all
over the world are or have been members of violent, repressive, or apocalyptic groups that
demand complete obedience to a leader or a central set of tenets. Neither a leader nor tenets
can be wrong at any point, even if they contradict themselves, and any acknowledgment of
contradiction or incorrectness is simply a lack of faith on the believer’s part. Other believ-
ers reinforce this paradigm, and it grows into a toxic stew of codependent feedback with
every believer adding the force of his own convictions and personal loyalties to the mix.
Believers police each other — watching for any slip — but at the same time, they cling to
each other. The outside world never understands what it’s like being part of A Cause.
Most Devoted follow this pattern almost to the letter. Heavily traumatized in both
body and mind by excruciating procedures or ceremonies, they cling to the conspiracy
that Remade them — or the conspiracy that offered them a home after they fled. Whether
through fear or love or even sublimated resentment, they define themselves by their con-
spiracies or by those within them to whom they have grown personally attached. Devoted

4 INTRODUCTION
attachment is attachment without boundaries or mitiga-
tion, an all-consuming passion to serve — to adore those
the conspiracy tells them to adore, and to hate those the
conspiracy tells them to hate.
How to Use
This Book
The Devoted Companion is a supplement for Deviant:
The Renegades that allows players to engage with the
Devoted as protagonists. As with Renegades, this does
not necessarily mean they are heroes. Renegades lead lives
characterized by vengeance and violence directed against
antagonists that seek to exploit them. They are trapped in
a desperate cycle of bloodshed that promises to end only
with their deaths.
Whether as willing agents or dupes, Devoted serve the
same system the Renegades rebel against. Most can rely on
the conspiracy to meet their basic physical and emotional
needs — food, shelter, medical care, and people who at
least seem to care about them. But that security comes
with a price. Sometimes the trusted friend who soothes
their hurts today will order them to recruit test subjects or
kill tomorrow, and the Devoted are ill-equipped to refuse
these requests —a psychological vulnerability conspiracies
and their agents do not hesitate to exploit.
A Storyteller can use this book to run a chronicle fo-
cused on a Devoted cohort, to handle stories in which a
How to Use This book | Spliced Cells and Grotesque Appendages
player’s character shifts from Devoted to Renegade (or vice
versa), or to flesh out antagonists for a Renegade-focused
Deviant: The Renegades chronicle.
Spliced Cells and
Grotesque Appendages
This companion to Deviant: The Renegades contains
four core segments, each complimenting the other to make
a complete, horrifying body.
The first discusses how to play Devoted, exploring po-
tential reasons why they serve a conspiracy. It offers new
Merits, Forms, Variations, and Scars that are particularly
appropriate for Devoted characters and provides new
systems for Devoted and Linchpins.
The second expands the conspiracy mechanics detailed
in Deviant, including guidance on conspiracy actions,
Nodes, Icons, and Projects. Additionally, it introduces
Privileges — Merit-like benefits that flow from a conspir-
acy’s Structural and Hierarchical Nodes — and provides
a means for a conspiracy to grow in power and influence
over the course of the chronicle.
Thirdly, this book offers valuable storytelling advice for
Devoted chronicles. It provides additional storytelling axes
and common stories in Devoted chronicles, including ones
that focus on Remade who create their own conspiracies.
This companion concludes with a selection of
Conspiracy Conditions that Devoted often receive.
5
 Horror stories are born from strange, disturbing places. Many tales of Renegades
start with the escape from the laboratory, the mad dash through the forest, and the
tumble out onto the road and into the path of a hapless motorist. Others start with
the Deviant waking up on an operating table to find their organs being replaced with
foul machinery, suddenly clutching the surgeon’s wrist and snapping the bone as they
wrestle not only with the medical team, but with the anaesthesia trying to force them
back into nightmarish slumber. Then there are the Renegades who volunteer, perhaps out
of a sense of duty or desperation, the former trying to cling to the vestiges of patriotism as
some branch of the government they’ve never heard of requisitions their body and mind,
the latter clinging onto the hope that the money from this trial will support their family.
If these stories are so horrific, however, why do some Deviants welcome them? All of a sud-
den, the rampaging Renegade isn’t just pulling the motorist from their car, they’re snuffing the
driver out to conceal the conspiracy’s actions, and shambling back to their masters to apologize
for their fit of panic. The Deviant on the operating table realizes where she is, and how she wanted
this change to be made better, faster, stronger than before, and willingly submits to the scalpel, the
clamp, and the saw. The patriot pushes aside all feelings of fear and realizes that yes, this procedure
will make him the weapon his nation needs in this time of historical threat. The desperate Deviant
inwardly counts the dollars they’re earning and smiles to themselves, safe in the knowledge that they’re
in the hands of experts, and a corporation like this one isn’t about to bounce a check.
Is it more horrific to live as an unwilling, resistant Renegade, or be a Deviant who willingly
embraced the change and goes on in service to the conspiracy that made them? The conspiracies
have their view, of course. “Even a live dog is better than a dead lion,” they tell their reticent
subjects. “You cannot thrive by endlessly fighting. Submission is the path to acceptance.”
Some Deviants find such words condescending, only galvanizing them to resist. Others take
solace in the reassurance that despite the changes they’ve been through, there’s a group out there
invested in their survival, if not prosperity, and that if they continue to serve their lives may form
a semblance of normality. Or as normal as a life surrounded by scientists, other Deviants, and
mysterious individuals wearing shades indoors and using pseudonyms can be.
These Devoted and their conspiracies make for horrific stories, as the craving for security over
liberty; reassurance over risk; submission over control, can all compel a Deviant to perform terrible
acts. What would you do to ensure your continued wellbeing, or that of your loved ones? The
Devoted made their choice and despite their entrapped circumstances, they view the constant
agitation from Renegades through a dim lens. Deviants who don’t realize where they’re better
off are often little more than petulant children to the Devoted firmly leashed to their conspiracy.
Yet, tales can still be told with the Devoted as protagonists. Whether subtly under-
mining the people in charge or living up to their name through devotional servitude to
a conspiracy, the hunt for escaped Renegades, the protection of their masters, and the
journey to find purpose in a cage, albeit sometimes a gilded one, provides great founda-
tions for a story of morally gray substance.

The Devoted Companion 7

 “I live for a sigh, I die for a kiss! I lust for a laugh, a-ha!
I never walk when I can leap! I never flee when I can fight!”
— Danny Kaye, The Court Jester
Any discriminating Progenitor regards a Deviant that
goes Feral or Renegade shortly after the Divergence as a
failure. Better by far are the subjects who do not resist
examination and further experimentation, the ones who
forge deep bonds with obedient conspiracy agents and
so become obedient themselves, the ones who eagerly
master their newfound abilities and adapt to their Scars.
Although flawed experiments and unfortunate twists of
fortune can yield Ferals and Renegades, the conspiracies
of the Web of Pain much prefer to produce Devoted, for
these Remade live up to their name.
Transcendent
Devotion
She was the black sheep of her family. Her brain didn’t
work right, they complained. Why can’t you just be normal?
The doctors diagnosed her with ADHD, with Bipolar II, with
C-PTSD with Borderline traits. One said he could help her.
There’s an experimental study. Come with me. She did. Now
she thinks like how a missile must think — quietly and harm-
ing no one, until the arming switch is thrown. She loves it. It’s
so peaceful here. She has her own room done in cool colors, she
can play her own music, and no one storms in to disrupt her
when she’s relaxing. They always knock to give her her next
target.
He was weak. No matter how much he tried, he could
never grow muscles or a beard. That rage built inside him. He
learned about NoNutNovember and how women would be at-
tracted to his buildup of hormones not released by jacking off.
That didn’t work either. He got angrier. His anger darkened.
He deserved attention and a beautiful girl to give it to him.
Wasn’t he a man, after all? He heard the advertisement for
the YFU-9000 Virility Self-Implant on one of those late-night
radio shows, the ones with the shock jocks who scream about
school shootings being false flags for government takeovers. He
likes those shows a lot. They make him feel like he has a right
to this deep pit of resentment in his stomach, that someone
8 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
empathizes with him for once. It hurt to implant himself with
the injector, and he’s sure the men who hand-delivered it and
check up on him once a week want something from him other
than test results. But it worked. It worked. Look out world,
here he comes.
She grew up in the arms of the Enlightened Family of the
Fourth Wave. The loving embrace of the Family’s home was
all she knew, until she underwent the Becoming. Only those
who survived the Becoming could go Outside, and only those
who proved themselves could undergo the Becoming. She wept
tears of joy as they fixed her to the iron cross and placed the
electrodes on her head. The powers of the Waves channeled
through her tore her mortal form asunder and built her anew,
creating a beautiful and powerful new being. She would be the
Enlightened Family’s warrior and prophet on the Outside. Yet
nothing about the Becoming prepared her for the Outside, how
loud and cruel it is. She hates it. She wants to see it remade,
like her.
Life in prison, or the operating theatre and freedom: pick
one. He knew which one he’d pick, wouldn’t you? It wasn’t so
bad. Yeah, the anesthesia wore off once, and they had to give
him a Dilaudid drip in addition to the knockout drugs, but
he was only under for what, six hours? Less than one percent
of his combined sentences for extortion, fraud, embezzlement,
and conspiracy to commit murder. That didn’t make him a
bad guy, of course. He was just trying to provide for his wife
and mistress, both of them with their expensive tastes. The
Dilaudid hooked him, and that wasn’t so bad either. Just
meant that he had a new boss who paid him in opiates, and
he had to learn to become the hitman rather than hiring one.
Not his fault, of course. Nothing personal. It’s just business.
Renegades, if they’re lucky, have small groups of equally
fucked-up Broken with whom they can find some irregular
solace from the outside world. Even being around other
Remade can be stressful. Renegades all have their own
Scars and issues that can’t be fixed by simple kindness, and
sometimes their relationships shatter because someone
said something nominally harmless at the wrong time.
Being a Renegade means being an outcast, always on the
run, never safe.
Devoted, though? They have lives. They have friends.
They have jobs and bosses who pay them regularly. They
have homes they can return to. They might even have
families. They don’t have to hide from the outside world,
because through the conspiracies, they’re a part of it. Sure,
the home is in a company town or is a carefully-constructed
apartment in the same building as the lab that made her.
The family might be hand-picked by the company or sect.
So what if the Devoted’s job is to take out enemies of her
Progenitor? She has a routine. She has stability. She has
purpose.
She feels safe and supported in her new role. For once,
she’s part of a powerful group that accepts her, and all her
Scars, and all her Variations.
She doesn’t have to be on the run.
Devoted Origins
Like Renegades, Devoted can come from any Origin.
Autourgics and Genotypals are more common, but even
Exomorphs can join a conspiracy. Here are some com-
mon situations:
Autourgics knew what they were getting into and
had some idea what the result might be. Some see their
Divergence as a new chance at life or a new set of powers
with which to control other people. Many of the fiercest
and most loyal Devoted are Elect, and few switch conspira-
cies unless they have no choice. A handful of Autourgics,
especially those whose Progenitor and initial conspiracy
were wiped out, become true mercenaries — fully aware of
how valuable their powers make them to the conspiracies
of the Web of Pain.
Epimorphs often come to view their Divergence and
subsequent services as Devoted as a form of military service
or indentured servitude. If the conspiracy kept its initial
promises, many Volunteers can be persuaded to continue
their service in exchange for money, protection from
enemies, or other remuneration. Escaped Epimorphs fre-
quently find the problems that led them to the Divergence
in the first place haven’t simply vanished, and some come
crawling back or else join another conspiracy that can
promise them protection or further medical treatment.
Exomorphs require a firm hand or good fortune. Some
Unwilling go onto the table screaming but come out of
the Divergence fanatically dedicated to their Progenitors.
Others can be blackmailed or brainwashed into service
or else befriended by one of the conspiracy’s agents, who
acts as the Devoted’s minder. Certain conspiracies develop
techniques to engineer a Deviant’s Scars so that the new
Remade is dependent upon them in some way. Exomorph
Renegades who escape their Progenitor sometimes join a
conspiracy that has Principles compatible with their per-
sonal beliefs or that court them with rewards that play to
the Unwilling’s desires, whether it’s protection from an
abusive Progenitor, a steady source of income, or a promise
to minimize how often they call upon her services.
Genotypals rarely know that they have any other
choice. Often raised in a cult-like atmosphere (or even
just a flat-out cult), Born regard service to the conspiracy
as an expression of love for their extended family. They
know nothing else and may never have cause to rebel
against their conditioning. Driving a Genotypal Devoted
into the arms of another conspiracy usually involves some
catastrophe that wipes out their conspiracy “family.” Most
such orphans seek out a new conspiracy, for facing the
world alone is all but unthinkable.
Pathologicals most often become Devoted in search of
answers. Why did opening that door, or going outside in
that storm, or taking that new pill, go so wrong for me?
Conspiracies promise answers to the Accidents who serve
them. Sometimes, those answers even turn out to be true.
Other Pathologicals become Devoted not through meeting
men in black with answers, but through simply finding
doctors, friends, and family who happen to be part of a
conspiracy with enough money, power, and time to take
care of the Deviant. Finally, an Accident who doesn’t
initially come to the Web of Pain’s attention can become
the seed of a new conspiracy, as seemingly friendly faces
exploit the Devoted’s remarkable abilities — whether they
do it with good intentions, out of greed, or for the chance
to wreak a little bloody vengeance of their own.
Your Devoted Servant
Something about the conspiracy fills a hole within the
Devoted. Perhaps she’s been searching for more her entire
life. More power, more love, more answers, more meaning
— more of anything, really, just more than her mere human
existence. The Divergence is a piece of that, yes, but the
people who surround her, the people who have beautiful
ideas and want the world to be made anew? That’s what
she was looking for. She loves that sense of purpose.
Perhaps instead, she’s afraid. She was anxious before,
but now, she feels out of control and lost. The conspiracy
gives her a place where she can take a deep breath and
relax. Here, there are people who understand what is
happening to her, and she loves them for it. No one else
understands. Sure, sometimes they ask her to do…things,
but they have to spend time around her. She’s a monster.
It’s only fair that she repay them.
Devoted 9
 It could be something else entirely. She fears and hates
the conspiracy — but the outside is worse. The outside is
full of dangerous people who want to hurt her: kidnap-
pers, terrorists, perverted politicians, people with advanced
weaponry. She doesn’t like the conspiracy either; the way
they treat her makes her weep at night, but it’s the best
she’ll get. They’re the only ones who can help her — as
long as she helps them, of course.
Whether through genuine love, a sense of obligation,
fear of the outside world, abandonment anxiety, or some-
thing else, the Devoted pack-bonds tightly to members of
her conspiracy. She lives for them and would die for them.
She’s part of the conspiracy’s machine — whether it is the
Cephalist negotiating for rare artifacts or the Invasive
protecting them. Devoted given a job will go to terrifying
lengths to do it.
It all comes down to wanting to have a place. The
Divergence brings with it a profound identity crisis, and
most Broken soon lose friends, family, homes, and careers
— in addition to whatever price their Scars exact. This loss
causes a certain hyper-suggestibility: Anything that gives her
a sense of belonging and peace becomes her new normal.
This is quite common in even Baseline cults and new reli-
gious movements, and that’s without the experimentation
on body and soul that Remade undergo.
Conspiracies keep Devoted in line through some
combination of love-bombing, absolutist principles, and
threats. The conspiracy gives the Devoted dangerous or
difficult jobs, reminding them that it’s for the greater good.
Those who complete their tasks receive praise, raises, and
other rewards that inspire them to continue and improve.
Devoted who fail? Well, they can expect write-ups at the
very least, but often they are locked up and sedated, used
as guinea pigs for further experiments “to find out what
went wrong” or, to put it gently, disassembled for parts.
The worst part is that many “failed” Devoted believe they
deserve it; after all, they couldn’t do what the people who
care for them asked them to do.
Such fanatical devotion to the people they care about
defines Devoted as surely as an unquenchable thirst for
vengeance defines Renegades. Devoted are capable of tap-
ping into that same bottomless well of hatred, but most
allow their Loyalty Touchstones tell them whom to hate.
However, Devoted assassins seldom pick off their targets
from a safe distance without ever revealing themselves. Like
all Deviants, Devoted crave a personal connection to their
victims to cement their rage (and affirm the Touchstone),
whether it means arranging a chance meeting or “playing
with their food” before moving in for the kill.

10 THE DEVOTED COMPANION

Changing Sides
Some Renegades were never Devoted and never will be.
Some Devoted have never tasted the terrifying freedom of the
Renegade and will remain safe within their conspiracy for the
rest of their lives. But other Remade change from Devoted
to Renegade (or from Renegade to Devoted) at least once.
In some cases, the moment of change will be obvious
within the chronicle’s narrative. In others, however, it will be
less clear-cut. Perhaps a Renegade successfully infiltrates the
conspiracy to the point where she becomes the Linchpin of
one of its Nodes. Or maybe a Devoted goes deep undercover
in a Renegade cohort but remains loyal to the conspiracy,
in spite of taking some actions against it to prove his loyalty.
Deviant has no hard-and-fast rules regarding when a
character switches from Devoted to Renegade or from
Renegade to Devoted, but here are some common narra-
tive events that may trigger it, at the player’s discretion:
Renegade to Devoted
• The Renegade is a Guardian whose Loyalty exceeds
her Conviction by two or more, and at least one
Loyalty Touchstone is the agent of a conspiracy.
• The Renegade is assigned to a Node, especially if
she becomes its Linchpin.
• Each time the Renegade helps complete a con-
spiracy Objective.
• The Renegade is successfully brainwashed into a
conspiracy.
• The Renegade is part of a cohort that sets out to
create a new conspiracy.
Devoted to Renegade
• The Devoted is a Nemesis whose Conviction ex-
ceeds his Loyalty by two or more, and at least one
Conviction Touchstone is the agent of a conspiracy.
• The Devoted’s conspiracy ceases to exist.
• The Devoted no longer has a Loyalty Touchstone
in the conspiracy — neither an agent nor a hostage.
• Each time the Devoted causes a crisis point through
his action, inaction, or failure.
• The Devoted is successfully deprogrammed out of
a conspiracy.
On Nemesis
Some of the effects of Nemesis in Deviant: The
Renegades (p. 237) assume that all Devoted
are Storyteller characters. If a player character
achieves a state of Fury, it does not increase
the Devoted’s Attributes or Variations, although
the Willpower and Instability benefits still apply
(identical to those of Guardians).
Devoted Cohorts
In Deviant: The Renegades, conspiracies pursue a
Remade character and seek to bring her in or bring her
down. A Devoted chronicle reverses the situation so that
the Remade is now working from the inside, with the con-
spiracy serving as context and surroundings within which
she makes her decisions. The Devoted’s relationship with
her conspiracy is not necessarily going to be a benign one,
but she can try to influence how it wields its power, and
where it directs its attention.
Service to the conspiracy defines the lives of the
Devoted. Not only does it help them fend off Instability,
the conspiracy’s Principles and values often help fill the
void left by the Divergence, which annihilates the Broken’s
capacity to form and act on a sense of purpose outside of
their Touchstones. This intense devotion and eagerness
to please yield substantial benefits for a conspiracy willing
to give its Devoted some discretion as to how they serve
it. A cohort of Devoted can sometimes achieve greater
results in less time than an entire laboratory of scientists
or a company of private security operatives.
Devoted Surveillance
Devoted do not live in fear of conspiracy attention
to nearly the degree that their Renegade cousins do. For
the most part, their conspiracy grants them substantial
protection from its rivals in the Web of Pain. However,
Devoted who draw too much attention can endanger the
secrecy of the conspiracy they serve. The more powerful
the organization, the more unwanted attention it is likely
to attract.
At the beginning of each chapter, make a surveillance
roll for the entire cohort:
Surveillance
Dice Pool: Conspiracy Standing + highest-rated Overt
Variation or Scar activated/manifested in the previous chapter.
Devoted 11
 Suggested Modifiers (cannot exceed net +/–5): No
Overt Variation/Scar used during the current story (–5).
None of the cohort’s actions last chapter called upon the
conspiracy’s Power (–2) or any conspiracy resources (–3).
Checked into a hospital outside of a conspiracy facility (+2).
Recently arrested (+3) or escaped custody (+5), unless au-
thority is allied with the conspiracy. Created a public scene
while calling upon the conspiracy’s Power (+1) or multiple
such incidents (+3). Created a public scene involving Overt
Variations/Scars (+3) or multiple such incidents (+5).
Roll Results
Success: The Remade incur some kind of PR incident.
This deals a point of bashing damage to the conspiracy’s
Association.
Exceptional Success: Choose one of the following
options.
• The characters’ actions spark a major internal crisis
or reorganization. Deal a point of lethal damage to
the conspiracy’s Association.
• The conspiracy must waste time cleaning up the
Devoted’s mess. It loses one of its conspiracy actions
for this chapter.
• The cohort’s actions have infuriated her conspiracy,
and they assign it punishment duty. Gain the
Devoted Shackles Condition.
• The Devoted have made an enemy of someone
powerful enough to make their lives difficult. Gain
the Hunted Condition.
Failure: The Devoted avoid fallout or other unintended
consequences.
Dramatic Failure: Choose one.
• The Remade’s actions reflect favorably upon the
conspiracy. Heal a point of bashing damage to
Association or downgrade a point of lethal to
bashing.
• The Devoted’s actions are pleasing to their con-
spiracy. Gain the Devoted Influence Condition
or upgrade the Devoted Influence Condition to
Devoted Authority Condition.
Node Assignment
Even Devoted who are not Linchpins are jealously
guarded resources of the conspiracy they serve. Each one
“belongs” (is assigned) to a single Node. It’s likely that the
whole cohort will be part of a single Node, but some con-
spiracies might spread the group across various schemes
12 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
to benefit from their Variations or use them as watchdogs
keeping an eye on potentially rebellious Linchpins.
Devoted Linchpins
Although not all conspiracies trust Remade with real
power within their organization, Devoted make potent
Linchpins. Their intensity and passion usually more than
make up for their frailties and failings.
• Devoted may begin play as the Linchpin of a Node
by purchasing the Linchpin Merit (p. 18). This may
also be purchased during play, with Storyteller ap-
proval — typically after a crisis point would cause
the dismissal of the current Linchpin (Deviant, p.
231).
• If the conspiracy suffers a crisis point or performs
a purge that would result in the replacement of
a Linchpin or the destruction of a Node, the co-
hort may choose to take the fall, resulting in the
termination of one or more of their members as
Linchpins. The terminated Remade take a Beat
and a Conspiracy Beat. The Sanctity of Merits also
applies.
Free Hands
In a Devoted-focused chronicle, the actions of the
players’ characters do not normally count as conspiracy
actions. This includes scenes in which they come into con-
flict with Renegades or other enemies of the conspiracy.
At the Storyteller’s discretion (or via Conspiracy
Conditions — p. 41), however, the conspiracy may use
one or more of its actions to provide support to the
Devoted in a scene. If it does so, it enjoys a bonus to
its Power or Finesse as usual. If multiple Devoted and/
or Linchpins are active in the scene, use only the best
available bonus.
A Devoted cohort that takes direct action against a
rival conspiracy uses up one of the enemy conspiracy’s
actions, potentially provoking crisis points (the same as a
Renegade cohort doing so).
Objectives
Devoted carry out important tasks on the behalf of the
conspiracy they serve. Such Objectives act like collective
(and usually long-term) Aspirations. The cohort may have
up to two Objectives at a time.
Normally, if the cohort does not currently have two
Objectives, the conspiracy assigns the Devoted a new one
at the beginning of each chapter based on the Storyteller’s
perception of how it will react to current events and what
goals it is pushing towards.
The Storyteller may assign two Objectives at the begin-
ning of a story and may remove one or both Objectives at
the end of a story. Assigned Objectives should reflect one
of the conspiracy’s Principles or Anchors, as well as the
Node to which at least one member of the cohort belongs.
A Devoted cohort can attempt to control some or
all the Objectives they are assigned by cultivating influ-
ence among their peers through the Devoted Authority,
Devoted Control, Devoted Influence, and Devoted
Shackles Conditions.
Influence and Shackles
At the beginning of each chapter, the Storyteller
awards a single beneficial Devoted Condition to one
player character. The Storyteller normally chooses which
character receives the Condition in accordance with the
narrative, but the players can override this choice if they
have unanimous agreement as to which character should
receive it instead. In escalating order of power over the
conspiracy they represent, the Conditions are Devoted
Influence, Devoted Authority, and Devoted Control. The
Condition awarded is always the highest of these for which
any member of the cohort qualifies.
To qualify for the Devoted Influence Condition, at
least one member of the cohort must:
• Be assigned to a Node (and thus this is almost always
automatic in a Devoted chronicle).
To qualify for Devoted Authority, at least one member
of the cohort must:
• Be the Linchpin of a Temporal, Exploitative, or
Structural Node.
• Have subverted or dominated the Linchpin of
a Node (by blackmail, manipulation, seduction,
threats, or other means) they were assigned to dur-
ing the prior chapter.
• Belong to a conspiracy which has little control over
its Devoted in general or which actively accords
them authority and importance due to their nature
— most likely as part of a chronicle leaning strongly
in the direction of the Unleashed axis (p. 33).
To qualify for Devoted Control, at least one member
of the cohort must:
• Be the Linchpin of a Hierarchical Node.
• Have subverted or dominated the Linchpin of a
Hierarchical Node during the prior chapter.
The cohort may also accept the Devoted Shackles
Condition on one of its members if:
• The cohort chooses to abandon an existing
Objective, or an Objective’s completion has been
rendered impossible.
• The cohort’s players wish to choose a new Objective
instead of allowing the Storyteller to assign one.
The elected Objective must adhere to the rules of
the Devoted Influence Condition (p. 42).
At the beginning of each chapter, the Storyteller should
automatically assign the Devoted Shackles Condition to a
character if the cohort did not earn any Conspiracy Beats
or Effort in the furtherance of at least one Objective dur-
ing the previous chapter.
The Storyteller may also assign the Devoted Shackles
Condition if the cohort belongs to a conspiracy that
maintains strong control over its Devoted in general or
sees them as resources to be kept in line (particularly as
part of a chronicle leaning strongly in the direction of the
Controlled axis — p. 33), and any cohort member does
something to provoke a conspirator — or is simply in the
wrong place at the wrong time. This should not occur
more than once per chapter.
No character can have more than one instance of the
Devoted Shackles Condition, and the players may not
choose to accept it for one of the benefits above unless at
least one of them is not currently suffering from it.
Conspiracy Beats
Whenever a Devoted earns a Beat in direct pursuit of
an Objective, he also earns a Conspiracy Beat. The cohort
cannot earn more than one Conspiracy Beat per scene.
The Devoted cohort may exchange five Conspiracy Beats
to generate 1 additional Effort. Additionally, if the cohort
completes (resolves) an Objective, it generates 1 Effort.
Even if the conspiracy does not give its Devoted a
voice in its operation, the players should always determine
how to invest the Effort generated by their characters’
Conspiracy Beats. The Sanctity of Merits should likewise
apply to any Projects funded with Conspiracy Beats.
Setting the Stage
A Devoted chronicle can make use of the optional Setting
the Stage step of downtime (Deviant, p. 230). This replicates
the cinematic experience of shining a light onto the periph-
eral cast and seeing the struggles they carry and the price the
cohort’s own actions may be exacting from them.
Each player takes limited control of a single character in
a special scene at the end of the chapter. These characters
Devoted 13
 might be conspiracy members — the support staff who
help the Devoted deal with the ravages of their Scars, the
ambitious conspirators whom the Devoted have stepped
on while climbing the ladder, or the like — but they’re
more likely the Renegades the cohort hunts, the people
around the Devoted’s targets who have to put their lives
back together afterwards, rivals in other conspiracies, and
so forth.
The players play out a brief conversation or encounter
involving these characters, perhaps highlighting rising
Instability, determining a Renegade or rival conspiracy’s
plan of attack for the future, or showing reactions to the
Devoted’s exploits and highlighting how they’re seen as he-
roes, problem-solvers, or monsters by Baseline characters.
Made-to-Order Tools
The following Forms, Merits, Variations, and Scars are
especially appropriate for Devoted, although some rare
Renegades have them.
New Form: Supersoldier
All Devoted are made with purpose. Rarely do the
Progenitors toy with a subject for cruel, aimless reasons.
There’s always a goal in mind: limits to test, new formulae
to experiment with, new serums in their trial period, and
14 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
so on. It’s all in the name of the ever-forward march of
science, art, and technology after all. However, Devoted
with this Form have been made for one purpose only: war.
Conspiracies craft their supersoldiers with violence
in mind. Every change made to the Devoted’s physiology
has been done with the goal of making their creation a
living weapon. Only the most loyal (or the most compliant)
candidates receive this kind of reshaping. The last thing a
conspiracy wants is a laser-focused killing machine going
rogue and turning on them.
To this end, Devoted with the Supersoldier Form
receive preferential treatment. While conspiracies make
it clear who owns whom, they will listen to the Devoted’s
demands — within reason, of course. Any Supersoldier
who asks for too much finds themselves sedated and
imprisoned, or locked away in cold storage until it’s time
to use them again.
System: The Supersoldier Form confers the following
mechanical benefits:
• Once per chapter, as an instant action, the
Supersolder may redistribute up to (Acclimation
+ 3) dots from Mental and/or Social Attributes to
Physical Attributes until the end of the scene. This
cannot reduce an Attribute to less than 1 nor more
than double the rating of a Physical Attribute, and
it doesn’t affect Scar Power/Finesse/Resistance.

Modern
Supersoldiers
The Supersoldier Form first appeared in Dark
Eras 2 (p. 445). It has been updated for the
modern setting and to clarify its mechanics.
• Upon gaining this Form, a Supersoldier may reduce
her Willpower dots by any number to add an equal
number of points in Magnitude of Variations. This
cannot reduce Willpower dots to less than 1.
• These Variations do not count towards the maxi-
mum Magnitude allowed per threat level, but they
must entangle Scars as per the usual rules.
• These Variations may not have the Directed keyword
unless the particular effect (such as a special attack,
like Inhuman Digestion) fits as a reflection of the
Devoted’s purpose. The Storyteller and player should
agree on what they feel is appropriate. Any Persistent
Perpetual Variations lose the Perpetual keyword and
gain the Reflexive and Toggled keywords instead.
• Each Magnitude of these Variations must be as-
signed to one of her Loyalty Touchstones, and
she may only use Variations gained this way in the
service of that Touchstone.
• If the Supersoldier is Devoted, some or all of this
Magnitude may be assigned to a Node, in which
case any assigned Variations may only be used in
service of the conspiracy’s Objectives.
• If a Touchstone or Node which has assigned
Magnitude is destroyed, those dots are banked and
the Remade may assign them to another Touchstone
or Node at the beginning of any subsequent chapter.
• If the Loyalty Touchstone to which the bonus dots
of Variations is attached becomes Wavering, the
Supersoldier suffers a minor Instability at the end
of any scene in which she activated one or more of
the Variations assigned to that Touchstone.
• If the Loyalty Touchstone with attached Variations
converts to a Conviction Touchstone instead (or
a Devoted with Magnitude assigned to a Node
becomes a Renegade), any assigned Magnitude
remains assigned and can only be used to oppose
the Touchstone or Node.
New Universal Variation:
Absorb Instability (• to •••••)
Subtle
Directed, Tiered, Toggled
The Deviant senses the troubles of her compatriots and
can help slow the terrible descent brought on by their own
awful powers. Conspiracies occasionally design toward this
Variation in order to keep their peak-performing Devoted
in flawless shape. The unfortunate soul with this Variation
can always be patched up later or discarded when they
become useless.
A Remade may benefit from the same effect of this
Variation no more than once per chapter, regardless of
how many other Broken attempt to use it on her, although
the healer can use an Adaptation to overcome this limit.
The Deviant cannot target herself with this Variation.
At Magnitude •, the Broken may sense a target’s
Instability and can grant the target the ability to better re-
sist their Instability, reducing penalties to Scar Resistance
rolls due to Instability by half the healer’s Scar Power
(rounded up) until the end of the scene.
At Magnitude ••, as Magnitude •, and the Remade
with this Variation may transfer any number of Instabilities
from the target to herself, with a maximum severity based
on her Scar Power — minor Instability at 1 or 2, medium
at 3 or 4, and major at 5.
At Magnitude •••, as Magnitude ••, and choose one:
• Resilient: Once per chapter when using the
Magnitude •• effect, the Deviant heals a minor
Instability or downgrades a medium or major
Instability by one step. This target Instability must
be one absorbed by the healer using this Variation.
• Soothing: Allow the target to ignore a number
of medium Instabilities equal to the healer’s Scar
Power or a single major Instability for the purposes
of increasing the Magnitude of their Scars and/or
gaining new Scars.
• Stabilizing: Reduce the Magnitude of one of the tar-
get’s Scars and Variation Magnitude by the healer’s
Scar Power. If this would reduce a Scar’s Magnitude
to 0, it also disables all entangled Variations.
At Magnitude ••••, as Magnitude •••, but choose
two effects instead of one.
At Magnitude •••••, as Magnitude ••••, and the
Remade enjoys all three Magnitude ••• effects.
The Cephalist lays her hands upon her target and absorbs
their mental trauma through psychokinetic contact. This touch
Devoted 15
 leaves her mind in a haze for hours after (Persistent Drawback
[Glitch]; Controlled; Wits).
The Coactive syncs the uncontrollable energy of his body to
his target’s alpha waves to soothe them at the cost of his own
mental stability (Suppression [Resolve]; Persistent).
The Mutant opens pores in her skin and secretes a serum
that settles the target’s mind at the cost of damage to herself
(Perilous Variation; Controlled; Dexterity).
New Persistent Scar:
Philia (• to •••••)
Keywords: Mental; Subtle; Repeatable
The Broken has a bizarre, unbreakable desire or fasci-
nation for a particular thing. A Deviant transformed in
a sensory deprivation tank may yearn for the noiseless,
saline floating, while another forced to stay awake for days
might actively seek sleeplessness.
By default, the philia comes into play no more often
than once per chapter — such as a strange craving, a desire
to avoid sleeping, an obsessive need to perform a particular
action, and so on.
Each instance of Philia pertains to a desire for some-
thing different.
At Magnitude •, the Remade’s philia drives her to
abandon missions, act irrationally, or betray or scam her
cohort in order to get what she craves. Take a Beat when-
ever the Deviant indulges the urge in a way that creates
problems or complications.
At Magnitude ••, as Magnitude •, but whenever the
Remade encounters an opportunity to satisfy her philia,
she suffers a (6 – Scar Resistance) penalty to actions in the
scene other than those that help her indulge it. Once she
indulges in the urge, it consumes her entire attention for (6
– Scar Resistance) minutes (or turns, during action scenes)
unless someone or something interrupts her indulgence.
At Magnitude •••, as Magnitude ••, and choose one:
• Consuming: Once the Remade indulges, tearing
herself away from the obsession becomes nearly
impossible. In action scenes, when she pulls away
from her fixation, she must make a Scar Resistance
roll each turn to keep herself from abandoning the
fight to dive back in. In other scenes, she cannot do
so unless someone interrupts her with something
urgent (a dear friend begging the Remade to stop,
for example, or an imminent threat that demands
her attention), in which case she may make another
Scar Resistance roll to pull away.
16 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
• Destructive: Whatever the Broken desires, it is
harmful to her body. Whenever she indulges her
philia, it inflicts 1 lethal damage to her.
• Routine: The Deviant must indulge her philia
regularly and suffers a minor Instability at the end
of any chapter in which she did not do so.
At Magnitude ••••, as Magnitude •••, but choose
two effects instead.
At Magnitude •••••, as Magnitude •••, but all
three effects apply.
Deviations
• Rare (–1 Magnitude): The Remade craves some-
thing bizarre and uncommon, like tasting the fur
of a werewolf, a very specific fruit found only on
the opposite side of the globe, or near-death experi-
ences. It is unusual for her to trigger her philia more
than once per story.
• Common (+1 Magnitude): The Broken desires
something commonplace and easy to acquire:
chewing on aluminum foil, prescription painkill-
ers, eating sawdust, aerosol fumes, teratophiliac
pornography, and so on. This can be triggered
multiple times per chapter, but no more than once
per scene.
New Persistent Scar:
Trusting (• to •••••)
Keywords: Social; Subtle
The Deviant believes that everyone she meets is hon-
est and has her best intentions at heart. She also believes
that honesty is the best policy when dealing with others.
She does this without considering that she might be ma-
nipulated or that whatever they ask of her might not be
in her best interests.
At Magnitude •, the player may accept a Beat whenever
her willingness to believe the best of people or her desire
to handle things with frank honesty causes a setback.
At Magnitude ••, as Magnitude •, and choose one:
• Credulous: The Remade suffers a (6 – Scar
Resistance) penalty to contested Empathy rolls to
read another character’s intentions or detect decep-
tion, which the Storyteller rolls in secret. A failure
on such a roll invariably paints a rosy picture of the
subject’s perceived motives.
 • Transparent: The Broken suffers a (6 – Scar
Resistance) penalty to contested Subterfuge rolls
to lie, hide her intentions, and resist giving away
information under interrogation. The Storyteller
makes these rolls in secret. A failure on such a roll
means the observer has seen right through her, or
she has given away something important without
realizing it.
At Magnitude •••, as Magnitude ••, but both ef-
fects apply.
At Magnitude ••••, as Magnitude •••, and once
per chapter at a time chosen by the Storyteller, when one
of the Deviant’s Loyalty Touchstones makes a request of
her, she cannot refuse it and suffers a (6 – Scar Resistance)
penalty to any actions during the current scene that do
not further it. This request may be something difficult or
dangerous, but not outright impossible or suicidal.
At Magnitude •••••, as Magnitude ••••, but the
request replaces the Remade’s Aspiration, and the above
penalty persists until she completes the Aspiration or until
the end of the story. If the Broken already has one such
Aspiration, her player may choose whether or not any
new request replaces it. In addition, the Deviant cannot
switch a Loyalty Touchstone to a Conviction Touchstone
without Wavering, first.
Mental Merits
Library (• to •••) (Overt)
Effect: Whether it’s research library, an archive of
surveillance footage, or a possessed theatre that answers
questions put to it by playing an appropriate documentary,
your character has access to a plethora of information
about a given topic. When purchasing this Merit, choose
a Mental Skill. The Library covers that purview. On any
extended roll involving the Skill in question, add the dots
in this Merit.
This Merit can be purchased multiple times, to reflect
different Skills. Additionally, its benefits can be shared by
various characters, with permission.
Loose Cannon (••)
Prerequisite: Deviant-Only, Devoted Form
A character with this Merit will do whatever needs to be
done in order to accomplish her goals. Her dedication and
loyalty lie not with the conspiracy that commands her, but with
her ambition to see a task through to the end. This makes her
both an asset and a loose end to whichever conspiracy owns her.
Devoted 17
 System: No more often than once per scene, when
the character violates conspiracy Principles in order to
further an Objective, she regains a point of Willpower,
and the resultant Conspiracy Beat still converts to Effort
even if a member of the cohort has the Devoted Shackles
Condition (p. 42).
Moral Compass (••)
Prerequisite: Deviant-Only, Devoted Form
The character with this Merit is the moral lodestone
of her group. She sets an example for her fellows, who
find inspiration in her righteous actions. Whenever she
provides moral direction and her friends adhere to it,
everyone benefits.
System: Once per chapter, when the character acts in
accordance with one of the conspiracy’s Principles or its
Virtue, or spends an action encouraging others to do so,
the Devoted may call upon this Merit. Devoted and other
agents of the conspiracy in the scene gain the Inspired
Condition related to furthering the designated Principle
or Virtue.
Social Merits
The Company Line (••)
Every conspiracy has its poster child, the Devoted that
everyone else looks up to as a paragon of the conspiracy’s
mission statement. She delivers every line of propaganda
with a flawless, photogenic smile and makes other people
wish they were her and that they could have what she has.
18 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
System: The character enjoys a +2 bonus whenever
she uses Intimidation, Persuasion, or Subterfuge to win
a target to the conspiracy’s side or to convince them to
embrace its Principles.
Linchpin (••• or •••••)
Prerequisites: Status (Conspiracy) • (or ••• for the
five-dot version)
The Devoted is a key member of his conspiracy, com-
manding the resources of one of its Nodes and directing
its activities on the conspiracy’s behalf.
Effect: The character is the Linchpin of an Exploitative,
Structural, or Temporal Node, which comes with both
benefits and responsibilities. With the five-dot version, the
character is instead the Linchpin of a Hierarchical Node.
Note: Purchase of this Merit after character creation
requires a vacancy for the Devoted to fill — either as a result
of the prior Linchpin’s demotion or reassignment, or a
Node whose Linchpin the Storyteller has not yet defined.
Staff (• to •••••) (Overt)
Your character has a crew of workers or assistants
at his disposal. They may be housekeepers, designers,
research assistants, animators, cheap thugs, or whatever
else makes sense.
Effect: For every dot in this Merit, choose one type
of assistant and one Skill. At any reasonable time, his
staff can take actions using that Skill. These actions
automatically garner a single success. While not useful
in contested actions, this guarantees success on minor,
mundane activities.
 “We companies are all birds of prey; mere birds of prey.
The only question is, whether in serving our own turn, we
can serve yours too; whether in double-lining our own nest,
we can put a single living into yours.”
­— Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit
Deviant: The Renegades provides a system for run-
ning conspiracies in chronicles focused on the travails
of Renegades, where these organizations are antagonists.
Because so much about conspiracies is Storyteller-facing,
and therefore invisible to the players, those systems are
fairly simple. In such chronicles, conspiracies are foes to be
reckoned with (and, ultimately, vanquished), so the rules
reflect largely static opposition — capable of threatening
the Renegades’ interests, certainly, but fixed in Standing.
In a Devoted-focused chronicle, conspiracies play more
nuanced roles, ones in which its protagonists see, influ-
ence, or even outright control the organizations’ inner
workings. For that reason, this chapter provides more
mechanical levers for player characters to manipulate.
These expanded rules are also useful for Storytellers
in some Renegade-focused chronicles. Perhaps the player
characters take an interest in subverting a conspiracy
or turning one conspiracy against another. Possibly the
Storyteller likes to have a clear idea of what is really hap-
pening in the background, even if the player characters
don’t. Even in a Renegade-focused chronicle, these
expanded systems can add definition to the otherwise
indistinguishable Nodes of high-Standing conspiracies.
Conspiracy Actions
Most conspiracies prefer to use tried-and-tested ap-
proaches to achieving their aims, putting forth Effort to
advance their Projects. Sometimes, however, urgency or
desperation demands swift, if uncertain, action. Or the
conspiracy encounters an obstacle for which they do not
have a ready-made tool and must improvise. This includes
any scene involving hostile Renegades, whether the con-
spiracy’s agents are on the offensive or defensive.
Conspiracy actions call upon either Power or Finesse,
depending on whether the conspiracy is operating directly
or through intermediaries. Resistance is passive, granting
additional Association.
Conspiracy Traits
in Devoted
Chronicles
When creating a conspiracy in a Devoted-
focused chronicle, do not add Nodes or
Attribute dots based on the number of Deviants
in the cohort. Use the base traits instead.
Additionally, attacks on Nodes, Linchpins, or
Projects do not typically use up conspiracy
actions, and they never do so in scenes in which
the cohort is involved. However, if the cohort is
called upon to defend a conspiracy resource
against a threat and does not do so, the attack
may use up a conspiracy action, as the con-
spiracy must direct other resources to it.
If a rival conspiracy serves as the main antago-
nist in the chronicle, however, build the enemy
conspiracy following the rules in Deviant: The
Renegades, with the Storyteller directing its ac-
tions using the rules for an active conspiracy in a
Renegade-focused chronicle (Deviant p. 220)
Each conspiracy action typically originates from a single
Temporal or Exploitative Node. A Temporal Node calling
upon Finesse (or an Exploitative Node calling upon Power)
suffers a –2 circumstantial penalty for an inappropriate
Node. A Structural or Hierarchal Node is always consid-
ered inappropriate when calling upon Power or Finesse,
and likewise suffers a –2 circumstantial penalty.
In addition to the circumstantial modifiers to con-
spiracy action rolls, a conspiracy may choose to suffer ad-
ditional penalties to the Attribute roll in order to achieve
a greater effect — typically a –2 penalty for each increase in
the action’s effect. Unlike other penalties, these voluntary
Conspiracy 19
 penalties can exceed –5, but the conspiracy cannot choose
to allocate a penalty that is greater than its dice pool after
applying other circumstantial modifiers.
For example, a conspiracy with Power 8 wishes to use
an Exploitative Node to kidnap a journalist who has been
exposing its bad acts. It suffers a –2 circumstantial penalty
for the inappropriate Node, leaving it with 6 dice. If it
wishes to increase the scale of its action (such as by kidnap-
ping multiple targets), it can choose to suffer penalties to
the remaining 6-die pool. However, the voluntary penalty
cannot exceed –6 (leaving the conspiracy with exactly a
chance die with which to attempt the action).
Conspiracy Actions
and Linchpins
Most Linchpins control their Nodes from behind the
scenes. Not many will risk themselves lightly on the front lines
of the conspiracy’s conflicts with Renegades, rival conspiracies,
and other enemies. However, in a structure that too often en-
courages groupthink and bureaucratic adherence to procedure
and protocol, a Linchpin’s direct leadership can force a Node’s
agents out of their complacency and achieve dramatic results.
• If a Linchpin takes a direct hand in a conspiracy
action originating from her Node or one adjacent
to it (see below), she increases the conspiracy’s ef-
fective Power or Finesse rating by 1 for that scene.
20 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
• If the Linchpin is a Devoted or controls a
Hierarchical Node, this bonus is 2 instead — or
3 if the Linchpin is a Devoted and controls a
Hierarchical Node.
To bestow this benefit, she must be present when the
conspiracy action takes effect. She must lead the group of
agents attempting to capture the Renegades, for example,
or hers must be the voice on the other end of any threat-
ening phone call.
Common Conspiracy
Actions
The following conspiracy actions are the most com-
mon. All can be taken multiple times, using one conspiracy
action each.
Accelerate Project
Ordinarily, a conspiracy generates Effort to advance
Projects during downtime at the end of each chapter, and
a completed Project does not take effect until the end of
the next chapter. However, unanticipated external compli-
cations can force them to unleash a new capability before
it is completely ready. This conspiracy action must be in
response to enemy action aimed at disrupting a Project —
such as a Renegade attack on a Node. The conspiracy uses
its action to generate and spend Effort no greater than half
its Standing (rounded up) during a scene in which disrup-
tion could occur. Each point of Effort generated in this way
counts as an additional conspiracy action during the current
chapter. Generating and spending 3 Effort, for example,
would require a total of four conspiracy actions (one to use
Accelerate Project, and three to generate additional Effort),
meaning this method of completing a Project requires one
more total Effort than if the conspiracy had simply waited
until the end of the chapter. The conspiracy makes a Power
roll with a penalty equal to the Project’s Complexity.
Roll Results
Success: The conspiracy completes the Project during
the scene in which its enemies attempt to disrupt it, and
it takes effect immediately.
Exceptional Success: As a success, and the conspiracy
generates one additional Effort at the end of the current
chapter.
Failure: As a success, but the Project is flawed in some
way that creates a complication in the current scene. A
newly created Devoted might not be able to tell friend
from foe, or an Icon could overload and fry its inventor
during the chaos.
Dramatic Failure: The reckless attempt to move up the
Project’s time table fails catastrophically. Not only does
this disrupt the Project (forcing the conspiracy to restart
or abandon it), it also creates an additional complication
for the conspiracy in the current scene.
Focused Action
The conspiracy devotes considerable resources to a
critical task, either adding two dice to a surveillance roll
or increasing the conspiracy’s Power or Finesse by 2 for
another conspiracy action (increasing the number of dice
it rolls and allowing it to perform actions with a larger
effect). This does not require a roll and so can originate
from a Hierarchical or Structural Node as easily as from
a Temporal or Exploitative Node.
Manufacture Complication
The conspiracy wields its influence to make life dif-
ficult for someone in its sights. The target must be one
the conspiracy successfully surveilled during the current
chapter.
If calling upon Power, the complication is directly
attributable to the source Node or its agents. While this
can mean sending goons to rough up a victim’s allies,
set fire to her house, or steal her car, it is just as likely to
involve hacking a third party to lock her out of her bank
accounts or spoofing a bomb threat that brings cops to
her door. Temporal complications tend to be high-impact
but short-lived, as ordinary public and private organiza-
tions investigate irregularities and take corrective action.
Whenever the conspiracy attempts to create a complica-
tion that lasts longer than the end of the current scene,
increase the penalty to the Power roll by 2.
If calling upon Finesse, the complication suborns an
existing organization’s authority to further the conspiracy’s
goals. Compromised officials wield power that uninvolved
parties recognize as legitimate and will not question unless
given convincing proof of its illegitimacy. An arrest warrant
issued by a corrupt judge is still an arrest warrant, for ex-
ample, so killing the judge will in no way void it (although
exposing his corruption might). Exploitative complications
can thus linger longer than Temporal complications, but
because they rely on the originating Node’s authority,
they cannot easily exceed that mandate. Whenever the
conspiracy attempts to create a complication that doesn’t
strictly fall within the originating Node’s purview, in-
crease the penalty to the Finesse roll by 2.
Common Manufactured Complications
Below are common types of complications conspira-
cies use against their victims. Most permit more complex
complications, which impose a penalty to the Power or
Finesse roll (typically from –2 to –6). A conspiracy can cre-
ate multiple complications in the same scene using a single
action, but each one after the first imposes a –2 penalty.
Arrange Sabotage: Either the conspiracy arranges a
convenient incidence of sabotage, or a device coincidently
fails to operate correctly at an especially inconvenient
time. A tire goes flat, a gun jams, a computer crashes,
and so forth. Whatever the specifics, fixing the problem
requires a successful Skill roll and several minutes (turns,
in an action scene).
Alternatively, the conspiracy may impose the Fragile
(3 dice) or Volatile Condition to a piece of equipment
in the scene.
Modifiers: Sabotage several objects or a small structure,
such as a ladder, footbridge, or scaffolding (–2). The dam-
age requires extensive repairs (–2). The sabotage imposes
an Environmental Tilt on the area until the end of the
scene (–2 for each moderate Tilt, –4 for each severe Tilt).
Communications Blackout: The conspiracy prevents a
handful of targets in the area from making use of modern
communications technology until the end of the scene.
They can’t place or receive calls or texts or access the in-
ternet via wi-fi or cell; radio earpieces and microphones
become staticky or cut out entirely.
Modifiers: The blackout affects everyone in a city block
(–2), neighborhood (–4), or city (–6). It lasts until the end
of the chapter (–2).
Conspiracy 21
 Create Distraction: The conspiracy orchestrates an event
that distracts the attention of a few victims away from things
it would prefer remain hidden. This could be a fire alarm, for
example, or a loud argument between two strangers. Inattentive
victims fall for this ruse automatically, while alert targets suffer
the Distracted Condition until the end of the scene.
Modifiers: The distraction affects dozens (–2), hundreds
(–4), or thousands (–6) of targets. The distraction lasts
until the end of the chapter (–2). Baselines automatically
fall for the ruse (–2).
Intimidating Call: The conspiracy flaunts its surveil-
lance capabilities by making contact with a target in the
current scene. An agent of the conspiracy calls the phone
nearest the target and instructs whomever answers it to
deliver a message or hand the phone to the target. Nothing
prevents the target from refusing the call or hanging up,
but the real message is clear: “We know exactly where you
are.” This may impose the Shaken Condition.
Modifiers: The target is one of the conspiracy’s agents
(+2). Several phones in the area ring at the same time
(–2). The conspiracy instead intercepts a call as the target
makes it (–2). The call comes to a burner phone (–4). Calls
“follow” the victim wherever she goes until the end of the
chapter (–4). The threat arrives via broadcast media, such
as a news anchor suddenly addressing the target directly
from every TV screen in the BestBuy she happens to be
walking through (–4). The target is in a safe place that the
conspiracy shouldn’t know about (–4).
Resource Denial: By hacking her bank accounts,
abducting her allies, or terrorizing her contacts, the con-
spiracy renders one of the target’s relevant Social Merits
inaccessible until the end of the chapter. This affects Allies,
Contacts, Manticore Companion, Mentor, Resources,
Retainer, Staff, or Status.
Modifiers: It affects the same Merit for the entire cohort
(–2). It affects multiple Merits (–2 per doubling). It tem-
porarily compromises her Safe Place (–2, –4 if a shared
Safe Place). It permanently eliminates the relevant Merit,
although the Sanctity of Merits applies (–4).
Silence Enemy: The conspiracy attempts to rid itself of
an inconvenient witness, investigator, or enemy — whether
by means of abduction, accident, arrest, or assassination.
Used against a Baseline with no supernatural allies to call
upon, it succeeds automatically, removing the target from
the action until at least the end of the current story (if
not permanently). Others suffer the Hunted Condition.
Although long-lasting, this complication does not suffer
the usual –2 penalty for using Power; in fact, calling upon
Power is more effective than calling upon Finesse.
Modifiers: Calling upon Finesse instead of Power (–2).
Automatically silence a Baseline target with a Deviant or
22 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
other supernatural ally (–2), one defined by a Social Merit
(–4), or a Loyalty Touchstone (–6).
Turn Traitor: The conspiracy turns someone against
the target, whether by bribery, coercion, or appeals to
the traitor’s nature. This traitor is a Baseline acquainted
with but not intimately familiar with the victim — such as
a neighbor, coworker, or service provider. The traitor will
perform one act of betrayal against the target in the current
chapter — from reporting her activities, to opening a door
to her enemies, to making a desperate attempt on her life.
Modifiers: The conspiracy is calling on Power instead of
Finesse (–2). The traitor is a friend (–2, –4 if defined by a
Social Merit, –6 if a Loyalty Touchstone). The traitor per-
forms minor acts of betrayal against the target (up to once
per chapter) for as long as he is capable of doing so (–4).
Send Agents
Agents of the conspiracy are already present or soon
arrive at the scene. This is up to four Baselines with access
to gear of up to Availability 3 (or with an Equipment bonus
of +2). If the conspiracy has Devoted assigned to the origi-
nating Node (or to an adjacent Node), it may deploy any
number of these specialized agents along with the Baselines.
If calling upon Power, the agents are witting pawns
of the conspiracy, even if they don’t have a big-picture
understanding of its goals or reach. They don’t risk break-
ing points for merely witnessing Overt Variations. On the
other hand, if properly motivated, they can yield informa-
tion about their Node’s Linchpin, and some know or carry
credentials that could grant others access to it. Temporal
agents often benefit from specialized or experimental
equipment useful in dealing with enemy Remade.
If calling upon Finesse, Baseline agents are unwitting
pawns of the conspiracy. They have an awareness of their
source Node but don’t realize its connection to a larger con-
spiracy. Even under interrogation, they likely can’t point a
finger at the Node’s Linchpin. Devoted among Exploitative
agents keep their natures hidden from their Baseline compan-
ions, who are as vulnerable to breaking points from witness-
ing Overt Variations as anyone else. Exploitative agents often
afford a conspiracy an additional layer of plausible deniability.
A scene involving conspiracy agents can escalate, espe-
cially in the case of Exploitative agents. If Renegades open
fire on a couple police with a search warrant, for example,
the prompt arrival of more squad cars (and possibly a
S.W.A.T. team) at the scene is a foregone conclusion.
Send Agent Modifiers
Armory (–2 or more): The conspiracy splashes out
on expensive equipment for its agents. Increase the
maximum Availability of agents’ mundane gear to 4 or
a +3 Equipment bonus (at –2) or 5 (at –4), or include
military-grade equipment (–6).
Experimental Equipment (Power-Only; –2 or more):
The conspiracy provides the agents with experimental
equipment that mimics Variations, as well as commensu-
rate Scars tied to this equipment (usually Controlled Scars
that reflect the difficulties in using the occult devices). The
penalty is –2 per Magnitude of Variations. This equipment
is the same for all agents involved in the scene. Reduce
this penalty by 1 if not more than half the agents have this
equipment or by 2 if only a single agent has it.
False Front (Finesse-Only; –2 or more): The conspiracy
takes extra care to conceal its involvement, setting up layers
of false fronts to dissuade investigation. Any investiga-
tive trail the agents leave leads to the false front instead
of the source Node, although an additional, small-scale
investigation can trace the false front back to the source
Node. Every additional –2 penalty adds another layer of
obfuscation, such that a –10 penalty forces investigators to
navigate a trail of five false fronts before at last discovering
the source Node.
Intelligence (Power-Only; –4): The conspiracy takes
pains to ensure its agents are as well-informed as possible
about their current mission. Its agents gain the Informed,
Inspired, or Steadfast Condition regarding a mission-crit-
ical task or anticipated complication in the current scene.
Patsy (Finesse-Only; –2 or more): The agents include
a Deviant who is not a loyal agent of the conspiracy. They
might be a tactically unleashed Feral, duped Renegade,
or the Devoted of a rival conspiracy lured into the con-
frontation. Whatever their loyalties, they can’t provide
any more information about the conspiracy or its Node
than can their Baseline companions, and their unwitting
service only lasts until the end of the scene. Such Deviants
resemble those recruited by a successful Recruit Devoted
Project (see below).
Modifiers: The Deviant does not have Typical capa-
bilities, instead being Acquainted (–2), Personal (–4), or
Obsessive (–6). Double the number of patsies (–2 per dou-
bling). The patsy continues to carry out the conspiracy’s
will until the end of the chapter (–2).
Shock Troops (Power-Only; –2 or more): The con-
spiracy agents include a Devoted the conspiracy considers
expendable. Such Deviants resemble those created by a
successful Expand Line Project (see below) that can only
produce Typical Devoted, but even if they survive the
scene, they soon die of Instability or escape to become
Renegades or Ferals.
Modifiers: Instead of being Typical, the Deviant is es-
pecially potent, being Acquainted (–2), Personal (–4), or
Obsessive (–6). Double the number of Devoted (–2 per
doubling). The disposable Devoted continues to carry
out the conspiracy’s will until the end of the chapter (–2).
Solo (+2): Reduce the maximum number of Baselines
to one (or to zero, if the conspiracy deploys any Devoted
in the scene).
Suppression (Power-Only; –2 or more): The con-
spiracy’s agents deploy tools and techniques meant to
neutralize one of the target Deviant’s Variations until the
end of the scene. On a successful attack, the device ap-
plies an additional Magnitude 2 Scar to all the Deviant’s
Variations. This is usually “Power Failure — sustained
contact with the suppressor,” but Involuntary Scars that
provoke the Broken into use a Variation when he would
prefer not to aren’t all that unusual, and even Persistent
Scars and Standard Deviations aren’t unknown, though
they tend to be rare. This only affects a specific Remade,
although the Storyteller may allow it to affect all Broken
of the same line of Deviants.
Modifiers: The additional Scar is instead Magnitude
3 (–2), 4 (–4), or 5 (–6). The suppressor neutralizes all
the victim’s Variations (–2). The suppressor affects any
Deviant of a single Clade (–2) or of any Clade (–4). Reduce
the penalty by 1 if not more than half the agents have this
equipment or by 2 if only a single agent has it.
Weight of Numbers (–2 or more): The conspiracy
instead sends twice as many Baseline agents (–2 per
doubling).
Privileges
Although all conspiracies share the ability to undertake
conspiracy actions, each has holdings that are better-
suited to certain tasks than to others. Privileges reflect a
conspiracy’s strengths, aside from its Icons.
A conspiracy begins play with a number of Privileges
equal to twice the number of Hierarchical Nodes it
has, plus one for each of its Structural Nodes. Onachus
(Deviant, p. 258), for example, would have six Privileges
— two for its Hierarchical Node and four for its four
Structural Nodes.
• Privileges are a part of the originating Hierarchical
or Structural Node.
• The conspiracy cannot later move a Privilege to a
different Node.
• A conspiracy can develop additional Privileges dur-
ing the chronicle by means of Projects, and each
Privilege can be attached to any Hierarchical or
Structural Node.
Conspiracy 23
 • The destruction of a Node also destroys any
Privileges attached to that Node.
Privileges enhance certain conspiracy actions that origi-
nate from adjacent Temporal and Exploitative Nodes. A
Temporal or Exploitative Node (active Node) is adjacent
to a Hierarchical or Structural Node (connective Node) if:
• The active Node has a direct connection to the
connective Node with the Privilege.
• The active Node has an indirect connection to
the connective Node with the Privilege along an
unbroken line of other connective Nodes.
ACTIVE CONNECTIVE
NODE NODE
In this example, the active Node would benefit from
the Privilege granted by the connective Node, since the
two share a direct connection.
ACTIVE
NODE
CONNECTIVE NODES
In this example, the active Node would benefit from
the Privileges granted by all three connective Nodes, since
it has a direct connection to Connective Node #1 and an
indirect connection to both Connective Node #2 and #3
along an unbroken line of other connective Nodes.
CONNECTIVE NODES
In this example, Active Node #1 benefits from the
Privileges of Connective Nodes #1 and #2, since it has a direct
connection to the former and an indirect connection to the
latter along an unbroken line of connective Nodes. However,
it would not benefit from the Privileges from Connective
24 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
Node #3, because the only indirect connection it has is broken
by another active Node. Active Node #2, on the other hand,
would enjoy the Privileges of all three connective Nodes, since
it has direct connections to Connective Nodes #2 and #3,
and an indirect connection to Connective Node #1 along an
unbroken line of other connective Nodes.
The Spoils of Privilege
The benefit a Privilege grants depends on the number
of direct connections the connective Node has to other
Nodes (regardless of whether they are active or connective).
Five or More Direct Connections: Choose a single,
narrow conspiracy action effect (such as Armory, False
Front, or Suppression) when creating this Privilege. All
adjacent Nodes enjoy a +1 bonus on conspiracy actions
that include that effect. This has no effect on the Focused
Action or Accelerate Project actions.
Four or Fewer Direct Connections: Choose one:
• As the effect for five or more direct connections,
but the bonus is instead +2.
• Choose a single, broad conspiracy action
(Accelerate Project, Focused Action, Manufacture
Complication, or Send Agents) when creating this
Privilege. All adjacent Nodes enjoy a +1 bonus on
these conspiracy actions. In the case of Focused
Action, the conspiracy action grants a +3 bonus to
another conspiracy action instead of a +2 bonus.
Note that in both cases, a Privilege does not increase the
conspiracy’s Power or Finesse Attribute. Privileges therefore
do not allow a conspiracy to exceed the normal limits of
its conspiracy actions. It only increases the likelihood that
more potent conspiracy actions of that type will succeed.
A conspiracy can have multiple connective Nodes that
provide the same Privilege. Multiple Privileges that grant a
bonus to the same types of conspiracy actions stack. Using
the third example above, if both Connective Node #1 and
Connective Node #3 provided a +2 bonus to conspiracy
actions calling upon the Armory effect, then Active Node
#2 would enjoy a +4 bonus to these conspiracy actions.
If a connective Node with fewer than five direct con-
nections forges a fifth direct connection, the conspiracy
must downgrade its Privileges to bring them in line with
a connective Node with five or more direct connections.
If a connective Node with five or more direct connections
drops to fewer than five (whether because a directly con-
nected Node is destroyed or because a direct connection
is severed as part of a Project), the conspiracy may upgrade
that Node’s Privileges to reflect the reduced number of
direct connections.
 Privileges
without Maps
Privileges build on the Mapping the Conspiracy
optional rule (Deviant, p. 227), which lends
them an additional dimension. If your troupe is
not using that rule, calculate Privileges as though
every active Node were directly connected
to every connective Node. For low-Standing
conspiracies, this may still allow access to the
more potent Privilege options, but in most cases,
all Privileges will follow the pattern for connective
Nodes with five or more direct connections.
Hierarchical Node Limits
Hierarchical Nodes are the least common type of Node.
Every conspiracy must have at least one Hierarchical
Node. However, most conspiracies (and even many large
conspiracies) only have one Hierarchical Node.
The number of Hierarchical Nodes a conspiracy has
cannot exceed its Standing.
Conspiracies built with multiple Hierarchical Nodes
tend toward two strategies. In most cases, such a conspiracy
operates as a confederacy where no one Node is truly in
charge, for all that they share common Principles and
resources. In a minority of cases, one Hierarchical Node
acts as a subordinate to another Hierarchical Node, by
turns serving as a decoy or back-up plan for the dominant
Hierarchical Node.
In either case, a conspiracy with multiple Hierarchical
Nodes is more resistant to decapitation strikes (since en-
emies must eliminate multiple Hierarchical Nodes), but it
is also more vulnerable to other kinds of attacks (since the
conspiracy must protect multiple Hierarchical Nodes from
attack, lest it suffer aggravated damage to its Association).
Orphaned Nodes and Clusters
An orphaned Node is an active Node that is not directly
connected to any connective Node, usually as the result of
the destruction of a connective Node. Conspiracy actions
originating from an orphaned Node suffer a –4 penalty.
An orphaned cluster is two or more Temporal,
Exploitative, and/or Structural Nodes that have connec-
tions to each other but have no direct or indirect connec-
tion to a Hierarchical Node. Conspiracy actions originating
from Nodes within an orphaned cluster suffer a –2 penalty.
Orphaned Nodes and clusters are also more vulnerable
to subversion by rival conspiracies (see below).
Icons
Icons enhance the capabilities of conspiracy agents, or
of the conspiracy of a whole. Below are common effects
produced by Icons. An Icon can have multiple effects
(typically Agent Icon effects), but all should reinforce the
nature and purpose of the Icon. The Storyteller should
regard these as a guideline. Conspiracies with a high
Standing often have more powerful Icons than ones of
low Standing.
Agent Icons
Agent Icons enhance the capabilities of the conspiracy’s
agents — whether bonuses to rolls or access to Merits or
Variations. Each effect has a suggested point value or
modifier, with narrowly useful effects costing less than
ones that are applicable in many or most circumstances.
The total number of points an Agent Icon has is equal
to half the conspiracy’s Standing (rounded up), plus a
modifier based on scope: +4 if it affects only the Node’s
Linchpin or a handful of the Node’s agents at a time, +2
if it affects all agents of the Node, or +0 if it affects all
conspiracy agents.
Merits
Affected conspiracy agents enjoy the benefits of one
or more Merits or a +1 bonus to the rating of an existing
Merit.
• Each one- or two-dot Merit (1)
• Each three- or four-dot Merit (2)
• Each five-dot Merit (3)
Skill Advantage
Affected conspiracy agents enjoy special advantages
when calling upon one Skill:
• 8-again (1)
• Exceptional Success on 3 successes instead of 5 (1)
• 2-die bonus (1)
• Informed Condition once per chapter (1)
• Steadfast Condition once per chapter (1)
• The rote quality (3)
The following modifiers may also apply:
• The advantage applies to two or three Skills (+1),
4-6 Skills (+2), or 7-9 Skills (+3).
Conspiracy 25
 • The advantage only applies to certain, narrow uses of
the Skill (–1) or to rarely relevant uses of the Skill (–2).
Variations
Affected agents have access to equipment or treatments
that grant them Variations as follows:
• The Variations have commensurate Scars (1 per 2
Magnitude of Variations, rounded up).
• The Variations are Scar-free (1 per Magnitude).
Once selected, the Variations and any Scars do not
change from chapter to chapter. However, at an additional
cost of +1 per 2 Magnitude of Variations (rounded up), the
conspiracy may change the Variations once per chapter,
as either a Complexity 1 Project or a conspiracy action.
However, they must be the same for all agents, and the
conspiracy must adhere to pre-defined restrictions when
selecting Variations — such as only those from a certain
Clade, or ones that grant special senses. In addition, the
following modifiers may apply:
• Changing Variations requires neither a conspiracy
action nor a Project (+1).
• The Icon may emulate any Variation of appropriate
Magnitude (+1 per Magnitude).
• The Icon may provide additional arrays of Variations,
although each agent may only have one array at a time.
For example, an Icon that grants 1 Magnitude of
Variations can grant some of its agents one Magnitude
1 Variation and the rest of its agents a different
Magnitude 1 Variation (+2 per additional array).
Organizational Icons
Organizational Icons grant special benefits to the
conspiracy’s traits.
Association
The Icon affects the conspiracy’s Association in one
of the following ways:
• For the purpose of calculating its Association, the
conspiracy increases its Resistance by its Standing.
• Once per chapter, the conspiracy can heal/down-
grade damage to its Association using 1, 3, or 5
conspiracy actions, instead of requiring a Project.
• The conspiracy automatically heals a point of bash-
ing damage to its Association at the beginning of
each chapter.
26 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
• When targeted by a rival conspiracy’s sabotage or war
action, reduce the damage the rival inflicts by 1.
• Choose a Node. The elimination of that Node’s
Linchpin does not result in the destruction of
the Node, although it inflicts lethal damage to
Association as normal. A new Linchpin takes over
the Node at the beginning of the next chapter.
• If the conspiracy currently has damage equal to at
least half its Association (rounded up), it gains ad-
ditional free conspiracy actions each chapter based
on the worst damage on its Association track — one
if bashing, two if lethal, and three if aggravated.
• Conspiracy actions (but not downtime actions) in
excess of the conspiracy’s action limit inflict bashing
damage to Association instead of lethal damage.
Attack
This Icon enhances the conspiracy’s ability to damage
its enemies. Choose two:
• When the conspiracy expends Effort on a sabotage
action, increase the damage it inflicts by 1.
• When the conspiracy expends Effort on a subver-
sion action, reduce the target’s effective Standing
by 1 when calculating the Effort it requires.
• When the conspiracy expends Effort on a war ac-
tion, increase the damage it inflicts by 1.
• Once per chapter, the conspiracy can cause a char-
acter working against its interests to convert a failed
dice roll into a dramatic failure. If the dramatic
failure would normally earn a Beat for the character,
it still does.
Privileges
The Icon functions almost exactly like a Privilege (p.
23). Choose one of the following additional effects:
• Increase the bonus to the affected actions by one.
• Attach the Icon to an active Node instead of a connec-
tive Node. This Node enjoys the benefits of the Privilege
on a narrow conspiracy action effect and increases its
bonus by two. Other Nodes receive no benefit.
• Non-adjacent Nodes also benefit from the Privilege.
• The Icon must be attached to a connective Node.
The conspiracy may treat connections between the
Icon’s Node and the connective Node of a rival
 conspiracy as though they were part of the same
conspiracy (see below). This makes one or more
of the rival conspiracy’s Privileges available to the
conspiracy and gives the conspiracy the option to
make one or more of its Privileges available to the
rival conspiracy.
• Reduce the bonus granted by the Privilege by one,
and choose two of the other effects above instead.
CONNECTIVE
NODE W/
ICON
ACTIVE
NODE
ALLIED ALLIED
CONNECTIVE ACTIVE NODE
NODE
In this example, Active Node #1 would enjoy the
Privileges granted by both Connective Node with Icon and
Allied Connective Node #1 (and any connective Nodes
along an unbroken line of connective Nodes). It would not
benefit from the Privilege provided by Allied Connective
Node #2, however. The conspiracy could choose for Allied
Active Node #1 to benefit from the Privileges granted by
Connective Node with Icon (and/or those of any connec-
tive Nodes along an unbroken line of connective Nodes).
Project
The Icon allows the conspiracy to complete certain of
its Projects more efficiently. Choose one:
• Select a narrowly defined type of Project — such
as Recruit Devoted or Move Icon (see below) —
with Complexity no greater than the conspiracy’s
Standing. Once per chapter, when the conspiracy
completes a Project of this sort, it may complete
it twice (recruiting two Devoted, for example, or
moving two different Icons).
• Select a narrowly defined type of Project with a
Complexity of 2 or more. Once per chapter, halve
the Complexity of one Project of that type, rounded
up (Complexity 2 becomes 1, Complexity 3 and 4
become 2, and so forth). If this is only permitted un-
der certain unusual, pre-determined circumstances,
further reduce the Complexity of the Project by 1
(to a minimum of 1).
• Choose an existing, narrow Project effect of
Complexity 2 or more. Any Effort expended on
furthering that Project produces a meaningful
partial result, even if the conspiracy has not yet
spent enough to complete the Project. For example,
replacing a lost Exploitative Node (a Complexity 5
Project) might generate a decoy Node at Effort 1,
a Linchpin at Effort 2, a full Node that suffers a
–4 penalty to all actions at Effort 3, one with a –2
penalty at Effort 4, and the normal Exploitative
Node at Effort 5. The completed Project is no more
potent than it would be without an Icon; its ability
to become partially viable early in the process is the
main advantage afforded by the Icon.
• Choose a narrowly defined Narrative Project (p. 32)
with a scale that exceeds the limits of the conspiracy’s
Standing by two (global if Standing 1-2 or otherworldly
if Standing 3-5). The conspiracy may unleash this
Narrative Project as though its scale were one lower — at
a cost of 7 Effort for an event shaping a single chapter
or 10 Effort for one that shapes the current story.
Resistance
The Icon makes the conspiracy more resistant to cer-
tain actions taken against them. This can take a number
of different forms:
• Attempts to investigate the conspiracy suffer a pen-
alty equal to half its Standing (rounded up), and the
next surveillance roll the conspiracy makes against
the investigators enjoys a +2 bonus.
• When a rival conspiracy targets one of its Nodes
for a subversion action, increase the Complexity of
the action by 2.
• Select a narrowly defined conspiracy action (not
Focused Action or Accelerate Project). The con-
spiracy may take that action once per chapter
without it counting against its maximum number
of conspiracy actions.
• Select a broadly defined conspiracy action
(Accelerate Project, Focused Action, Manufacture
Complication, or Send Agents). Once per chapter,
under narrowly defined circumstances (when the
Icon’s Node is attacked, for example), the conspiracy
may take that action without it counting against its
maximum number of conspiracy actions.
Conspiracy 27
 Divergence Projects: When to Roll
The purpose of assigning dice to these Projects is to emphasize the inherent uncertainty of dabbling in
Divergence. It assumes that some troupes will at least consider initiating Divergence Projects of their own,
and puts the risk of mass casualties on the players. The Storyteller, of course, need not roll (or call for a
roll) in cases where the Divergence Project’s success or failure furthers the narrative.
Projects
Projects are the main enterprise of conspiracies, the
means by which they realize their ambitions, be they noble
or terrible, lofty or petty. Most Projects fall into one of a
handful of broad categories.
Divergence Projects
Conspiracies recruit or create new Remade in any
number of ways, expanding the ranks of their Devoted. By
default, such Broken have total Magnitude of Variations
(including one from Origin) based on the conspiracy’s
Standing (3 at Standing 1, 6 at Standing 2, etc.), com-
mensurate Scars, and other traits as a starting Deviant
character. Depending on the circumstances, adjust these
base traits as follows:
Inferior: Subtract 1 Attribute dot, 3 Skills, and 2
Magnitude of Variations.
Typical: Use the default traits based on Standing.
Acquainted: Add 2 Attribute dots, 5 Skills, and 2
Magnitude of Variations.
Personal: Add 3 Attribute dots, 8 Skills, and 4
Magnitude of Variations.
Obsessive: Add 4 Attribute dots, 12 Skills, and 6
Magnitude of Variations.
Manticores a conspiracy creates or recruits likewise vary
in potency based on the Manticore Companion Merit —
from 1 to 5 dots.
Even the most methodical and experienced Progenitor
working under ideal conditions cannot entirely eliminate
the random factors that go into the Divergence, and re-
cruiting existing Remade is no less uncertain.
All Divergence Projects can range in Complexity from
1 to 10, which is also the dice pool used to determine the
outcome of the Project. Each specific type of Divergence
Project includes one or more potential exceptional success
effect. A conspiracy can “bake in” some of these effects
by accepting a –2 penalty to this roll for each effect, but
the total penalty cannot exceed the Project’s Complexity.
Privileges cannot modify these rolls, but Icons that reduce
the Effort required for a Project can.
28 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
Dice Results
Success: The conspiracy creates, recruits, or modifies
a Deviant. Any baked-in effects manifest.
Exceptional Success: As a success, and the conspiracy
chooses one effect appropriate to the Project type.
Failure: As a success, but any exceptional success ef-
fects the conspiracy attempted to bake into the Project fail
to manifest. In addition, the experiment either yields a
Renegade or Feral (who promptly escapes), or it produces
an Inferior Devoted (or 1-dot Manticore).
Dramatic Failure: The conspiracy’s experiments yield
no useful results — only dead and maimed test subjects,
laboratory explosions, and other unpleasant side-effects.
All Effort the conspiracy invested in the Project is wasted.
Breed Manticore
(Complexity 1-10)
Complexity X: Whether by means of cloning or a
literal breeding program, the conspiracy produces a new
Manticore of the same or lower potency (Merit dot rating)
and substantially similar Variations to one of its existing
ones (the “mold”).
Exceptional Success Effects
• Crossbreed: The conspiracy may choose two dif-
ferent molds of the same species (–2) or different
species (–4), producing a Manticore that possesses
natural traits and/or Variations of both.
• Productive: The conspiracy creates two Manticores
instead of one. If “baked-in,” each –2 penalty
doubles the number of Manticores the Project
produces.
Create Manticore
(Complexity 1-10)
Complexity X: The conspiracy creates a new kind of
Manticore. If successful, this experiment produces a 2-dot
Manticore with Variations over which the conspiracy exerts
only limited control. Manticores are slightly less likely to die
during or shortly after the Divergence than are human subjects.
Exceptional Success Effects
• Masterpiece: The resultant Manticore’s capabilities
exceed the conspiracy’s expectations — equivalent
to a 3-dot (–2), 4-dot (–4), or 5-dot (–6) Manticore
Companion.
• Tailored: The conspiracy has greater control over
the Scars and Variations the Manticore manifests,
choosing a number of Variations no greater than
its Standing.
Expand Line (Complexity 1-10)
Complexity X: The conspiracy uses a known method-
ology to produce a Deviant that is very similar to one of
its existing Devoted (the “mold”). These Broken possess
substantively similar Variations and Scars to the mold but
are never more powerful. Their Scars and Variations are
the same as those of the mold, but sometimes at lower
Magnitude. The Project’s originating Node must be the
same as that to which the mold has been assigned, but the
new Devoted may be assigned to any of the conspiracy’s
Nodes. Expanding a line is by no means safe, but it tends
to kill and maim significantly fewer subjects than creating
a new one.
Exceptional Success Effects
• Iterate: The resultant Broken is one step more
potent than the template (Personal instead of
Acquainted, for example).
• Methodical: The conspiracy takes great care with
its test subjects (or gets lucky). Its first experiment
is a success. If it had several test subjects, only one
Diverges, but the other attempts merely fail without
causing the subjects any lasting damage.
• Productive: The conspiracy creates two Devoted in-
stead of one. If “baked-in,” each –2 penalty doubles
the number of Devoted the Project produces.
Launch Devoted Line
(Complexity 1-10)
Complexity X: The conspiracy develops a new strain of
Remade, using its existing knowledge of the Divergence.
The new Broken must be of the same Clade as one of the
conspiracy’s existing Devoted.
If the experiment succeeds, the new Remade is Typical.
The conspiracy has little control over which Scars or
Variations manifest, and several test subjects will die over
the course of implementing the Project. The Project’s
originating Node must be appropriate to the task (a labo-
ratory or hospital, for example, but not an accounting
department or the local mafia), but the new Devoted may
be assigned to any of the conspiracy’s Nodes.
Exceptional Success Effects
• Breakthrough: The resultant Remade may be of any
Clade. A conspiracy that currently has no Devoted
may not create new Devoted except by means of this
effect.
• Masterpiece: The resultant Broken’s capabilities
exceed the conspiracy’s expectations. The Deviant
is Acquainted (–2), Personal (–4), or Obsessive (–6).
• Methodical: The conspiracy takes great care with its
test subjects (or gets lucky). Its first experiment is a
success, producing a Deviant. If it had several test
subjects, only one Diverges, but the other attempts
merely fail without causing the subjects any lasting
damage.
• Tailored: The conspiracy has greater control over
the Scars and Variations the Deviant manifests,
choosing a number of Scars and/or Variations no
greater than its Standing.
Recruit Devoted
(Complexity 1-10)
Complexity X: The conspiracy recruits a Remade op-
portunistically but does not take time to screen this new
asset. These Typical Deviants come with significant com-
plications. They might be Renegades forced into service,
Ferals only nominally under conspiracy control, former
Devoted of rival conspiracies whose original employers
want them back, current agents of rival conspiracies on
missions of infiltration and sabotage, Devoted with danger-
ous levels of Instability, or Inferior Broken. The Project’s
originating Node must be the same as that to which the
new recruit is assigned.
Exceptional Success Effects
• Screening: The conspiracy takes greater care in the
recruitment process, avoiding the most obvious
spies, saboteurs, and unstable personalities.
• Targeting: The Inferior complication is not available
with this effect. The recruit is instead Acquainted
(–2), Personal (–4), or Obsessive (–6).
Conspiracy 29
 Reprogram Devoted
(Complexity 1-10)
Complexity X: The conspiracy attempts to modify
one of its Devoted’s Variations or Scars. Unlike other
Divergence Projects, the exceptional success effect cannot
be baked into this type of Project.
Roll Results
Success: Replace one Variation or Scar (including
its Deviations) the Deviant possesses with one of equal
Magnitude. This can instead adjust the specifics of a vari-
able Scar or Variation — such as the Deviations of a Phobia
or the triggers and responses of Subliminal Conditioning.
Exceptional Success: As a success, and the conspiracy
may reduce the Magnitude of a Scar by 1. If this would
result in an illegal number of entangled Variations, the
Broken loses enough Variation Magnitude to make it
legal. If this reduces a Scar’s Magnitude to 0, the Scar is
eliminated (as are any entangled Variations). This cannot
cure Divergence; even if it removes all a Deviant’s Scars,
the damage to his soul remains.
Failure: The attempt fails, inflicting a medium
Instability on the Remade.
Dramatic Failure: As a failure, but it inflicts a major
Instability instead.
Expansion Projects
Conspiracies crave power, and many of the Projects
they undertake focus on expanding that power. A con-
spiracy cannot directly increase its Standing through
such Projects, and it must remain within the maximum
Attribute ratings and number of Hierarchical Nodes for
its Standing, but it otherwise suffers no limits to the
number of Nodes, Icons, Privileges, or Attribute dots it
can purchase. In a Devoted-focused chronicle, if a con-
spiracy’s number of Nodes and Icons, as well as its total
Attribute points, equals or exceeds that of a conspiracy
of a higher Standing, the conspiracy immediately gains
a point of Standing.
For example, a Standing 1 conspiracy in a Devoted-
focused chronicle that has 3 Nodes, 1 Icon, and 8 Attribute
points automatically expands itself to Standing 2 as soon
as it has at least 5 Nodes, 1 Icon, and 10 Attribute points.
In a Renegade-focused chronicle, conspiracies can
advance themselves in this way, but take the number of
additional Deviants into consideration when calculating
this minimum.
For example, a Standing 1 conspiracy in a Renegade-
focused chronicle with 2 additional Deviants begins with 5
Nodes, 1 Icon, and 12 Attribute points. In order to reach
30 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
Standing 2, the conspiracy would need to have at least 7
Nodes, 1 Icon, and 14 Attribute points.
Acquire Icon
(Complexity 3, 5, or 10)
The conspiracy acquires, develops, or creates a new
Icon. The Complexity of the Project depends on the num-
ber of Icons the conspiracy has relative to its Standing. It
is Complexity 3 if the conspiracy has fewer than its usual
number of Icons (such as a Standing 3 conspiracy with
only 1 existent Icon). It is Complexity 5 if the conspiracy
has exactly as many Icons as is normal for its Standing
(i.e. a Standing 3 conspiracy that already has 2 Icons). It
is Complexity 10 if the conspiracy’s collection of Icons
already exceeds its normal number (i.e. a Standing 3
conspiracy that has 3 or more Icons but wishes to acquire
more).
Assimilate/ Establish/
Replace Node (Complexity
1, 5, 7, or 10)
Complexity 1: Assimilate a rival conspiracy’s aban-
doned Node, an orphaned Node, or Node within an
orphaned cluster. The acquiring conspiracy may choose
a new Linchpin for the Node. If two conspiracies attempt
to assimilate the same Node, both make a contested Power
roll to determine which succeeds; on a tie, neither suc-
ceeds, although they may continue to contest in future
chapters by spending more Effort.
Complexity 5: Replace a previously destroyed
Temporal, Exploitative, or Structural Node, complete with
Linchpin and Privilege (if applicable).
Complexity 7: Replace a previously destroyed
Hierarchical Node, complete with Linchpin and Privileges.
Complexity 10: Establish a new Node, complete with
Linchpin and Privileges (if applicable). The number
of Hierarchical Nodes cannot exceed the conspiracy’s
Standing.
Increase Attribute
(Complexity 10)
Increase Power, Finesse, or Resistance by 1.
Purchase Privilege
(Complexity 3)
The conspiracy grants a new Privilege to one of its
connective Nodes.
Management Projects
Conspiracies reconfigure the resources at their disposal.
Forge/Sever Connection
(Complexity 1)
The conspiracy forges or severs a connection between
two of its Nodes, creating or removing a direct connection
between them.
Implement Reform
(Complexity 1-10)
In response to a collective crisis of faith, the conspiracy
abandons one of its Principles or Anchors in favor of a
new one. The conspiracy must have either suffered a cri-
sis point (if of Standing 5 or less) or performed a purge
(regardless of Standing) during the preceding chapter in
order to complete this Project, although it may invest
Effort toward it before the crisis arrives.
The Project’s Complexity is equal to the conspiracy’s
Standing — or twice its Standing if it only suffered a cri-
sis point. If the cohort generated the Effort to complete
this Project, the players may choose the new Principle
or Anchor. Otherwise, the Storyteller should determine
the new trait based on the needs of the story (possibly in
consultation with the players).
Modify Node
(Complexity 3 or 5)
Complexity 3: Change an existing Node’s type to
Exploitative, Structural, or Temporal.
Complexity 5: Change an existing Node’s type to
Hierarchical. The number of Hierarchical Nodes cannot
exceed the conspiracy’s Standing.
Reassign Devoted
(Complexity 1)
The conspiracy assigns one of its non-Linchpin
Devoted to another Node.
Relocate Node (Complexity 3)
The conspiracy moves the assets of a Node from one
place to another, leaving behind little or no evidence. This
resembles an Expel-type purge (Deviant, p. 234) in that it
prevents enemies from tracing connections between the
Node and the rest of the conspiracy, but it doesn’t destroy
the Node — only moves it to a new location.
Reorganization
(Complexity 1, 3, or 5)
The conspiracy reassigns seasoned managers to divi-
sions that have suffered significant attrition and makes
a special effort to recruit new agents to replace the ones
it has lost.

Conspiracy 31
 Complexity 1: Heal a point of bashing damage to
Association.
Complexity 3: Downgrade a point of lethal damage to
Association to bashing.
Complexity 5: Downgrade a point of aggravated dam-
age to Association to lethal.
Transfer/Exchange/Promote
Linchpin (Complexity 1 or 3)
The conspiracy reassigns one of its Linchpins (includ-
ing Devoted) from one Node to another or exchanges
two Linchpins.
Complexity 1: Transfer or exchange from one
Temporal, Exploitative, or Structural Node to another (or
from one Hierarchical Node to another).
Complexity 3: Reassign from a Temporal, Exploitative,
or Structural Node to a Hierarchical Node (or vice versa).
Transfer Icon (Complexity 1)
The conspiracy moves one of its Icons from its current
Node to another Node.
Narrative Projects
Narrative Projects trigger events that shape the current
direction of the chronicle. Most are abstract, rather than
having hard mechanics to guide them, and they are gener-
ally longer-lasting than a conspiracy action can achieve. A
conspiracy action could bring an Environmental Tilt into
play for the duration of a single scene, for example, but
it takes a Narrative Project to cause a hurricane to make
landfall, with all the initial impact of such a catastrophe,
as well as the secondary effects once the storm passes.
Most Narrative Projects have an impact of a scale com-
mensurate with the Standing of the conspiracy executing
them — local at Standing 1-2, regional at Standing 3-5,
global at Standing 6-8, and otherworldly at Standing 9-10.
32 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
Most have an impact on several chapters’ events, usually
until the end of the story. Once a conspiracy completes a
Narrative Project, it cannot begin a new Narrative Project
until the effects of its current Narrative Project subside.
Local Projects affect a small area within the same city
as the originating Node. Regional Projects affect up to a
city-sized area within the same region as the originating
Node. Global Projects affect a region-sized area anywhere
in the world or a small area within the same otherworld as
the originating Node. Otherworldly Projects affect a city-
sized area within the same otherworld as the originating
Node or establish contact with a new otherworld (allow-
ing the conspiracy to place a Node there, with a separate
Establish Node Project).
Icons that reduce the Complexity of a narrow Project
can affect a Narrative Project, but the conspiracy must
define the exact nature of the Narrative Project the Icon
affects. An Icon that causes random natural disasters can-
not also trigger wars, for example.
Complexity 1: The Project produces a minor narrative
event (lasting a chapter instead of a story) of a scale one
step lower than what the conspiracy’s Standing permits
(global if Standing 9-10, regional if Standing 6-8, or local
if Standing 3-5).
Complexity 3: The Project produces either a minor
narrative event (shaping the events of a chapter) or a story-
length one of lower scale (global if Standing 9-10, regional
if Standing 6-8, or local if Standing 3-5).
Complexity 5: The Project produces a typical narra-
tive event.
Complexity 7: The Project creates a minor narrative
event (lasting a chapter) that impacts an area one greater
than its Standing normally permits (regional if Standing
1-2, global if Standing 3-5, or otherworldly if Standing 6-8).
Complexity 10: As Complexity 7, but it produces a sig-
nificant narrative event (lasting until the end of the story).
 With devotion’s visage and pious action we do
sugar o’er the devil himself.
— Thomas Fuller
Storytelling a Devoted chronicle presents a very
different perspective on the struggles, stresses, and
drama of Deviant: The Renegades. Where the Renegade
struggles to break free of a conspiracy’s influence, the
Devoted carves her own place within it. Where the
Renegade is hunted, the Devoted is the hunter. Devoted
chronicles are about the price of devotion to a cause, the
toll it takes from the Remade and those around her as she
submits her own fierce conviction to the conspiracy and
makes herself its tool. This chapter looks at advice and
approaches to storytelling a Devoted chronicle, including
rules for influencing a conspiracy from within and seeds
for stories set within a conspiracy’s grasp.
Charting Devotion
As with Renegades, a Devoted chronicle includes
stories with a wide variety of tones and styles. To narrow
down the narrative space the Storyteller and players may
want to explore, two new axes present a framework for
Devoted stories to go along with the Grounded/Flying axis
and Body/Mind axis (Deviant: The Renegades, p. 288).
The axis of Unleashed/Controlled measures autonomy
and describes how much freedom the cohort has, while the
axis of Constructive/Destructive measures the impact the
cohort has on the world in a positive or negative manner.
Separating these axes into four quadrants gives
Spearhead, where the Devoted are free to pursue
meaningful and even heroic goals; Monsters, where the
Devoted are a driving element of a horrific agenda; Agents,
where the Devoted serve a higher cause; and Black Bag,
where the Remade are weapons in the hands of those who
will not hesitate to use them.
Unleashed
Unleashed stories place the Devoted characters in the
driver’s seat. They have meaningful autonomy or influence
within their conspiracy and, at the extreme, may even be
the ringleaders of the organization. Unleashed stories are
about leadership, decision-making, and responsibility, the
opportunity to indulge one’s best and worst instincts, and
even to fully own the consequences of Divergence in a way
that radically departs from the usual Renegade experience.
Unleashed stories place the conspiracy’s power at one’s
fingertips and let the characters revel in it. They’re a taste
of freedom within the Remade condition and how the
Devoted takes that dizzying sense of liberty and makes
something of it — whether dream or nightmare. Ultimately,
these chronicles are about consequences. With the power
to chart their own course, what matters is the result of
the cohort’s actions. Unleashed stories test the vision that
drives devotion to a given cause.
Examples in Media
• The Avengers: They may largely lack the personal
horror of a Remade’s Scars, but the Avengers are
a good example of Devoted with potent Variations
who are at the helm of their organization and intend
to use their power for a good cause.
• Psi-Corps: The psychics of Babylon 5 are a powerful
conspiracy that’s leveraged legitimate authority to
further its own goals, and within which the Deviants
are essentially running the show and acting under
their own initiative despite notionally being answer-
able to a higher power.
Controlled
A Controlled story keeps the metaphorical leash tight
on the Devoted, placing them within a structure that they
cannot freely shape or change. A Controlled tale is about
having a place in something larger than you, whether or
not you easily fit into that place — and seeing whether you
play by the rules or choose to push back. The Devoted in a
Controlled chronicle are cogs in the machine, or weapons
in the hands of their master, and they’re expected to do
what they’re told. The resulting stories are claustrophobic,
as the conspiracy or Scars impose limits and restrictions
on who the Devoted are and what they can do. They’re
about the subtle and overt rebellions that may result, how
Synergy 33
 the Devoted keep true to themselves or break when denied
freedom and ordered to submit to a greater purpose.
Controlled stories test the actual devotion of the Remade to
a cause — just how great is their faith in the conspiracy, and
what sacrifices are they willing to shoulder on its behalf?
Examples in Media
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: A horrific tale of control
at every level. The young protagonists have to con-
form to a callously demanding regimen with no
allowances for childhood because the consequences
of failure are even worse, while the eponymous
constructs themselves must be rigidly constrained
within armor and programming lest they lose them-
selves in berserk fury.
• Equilibrium: Elite clerics capable of nigh-superhu-
man focus and agility serve a dystopian govern-
ment but are just as rigorously controlled as the
population they watch over. It’s a good example of
an arc that leads to a Devoted turning Renegade,
although one scene also showcases the possibility
for a Devoted to end up deciding they know best and
take control from the conspiracy’s earlier leader.
Constructive
Conspiracies often believe they’re the good guys of
the story, even if through the distorted lens of “hard
men making hard decisions” or in service to a “greater
good.” In a Constructive chronicle, though, a belief in
the righteousness of the conspiracy’s cause is likely to be
heartfelt and may even be backed up with evidence. The
Devoted in this tale are able to take heroic actions and
have a positive impact on the world, to struggle against
darkness and try to make things better. They go up against
genuine threats to innocence, freedom, or order, or take
down other conspiracies that pursue malevolent goals.
In the Chronicles of Darkness, even a Constructive story
likely features troubling choices, moral complications,
and outright horror, but it comes with a sense of hope
and the possibility for a better tomorrow — or at least one
that is no worse than today. Constructive chronicles offer
Devoted the chance to build something and to explore what
legacy they will leave behind after Instability or violence
claims them.
Examples in Media
• My Hero Academia: Although wildly more optimistic
and bright in tone than the Chronicles of Darkness
at even the show’s grimmest moments, it can be fun
34 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
inspiration for a conspiracy attempting to train up
its Devoted and encourage the flourishing of their
powers. It very much focuses on who these young
people might become and what deeds might they
accomplish with their devotion to heroism.
• Ghost in the Shell: Many of Section 9 would work well
as Invasive Remade, but they’re devoted to the cause
of Section 9 and its goals of maintaining security
in an increasingly chaotic cyberpunk world. The
various incarnations of the franchise showcase all
manner of human awfulness but set the protagonists
against it on the basis of their beliefs and loyalties.
Destructive
The darkest side of devotion, and perhaps the most
typical presentation of Devoted in regular Renegade
chronicles, a Destructive story positions the cohort as a
source of harm for the world. The characters sow chaos
and death for reasons that are ultimately selfish, irrational,
or monstrous, even if they lie to themselves about being
justified in their actions. Sacrifices are made for the
“greater good,” innocents suffer, and those in positions of
power, whether institutional or immediate, indulge their
vices. Destructive tales can be extremely dark and must be
handled with even more care than a normal chronicle,
especially where they tread around sensitive topics. A
destructive tale can be an opportunity, like a Controlled
chronicle, to test characters’ devotion and principles — and
to tell a story of Devoted who step back from the brink,
say no more, and turn against their creators. Destructive
chronicles invite the Devoted to tear things down and
then examine the cost to both Remade and their victims
amid the aftermath and the rubble.
Examples in Media
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Bucky is a fine
example of a controlled but destructive Devoted,
wielded as a weapon by people who believe they
are on the right side of history but who ultimately
don’t hesitate to strip a human being down to a
tool of murder.
• Serenity: The Operative is a terrifying example of a
true believer Devoted who is absolutely convinced
he acts for the greater good but who is, ultimately, a
total monster. He believes that his destructive path
will clear the way for others to later build something
new, and he’s totally at peace with the fact that he’ll
never be one of those creators.
Cross-Referencing
The four ends of the axes present extremes, but there’s
plenty of space along the sliding scale to emphasize any
of these aspects within a chronicle — or to change them
over time. By setting the two axes alongside each other,
it’s possible to define four broad quadrants within which
a Devoted story is likely to sit.
Spearhead stories combine Unleashed and Constructive
themes to create the most optimistic and liberating of
Devoted chronicles. They put the player characters in a
position of authority or freedom to act and present them
with problems they can tackle to potentially achieve a
genuinely good outcome. At the farthest extreme, this
is literally a superhero team with a few more drawbacks
than normal, but in the Chronicles of Darkness it probably
means the Devoted engage in a gritty and brutal struggle to
tear down the corruption of other conspiracies and hold
back the darkness for another day. What matters is that
the Devoted are the ones actively pushing the endeavor
forwards with a hopeful or benevolent agenda.
Monster stories combine Unleashed and Destructive
themes to create dark tales of horror placing the player
characters in the driver’s seat of an unfolding car crash.
Everywhere one looks, there’s blood, guts, horror, and the
erosion of humanity. The Devoted might manage to veer
into anti-heroism if the destruction is targeted at those
who are even worse than them, or if they’re shouldering
an awful burden to fight fire with fire. However, most
monster stories are about the collapse of ethics and the
rising Instability caused by Devoted willing to sacrifice
anything for their agenda, whether it’s a price they will
pay themselves or a toll they extract from the world and
people around them.
Agent stories combine Controlled and Constructive
themes to create classic stories of people trying to do good
in a bad — or at least difficult — situation. The Devoted
act at the behest of someone else, and they have to trust
in the good intentions of that higher power. Exercising
their own autonomy to influence the outcomes of their
work might make things better, but breaking the rules risks
backlash. Agent stories are about how much the Devoted
buy into the agenda they’re serving on the front line of,
and where they choose to push back or engage in subtle
subordination in accordance with their own principles.
Black bag stories combine Controlled and Destructive
themes to create grim stories of dehumanizing horror,
where the Devoted are the perpetrators of a dark agenda
but not its masterminds. They kill, sabotage, or corrupt
at the beck and call of their conspiracy, bringing ruin
and chaos because it suits the whims of those who hold
their leash. The Devoted are tools or weapons, and while
they might even believe in the conspiracy’s agenda, the
conspiracy will never believe in them; they exist to further
its goals. At best, the Remade might find some satisfaction
in their dark work or break free of the shackles entirely.
If neither happens, they’ll slowly be ground down by the
conveyor belt of atrocities they must perpetrate.
Seeds of Devotion
While a Devoted chronicle could take almost any
conceivable shape, Storytellers can find a selection of
suggested ideas here, either to use as-is or as a launchpad
for further inspiration. These chronicle seeds can be mixed
together, and a given chronicle might move from one to
the other during its course as the stakes rise or nature of
the threats change. A first arc might pitch the Devoted as
mercy-killers before shifting to policing secrets in a second arc
when internal discord risks toppling the conspiracy. Even
the apparent constants of playing a Devoted character —
serving a conspiracy and pursuing Renegades — can be
subverted or cast in a new light.
Conspiracy Wars
In a conspiracy wars chronicle, the Devoted are part of a
conspiracy caught up in a conflict with its rivals in the Web
of Pain. This chronicle is about war, whether it’s conducted
via blood and bullets in back-alleys and forgotten places,
concrete facility corridors and grimy warehouses, or sterile
boardrooms and glittering soirees where every smile is a
blade. The Devoted are soldiers, leading from the front or
thrust into the line of fire by their superiors, and they’re
expected to destroy.
The key element of this chronicle is a compelling
roster of rival conspiracies. The Storyteller can ensure
the conflict makes sense and the Devoted feel motivation
to engage in it by designing these peers with deliberately
clashing Anchors and Principles. One rival might be a
polar opposite, its every Principle outright blasphemous to
the player characters’ conspiracy, but rivalry can also build
off the back of similarity by presenting two conspiracies
that might otherwise closely align with a resource that only
one of them can have. If the rivals are splinters from one
original organization, their struggle over who gets the vital
asset needed to fuel their shared methods of Divergence
is going to be a bitter one.
This cascades down into the Linchpins and Devoted
of the enemy conspiracy. Give each one a name, a face,
and a specific wrong done to the cohort’s conspiracy
that makes it feel personal. Enemy Devoted work well as
Synergy 35
 foils if they have powers that reflect or contrast against the
player characters’, and if the conflict’s already underway,
the Storyteller may even be able to justify Devoted who are
quite literally tailored to fight the cohort.
Renegades are something of an afterthought in a
chronicle like this, but there are interesting stories around
allied Devoted who can’t take it anymore and flee because
they want out of the struggle, as well as Renegades who
formerly served the other side — and who might be recruited
to fight against their erstwhile masters.

In from the Cold

An in from the cold chronicle pitches the Devoted as
shepherds or hunters, seeking out Renegades or stranded
Remade left behind by ruined conspiracies and trying to
recruit them. The cohort might be motivated by genuine
empathy for the lost children of Divergence and desire to
give them a new home, but they’re more likely gathering
recruits for the greater purpose of the conspiracy — so the
Storyteller needs to think on just what the conspiracy
intends to do with all these Broken.
This chronicle focuses on search and negotiation.
It’s about surveillance, tracking down people who don’t
want to be found, and communicating with them. The
talking might be down the barrel of a gun, but in from the
cold focuses on gathering and rehabilitating Renegades,
with deaths marking a failure on the cohort’s record. The
Storyteller should focus on compelling Remade targets who
are complex characters that the Devoted can research. Let
the players feel out the drives and levers that shape how
the Renegade lives and acts, and reward them for clever
psychological moves exploiting what they’ve discovered.
The conspiracy’s own relationship with the Renegades in
question adds a further layer of detail and complexity to
the situation. If the Devoted chase down Renegades
the conspiracy itself created, this will be a story
of bitterness, of promises unfulfilled and hopes
unmet —whether the Devoted are making right what
came before or coaxing other victims into a pyramid
scheme that they’ll benefit from. If the Renegades were
born by the Divergence of other conspiracies, though,
this becomes a chronicle of exploration and discovery,
presenting the Devoted with all the strange and horrific
manifestations of power that Deviants can wield.

Men in Black
A men in black chronicle sets the Devoted up as the
bulwark between the conspiracy and discovery. They’re
leg-breakers, cleaners, and covert agents whose job is to
maintain the veil behind which the conspiracy operates.

36 THE DEVOTED COMPANION

If the conspiracy is rich in resources, the Devoted may
actually work in the same manner as the eponymous
men in black, with a support structure of black vans and
powerful authority to remind people when to keep their
eyes closed and mouths shut. For a less-well-embedded
conspiracy, it might be a desperate game of stealing away
incriminating evidence or torching hastily-abandoned labs
even as the sirens wail in the distance.
This chronicle is about manipulation and control.
The Devoted may not be giving the orders, but their
responsibility is to investigate and cover up the conspiracy’s
fuck-ups, or to guard prized assets from close scrutiny.
On one hand, they might be figures of terror — given the
authority to tidy up loose ends with terminal prejudice,
enacting destruction to conceal one crime beneath
another, and presenting frightened civilians with the grim
face of a power they know lurks just beneath the surface of
the world but which they’ve never wanted to acknowledge.
On the other hand, the chronicle could run a path of black
humor. The Devoted are here because someone screwed
up again, an insane project to mutate tree frogs into attack
animals has broken loose, everything is on fire, and the
cohort has the shit job of cleaning up the mess.
The conspiracy itself is front and center of this
chronicle, and it needs either enough abrasive surfaces
rubbing up against the public that risk too much scrutiny
or a conspiratorial world that’s rich in rivals who are just
waiting to pounce if they spot a weakness. In short, it needs
threats to its masquerade, or else the Devoted won’t have
much to do. The conspiracy’s Devoted are likely tailored
to the more subtle roles this requires — they might be
killers, but they’re probably not going to turn into giant
monstrosities unless the conspiracy needs that sort of
power to wrestle the escaped mutant alligators back into
cages again.
Renegades play an interesting role in this sort of
chronicle, because they can be both the source of breaches
that need sealing and the interested parties whom the
Devoted must fend off. Remade who are circling the
conspiracy, looking for signs of its operations to attack,
are the Sword of Damocles the cohort needs to protect the
conspiracy from. If they screw up, the consequences will be
immediate and brutal for their Baseline co-conspirators.
Mercy-Killers
A mercy-killers chronicle is a story of violence, death,
and regret. The Devoted are set on the trail of destructive
Renegades — or even other kinds of supernatural creatures
whom the conspiracy deems a threat — and tasked with
taking them down. The only mercy they offer is a quick
death. The targets on the cohort’s list are not to be engaged
in negotiation nor offered salvation.
This chronicle obviously focuses on combat, but it
also involves a certain amount of investigation as the
team tracks down prey and maps out their vulnerabilities.
Depending on just how powerful the targets are in
comparison to the Devoted, story arcs may involve
relatively little actual killing — a team of operatives with
only modest Variations will need to plan extensively when
taking on even one demon or heavily-mutated Renegade.
The Storyteller should weave in emotional undercurrents
and make the targets more than just a name and a combat
encounter — flesh out the history and nature of each, the
sin or wrong decision that led them down a destructive
path, and what they still have to lose that drives them
to fight on. The chronicle shouldn’t be gung-ho about
murder, even if some Storyteller characters are an example
of the callousness that such violence can inure into people.
A story where the player characters question what they’re
doing, and why they’re doing it, will give even a monster-
of-the-week format greater depth.
The motivation and authority of the conspiracy matters
here. What reason does it give the Devoted to kill in its
name? What justification for murder does it espouse?
How much legitimacy does it even have to make such a
judgment? This needs to demonstrate a cogent rationale,
even if it’s just “our gore-red god from the clot-world
that shivers behind each moment of breath told us these
people will shed too much precious blood”. The rationale
doesn’t need to be immediately presented, though. There’s
interesting story fodder in a chronicle where Devoted are
just expected to kill without question and have to dig out
the answers as to why from within their own conspiracy.
Policing Secrets
A policing secrets chronicle has the Devoted focus their
attention on corruption within their own conspiracy.
This might be their intended purpose, especially if they’re
equipped with Variations that let them delve into secrets,
or it might be overlaid on top of another chronicle concept
where the Devoted or a powerful conspirator patron want
to root out dissent or unearth truths. The Devoted may
be tasked with firewalling sections of the conspiracy off
from each other, preventing a given Node from discovering
the secrets of others — or even working on a higher level
within the Web of Pain, doing the same across multiple
interacting conspiracies.
This chronicle focuses on investigation and likely
manipulation, but it’s also a story of revelation. Yes, the
cohort’s intended purpose is to root out corruption or
enemy agents, or control internal activities, but getting
elbow-deep into the guts of their conspiracy is the perfect
Synergy 37
 opportunity for the Storyteller to reveal those dangerous
secrets to the player characters themselves. Place vital
information in the hands of the Devoted, and leave it up to
the players how they choose to use the blackmail material,
discoveries about the conspiracy’s origin, or truth about
their own Divergences. Let them knock the house of cards
down, fortify its pillars, or haul themselves up to its apex.
In order for internal policing of this kind to work, the
conspiracy needs corruption and secrets to root out in
the first place. The Storyteller can focus on Nodes and
Linchpins, using the relationships between each to fuel
a story arc. Set the various elements in conflict with one
another, place them in competition over limited resources,
and make it personal. The story will have more weight if
the Director of the Office of Sclerotic Metamorphosis
has betrayed the conspiracy because she still bears an
unrelenting grudge over the fact it was her rival’s research
into Divergence, not her own, that was used to create
Devoted — who now rub salt in the wound by investigating
her. Fill the roster with likely suspects who have a litany of
flaws, grievances, or ambitions, so the Devoted always have
a surfeit of targets and can pry apart the social tapestry of
the conspiracy. Keep the hand of the conspiracy’s authority
hovering close by, ready to yank the cohort’s leash and fill
them with greater paranoia about the people above them
in the hierarchy.
This tale can offer a close-to-home view on the process
of going Renegade by presenting the player characters with
a story arc focused around a Devoted who is about to go
rogue. An investigation that leads towards a Renegade-in-
the-making can dig into why that character is about to slip
the leash and seeing how the player characters react to that
knowledge. Let them reflect on the similarities with their
own situation, and see whether the roots of disobedience
grow or if the Devoted affirm their dedication through
opposition to the Renegade’s tale.
Spinning the Web
In a spinning the web chronicle, the Devoted leave the
safety and comfort of their mother conspiracy to walk
the dangerous threads of the Web of Pain. They may be
infiltrators or saboteurs, injecting themselves into other
conspiracies to tear apart fragile social fabric, steal plans
and Divergence research, and parasitically drain a rival
of its strength. They may instead be envoys and proxies,
spokespeople of their conspiracy to its peers, and explorers
of hidden society.
This chronicle focuses on trust and, conversely,
suspicion. The Devoted are out there in the Web of Pain,
away from the foundation of their strength and essentially
operating behind enemy lines. They need to be able to rely
38 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
on each other and on whatever tenuous threads back to
their conspiracy they may still retain. The worst betrayal
comes from within, after all, and a cohort cut loose by
their conspirator-handler is fertile ground for a twist into
a Renegade chronicle. Well-chosen and well-portrayed
Loyalty and Conviction Touchstones are a crucial element
here, as they dictate whom the Devoted will feel the strain
of being separated from and whom the Devoted will feel
an incentive to risk lashing out at.
A spinning the web chronicle might involve some of the
old ultra-violence — especially when loyalties are tested
or infiltrators revealed — but it’s likely to focus more
on social interactions and cunning ploys. As a result,
the Storyteller needs to flesh out an interesting cast of
characters from other conspiracies and work to give those
conspiracies distinct flavor and depth so that each feels like
a character in its own right. It isn’t necessary to map out
all the Nodes of a conspiracy, whether prey or potential
ally — rather, what matters is a solid narrative spine of its
most outrageous Linchpins and most extreme schemes,
the kinds of things that the players will remember the
conspiracy for long after the story arc is over.
If the Devoted are infiltrators and spies, this chronicle
can give them a taste of Renegade life without requiring
rebellion. Once they’re working a deep cover, they’ll be
living a paranoid existence where any mistake could reveal
their deception. If they’re envoys or go-betweens, the story
could instead be one of tension and high stakes if the
conspiracy has a lot riding on the success or failure of a
pact, so that mistakes have real bite and the Devoted take
increasingly extreme measures to seal the deal.
Devoted Among
Renegades
Despite the apparent conflict between Devoted and
Renegade positions, it’s quite workable for a cohort to
include members of both “sides.” The Web of Pain is far
from monolithic. It’s a tangled mess of competing interests
riven by institutional feuds and grudges that can go back
decades or even centuries, and plenty of conspiracies feel
their success is mutually exclusive with that of their peers.
A Renegade can join purposes with a Devoted whose
conspiracy is highly motivated to go after the same people
she blames for her situation. It’s also valid for a Devoted
to seek Renegades outside her group, whether because her
own conspiracy simply lacks enough Remade to go toe-to-
toe with a target, or because she wants people whom the
target isn’t going to see coming.
Mixed chronicles are likely to see mistrust, and it
may even bloom into outright treachery. Deviants are an
unstable lot, and once the job is done it’s time to tie up
loose ends, bring in test subjects, or just settle any scores
that linger. A Devoted may find her superiors giving
orders to act against her allies that she doesn’t like but
has little choice over, unless she wants to go Renegade
too. A Renegade may see the Devoted as another link in
the chain to her, one that any surviving persecutors could
use to reach her.
Mistrust doesn’t have to become backstabbing, however.
Renegades could end up as long-term freelancers for the
Devoted’s conspiracy, earning sorely-needed supplies
or opportunities to hold back Instability in return for
temporary service without having to give up freedom.
Devoted might see Renegade friends as a pressure release
valve for their own troubles — a group of people who
understand and won’t judge, won’t demand things all
the time like the conspiracy does. This sort of enduring
relationship can be a tightrope where both sides tread
carefully lest they bring their precious arrangement
crashing down. It might also serve as the platform for
greater change yet, with Renegades shown a real cause to
become Devoted to, or a conspiracy finally pushing the
Devoted too far — and right into the arms of their waiting
Renegade friends.
Creating
Conspiracies
Every conspiracy starts out as a small group of people
who seek to create or harness Deviants in pursuit of their
shared goals. In some cases, those conspiracy founders
are Devoted — or, more rarely, Renegades. With enough
effort, and no small amount of luck, a cohort can forge a
conspiracy of its own, whether they build it on the rubble
of a defunct conspiracy, within an existing conspiracy
whose Nodes they have parasitized, or through a herculean
feat of recruitment and organization.
This system uses the mechanics in the first two chapters
of this supplement to provide structure for a troupe that
wishes to create a conspiracy of its own.
Step One:
Mission Statement
Before building a new conspiracy, its founders must
establish its Principles, Virtue, and Vice. Additionally,
at least one the founders must have the Devoted Form,
although each founder may choose to gain the Devoted
Form as part of establishing the new conspiracy’s
mission. This reflects the Deviant’s commitment to
the establishment and furtherance of the conspiracy,
which stems from a compulsion to build and be a part of
something greater, rather than an impulse to dismantle
and destroy.
At this stage, the conspiracy does not yet exist in any
mechanical sense. It has no Nodes, conspiracy actions,
Icons, or Attributes. However, the Storyteller may assign
the founders Objectives based on the proto-conspiracy’s
Principles and Anchors, which serve as the means by which
the Broken can accumulate Conspiracy Beats and Effort.
Storyteller-assigned Objectives usually reflect a distasteful,
unethical, or immoral task the cohort must perform in
order to further its establishment of the conspiracy. This
might be something like eliminating investigators, bribing
an official, or acquiring the corpse of a recently deceased
Deviant.
The cohort may choose to accept the Devoted Shackles
Conditions to exert some control over the Objectives they
are assigned (p. 42).
Step Two: The First Node
Having laid the foundation of their conspiracy, the
cohort may undertake Projects, although they must fuel
all such work using Effort they personally generate by
fulfilling Objectives. To progress beyond this stage, the
founders must control a Node. They can accomplish this
in one of several ways:
• Scavenge (1 Effort): The cohort locates and occu-
pies an abandoned or orphaned Node (or a Node
within an orphaned cluster). In some cases, this will
be a Node another conspiracy abandoned, but the
cohort can instead destroy a key connective Node,
orphaning a Node or cluster for easy takeover using
an Assimilate Node Project.
• Subvert (1+ Effort): By means of infiltration or a
carefully arranged accident, the cohort arranges for
one of their founders (or a close ally) to replace the
Linchpin of another conspiracy’s Node, parasitizing
it. The targeted Node remains part of the original
conspiracy, serving both conspiracies, until it is later
orphaned or outright conquered.
• Conquer (1+ Effort): This is identical to subver-
sion, except the founders take control of the Node
through open force. The target conspiracy therefore
knows that its Node has been suborned as it loses
control of the Node and suffers a crisis point. This
approach invites immediate reprisal except from the
smallest or most overtaxed conspiracies.
Synergy 39
 • Establish (10 Effort): The cohort creates a Node
from scratch using an Establish Node Project.
This typically requires significant legwork (and
comparatively monumental Effort), but it avoids
entanglements with rival conspiracies, which can
make it more likely that the new conspiracy reaches
critical mass.
A proto-conspiracy with a single Node counts as having
Finesse, Power, and Resistance of 1 and Standing 1 for
the purpose of calculating Association, resisting enemy
attacks, and recovering from damage. It still does not
generate its own conspiracy actions, but it can take them
as though they were excess actions (damaging Association).
The Node has no classification and so is always considered
inappropriate for the actions it takes, does not grant
Privileges, etc.
Step Three:
The Second Node
The founders establish a second Node using any of the
methods above, and the conspiracy begins to take shape.
• The cohort assigns three additional dots to the
conspiracy’s Attributes.
• The Nodes acquire classification, and one of them
must be Hierarchical.
40 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
• Each Node must have a Linchpin and may have
Devoted assigned to it. A member of the cohort
may purchase the Linchpin Merit (ignoring the
Status prerequisite); otherwise, the Linchpin is a
Storyteller character loyal to the conspiracy (not
necessarily to its founders).
• The cohort gains appropriate Conspiracy
Conditions (p. 41) based on their role within the
proto-conspiracy.
Step Four:
The Third Node
Once the founders successfully establish a third Node,
they complete the process of establishing a Standing 1
conspiracy.
• The cohort assigns two additional dots to its
Attributes, reaching a total of eight (plus any pur-
chased with Effort during the previous steps).
• The conspiracy is capable of conspiracy actions and
surveillance within its purview.
• Any cohort member with the Linchpin Merit gains
free dots of Status in the new conspiracy sufficient
to meet the normal prerequisite.
 Devoted characters can gain these Conditions in several
prescribed ways, but the Storyteller should also be open
to granting them when the flow of the narrative indicates
it’s appropriate. Crucially, the Conditions don’t have
to reflect a Devoted actually giving orders to others. A
Remade who is firmly under her conspiracy’s thumb might
still wield subtle influence through friends, blackmail,
or the strategic application of her Variations. Equally,
curtailment or denial of influence doesn’t necessarily
mean the Devoted is physically kept contained between
duties.
Devoted Authority
Your character has commanding authority or far-
reaching influence within the conspiracy. When she takes
a Social action focused on other conspiracy members, she
achieves an exceptional success on three successes rather
than five.
She can also expend this Condition as with Devoted
Influence (see below), but with the following modifications:
• A chosen Objective must be in line with one or
more of the conspiracy’s Principles or its Virtue, or
it must involve the Node to which she is assigned.
• The conspiracy action can be one that takes the
conspiracy over its action limit.
• Alternatively, she may block a conspiracy action
that involves the Node to which she is assigned,
although doing so inflicts a point of bashing dam-
age to Association. This can prevent the Node from
being destroyed as part of a purge (Deviant p. 234).
• Finally, she may gain access to recent surveillance
footage on a person, place, or thing of her choice,
as long as it is something the conspiracy would rea-
sonably surveil. This usually succeeds automatically,
but the Storyteller may instead resolve it as a sur-
veillance roll (Deviant, p. 227) if the target (or its
caretakers) have taken measures to thwart such
attention.
Resolution: The character spends the Condition for
control over the conspiracy or its assets.
Beat: The character’s authority or influence causes
others within the conspiracy to make one of their
significant problems (including the Scar of a Devoted
outside her cohort) her significant problem.
Devoted Control
Your character wields powerful control over the
conspiracy. When she takes a Social action focused on any
member of the Web of Pain, she achieves an exceptional
success on three successes rather than five, and she enjoys
the 8-again quality on such rolls within her own conspiracy.
She can expend this Condition as with Devoted
Authority, but with the following modifications:
• A chosen Objective may instead be in line with the
conspiracy’s Vice.
• The conspiracy action may originate from a Node
other than the one to which she is assigned.
• She may block any conspiracy action, not just ones
involving the Node to which she is assigned.
• She may surveil anyone or anything within the
reach of the conspiracy, not just those likely to be
of interest to it.
Resolution: The character spends the Condition for
control over the conspiracy or its assets.
Beat: The character’s authority or influence makes
her the target of intrigues or attacks from a rival, whether
within her own conspiracy or from the wider Web of Pain.
Conspiracy Conditions 41
 Devoted Influence
Your character has some pull or rank within the
conspiracy. She can expend this Condition to achieve one
of the following effects:
• When the cohort would be assigned a new
Objective, you may choose it instead. This Objective
must be in line with one or more of the conspiracy’s
Principles and must involve the Node to which your
character is assigned.
• You may choose one of the conspiracy’s actions for
the chapter. It must be one that involves the Node
to which your character is assigned, and you can-
not initiate a conspiracy action that would take the
conspiracy over its chapter limit.
Resolution: The character spends the Condition for
control over the conspiracy or its assets.
Beat: The character chooses to further an Objective
at the expense of a Touchstone or personal Aspiration.
42 THE DEVOTED COMPANION
Devoted Shackles
Your character has her influence within the conspiracy
uprooted or curtailed. The cohort cannot exchange any of
their Conspiracy Beats for Effort while any cohort member
has this Condition.
She can expend this Condition in one of two ways:
• You may suggest a significant complication for her in
the current scene that crucially affects the cohort’s
chances of success. If the Storyteller introduces this
complication, it resolves this Condition.
• You may convert a successful conspiracy action roll
into a failure (or a failure into a dramatic failure) in
a scene in which she is involved.
Resolution: The character expends the Condition as
described above (resolving it only for herself), or the cohort
achieves one of its Objectives (resolving this Condition
for all cohort members who have it).
Beat: The character suffers significant physical,
psychological, or moral trauma in the service of an
Objective.
 In the eyes of the Renegades, every conspiracy is
a tightly managed organization comprised of faceless
human monsters willing to commit any atrocity to
advance its malevolent agenda. It is an oppressive
structure bent on dominance through transgression.
The Devoted are its brainwashed zealots and lab rats,
its muscle and middle-managers, its magnum opuses and
messiahs. Whether they do so blindly or knowingly,
willingly or under protest, the Remade agents of
the conspiracy have surrendered their humanity in
the service of evil masters.

For those within it, though, the Web of Pain is not

so monolithic. Conspiracies distinguish themselves
from one another by their goals and methodologies.
Some pursue knowledge and power at all costs, but
others are motivated by higher ideals, for all that
they must make hard choices in the pursuit of them.
Within each conspiracy, individual personalities
compete against one another for limited resources
to further personal agendas — whether selfish,
destructive, or altruistic.

As loyal servants of their conspiracy and executors

of its will, the Devoted occupy important positions
within the Web of Pain. Their abilities alone make them
a valuable, often irreplaceable, resource. They are
single-minded and doctrinaire in their pursuit of the
organization’s Principles in a way selfish Baseline
agents cannot match. An ambitious Deviant who earns
a reputation for competence can attain a position of
considerable influence within the conspiracy — or
even become its master if she is ruthless enough. Who
would dare oppose her then?

This book contains:

• Expanded conspiracy mechanics, including guidance on

conspiracy actions, Nodes, Icons, and Projects, as well as
conspiracy advancement rules and the introduction of
Privileges — Merit-like benefits that flow from a conspiracy’s
Structural and Hierarchical Nodes.
• New Merits, Forms, Variations, and Scars especially
appropriate for Devoted characters, together with systems
for working within a conspiracy — whether as a Linchpin or
in another role.
• Storytelling advice for Devoted chronicles, complete with
additional storytelling axes and common narratives focused
on the travails of a conspiracy’s most loyal agents.