Before time started counting, there was only blackness and the place of the angels. For the eternal instant that was before our time, the angels were creatures of perfection — occupied only with imagining wonders. Somehow, a great and terrible illness struck and the angels were grievously wounded. One by one, they withered and fell. As the last angel stood dying, she unlocked the mysteries of their immortal imaginings and, with the sweep of her arms the universe was born.

The world of land and ocean, of fire and rain, of creatures and men, came forth from nothing and the flow of time began. The souls of the angels were gone — passing to some other world or out of existence entirely. But their bodies remained. Perfect crystalline forms among the chaotic new world. The material of their remains: harder than stone or metal, as clear as any solid can be, always cool to the touch, and fairly dripping with power, came in time to be called Ice among the men of the world. The perfect bodies of Ice, over time and time, met the limits of their strengths. Cracks and breaks caused the form of the angelic bodies to vanish, replaced by rough, sharp chunks. These, in yet more time, were reduced to many, many small pieces. Relics of the dawn of time.

And men did covet the Ice. For with Ice — with the tiniest sliver of angelic power, men could accomplish great and unnatural things. But the Ice is too perfect for man to long behold. Too bright is this light from the dawn of time to gaze into without going blind. Those who too long sought to harness the power of the Ice forgot their connections to other men. Men whose great works benefited all others lost track of themselves, withdrawing inside, unable to connect or to care for others. They became islands among humanity, lost and adrift in the sea of men. Many went mad, simply stopped eating, and wasted away. Some, as it is told, turned to stone and their remains can still be found in this or that secret place.

In time, a caste of men arose to protect humanity from the blinding light of the dawn. Men who had a gift were born — able to sense the use of Ice from great distances and to sense one another, they banded together to form The Guild. To collect and destroy the Ice. To protect people from themselves. The early members of The Guild rounded up vast collections of Ice and did what they could to make it inaccessible. It is said that much was dropped into the deepest seas while some was buried in the magma of active volcanoes. While there are stories, there is no record of the actual destruction of Ice. And there are those — the naysayers, who claim that The Guild has merely stolen these relics from honest people trying to get ahead in order to maintain power. In truth, more than a few Guild members have met an untimely end at the hands of an angry mob, but each has sworn an oath of life to honor their destiny.

Ice is a game of story telling, role playing, decision making, and resource management. When you play Ice — no matter your role in the game, your job is to entertain your fellows. Remember this. It will improve your gaming experience. In a game of Ice, one player is the referee and has a number of special duties. The other players are each primarily concerned with operating their character in the shared game world. All of the players — including the referee, will sometimes:

• act "in character" when portraying the behavior of characters,
• generate outcome statements during conflict resolution that will guide narration,
• describe scenes in which one or more player-characters appear,
• provide input to any and all other players about each of these aspects of play or anything else — typically in the form of "it would be cool if this happened" statements,
• and manage character resources primarily (but not solely) during conflict resolution.

The referee's additional duties include:

• managing narration,
• adjudicating statement generation during conflict resolution,
• interpreting conflict outcomes,
• and awarding resources to the other players.

The player characters in Ice are Guild members. The defining characteristic of Guild members is The Sense. Each member has the ability to perceive an aura — a nearly subliminal tinge to perceptions of things touched by Ice. The Sense manifests as two special sensory powers: Foremost, they can sense the current use of Ice, sometimes from great distances. These characters know the exact direction in which the perceived phenomenon is taking place, the approximate distance to the point of use (to be described by the referee in vague terms that accurately indicate distance within a binary order of magnitude), and the number of relics used during the event. The number of Ice crystals used also determines the size of the aural disturbance and thus the range at which such detection can take place:

• One crystal will disturb the aura for about fifty feet,
• two for about a mile,
• three for fifty miles,
• and four or more will alert all sensitives in the world.

The second of these abilities is that those with The Sense can detect their peers. If one person with The Sense sees, hears, or otherwise directly perceives another, she will know it. Children who are born with The Sense are either: recruited by The Guild, murdered, or hidden very well.

A traditional icon of role playing games is the character sheet. In Ice, you almost don't need one. Mechanically, Ice characters consist primarily of a sack (or opaque cup, if that's easier) of six-sided dice. Writing the Character's name and history is easier on a sheet of paper, so you should go ahead and do that. It also gives you a good place to record the legend to your dice. Ice characters are described with a number of characteristics, each of which must be represented by a die color. For your character, you will choose what the characteristics are, how many there are and what weight each is given. Characteristics can be: personal abilities, vices, virtues, personality traits, skills, possessions, or anything else you can think of. The only limitation is that each must be indicated with a single word. These characteristics represent inner resources that you bring to bear when resolving conflict. There are definite advantages to having few and others to having many. In addition to the colors needed for representing your characteristics, you should also have a number of clear and black dice available to represent your Ice resources and your islandization. Each character begins the game with one Ice die and one Islandization die in addition to their twenty characteristic dice.

A conflict occurs when different characters in a scene want different things to happen or when the referee decides that something a player has just stated about her character's actions is difficult. Conflicts are resolved by drawing an equal number of dice from the bags of the involved parties, rolling some or all of those dice and then taking turns specifying outcome statements about the conflict that are ultimately synthesized by the referee (with appropriate player input) into a resolution.

The first step to resolving a conflict that your character is involved in is to draw the appropriate number of dice from your bag, unseen. The number of dice drawn for conflict resolution is determined by the complexity of the conflict. A simple static challenge is a three-die event. The vast majority of opposed conflicts will be five die events. The players and referee may choose an alternate number of dice for a conflict when it seems appropriate. As characters controlled by the referee (non-player characters, or NPCs) are involved in conflicts, the referee must decide where the dice originate. For important, recurring NPCs, maintaining an actual sack is most appropriate — particularly for NPCs bearing shards of Ice. For most of the average low-importance mooks that will be involved, this is impractical. In these cases, the referee should have an idea of the characteristics appropriate for the character and just take one fewer dice than the conflict calls for.

After drawing, but before rolling your dice, you have the option of putting any number of them back in your bag — reducing the number that you have available for your roll — but saving those resources for later conflicts. (Ice dice must be used when drawn and islandization dice are automatically put back in the sack — they represent the ineffectuality and self-absorption caused by the use of Ice provide reduced statement power.)

Once everyone has made their decisions about dice use, the selected dice are rolled. Consider the colors of the dice when making these decisions. If you want several small statements (which happen to be more likely to go first) then don't roll big color-blocs. If you want a single, more powerful statement, put back the singleton colors that you drew. And also consider the characteristic represented by the dice. That characteristic must be central to the outcome statement that you make with those dice. Read on for details.

After rolling the dice, collect them into groups of like colors. Each group will be turned into an outcome statement that will shape the referee's narration of the conflict. Each group has a number associated with it that is equal to the highest number rolled within the group. The lower that number, the earlier in the conflict resolution process the statement will be made. The larger the group is, the more broadly the statement may apply to the conflict and the environment. Any Ice dice that were rolled must be assigned to groups of other dice. They might make the group go later (by contributing a higher number), they will increase the breadth of scope for that group's statement and they must add a magical tone to the statement.

Whomever has rolled the most groups of the lowest number achieved (1<2<3...) is designated first conflictee and will begin specifying the outcome statements. When determining first conflictee, ties for most e.g. 'one groups' are settled by the largest 'one group', then most 'two groups', etc. If the tie ever runs all the way up through most and largest 'six groups', it should finally be settled in favor of the player closest to the left of the player who initiated the conflict. Once you have a first conflictee determined, you're ready to start generating outcome statements.

There are four variables affecting the outcome statements: order, quantity, scope and domain. We will deal with each of these in turn but remember that the following rule always applies: the outcome statement should be as brief as possible with only one actual effect.

These outcome statements will be made by the involved players in up to six rounds (usually fewer) — one for each possible die result. Starting with the first conflictee and proceding clockwise, everyone with at least one 'one group' will make an appropriate statement. The trick to this is making valuable outcome statements given the die-groups involved. Also note, each statement is constrained by the statements that came before. If another character swings a sword at yours, your next statement may address a response to that swing, but may not undo it. The first statement of a resolution is unconstrained in this way and allows for a great deal of flexibility. However, later statements may react to those early ones and tend to have greater scope.

When a player has more than one group of a number, she makes her first statement in the normal order for that round and the clockwise cycle continues until all statements are made for that number before advancing to the next. This usually means that one player gets an additional outcome statement after all of that number were made but could involve multiple players makeing multiple outcome statements all of the same number. When you have multiple groups of the same number you can generate your statements in the order of your choosing.

The scope available to an outcome statement is dependent on the number of dice in that group. When a statement is using only one die, the scope of the statement is personal — the statement may only regard the character's behavior (e.g. "Christine tries to kiss Dalton"). A color-group of two dice means the statement may include multiple characters on the statement-maker's side of the current conflict (e.g. "we decide that fighting about it is senseless" or "the smith and his boys get the upper hand"). A scope of three expands to include all the participants in the current conflict. A four-die statement may include any people local to, but outside of, the conflict (e.g. "a squad of the town guard rushes around the corner"). A statement with a scope of five can include any people or factions that are capable of affecting the conflict (e.g. "a revolt in the fields calls away the town guard"). Finally, in the event that a player rolls six or more in a group, that player's scope is essentially unlimited (e.g. "an active lightening storm blows in" or "The city these traders just left is plague-infested").

All outcome statements must make use of the characteristic associated with the dice rolled. Routine contact with Ice channels angelic power from the dawn of time. When Ice dice are included in a group, the outcome statement must account for the base characteristic rolled and include supernatural or magical elements. Acting as this conduit erodes the psychological filters that normal humans use to help in deciding how to react to varied situations. Thus, Ice users have extra personal resources to draw upon, but are only able to do so chaotically. This is an intentional challenge of the game and should be considered both: during character creation and when deciding which dice to put back in the sack after you draw. Also, for every Ice die rolled, a new Islandization die should be added to the sack.

After all the statements have been made (and notes taken, as needed) the referee will narrate the outcome of the conflict. She too, may not undo or ignore any of the statements. She should understand the intent behind, as well as the letter of, the statements made and narrate an interesting best-fit resolution. As always, all the players may make use of "wouldn't it be cool if..."-style statements to help the referee when the outcome is ambiguous.

The flow of the available dice is the real mechanic of continued character effectiveness. As dice are used in conflict resolution (i.e. rolled), they leave the sack of available resources. This is the primary reason that the ability to choose which dice not to roll is important. Islandization dice are gained through the use of Ice. Ice dice are gained through narrated acquisition of Ice crystals. (In most settings, this should be a source of play material, but not a real obstacle.) Islandization dice slowly leave the system. At the end of each game session, each player should remove one of these black dice before recording what remains for recomposition before the next game session. Ice dice leave the sack the same way they get there, by narrating the character doing something with their Ice. It could be as simple as giving the crystal to someone else, but there should be powerful in-game social obligations to rid the world of the Ice rather than just passing it off to some other hapless schmuck. Finally, regular characteristic dice are gained through award by the referee under three circumstances: Any scene in which a character is an active participant ends with the player adding a die of her choice to her sack. Whenever a player, through description of her character's behavior, dialog, reaction, etc arouses exceptional response (such as a round of "oooh" from her fellows) the referee should feel encouraged to award a bonus die of some appropriate characteristic — possibly a new one. And then, when a character is played in a way that is particularly evocative of a listed characteristic, the referee can award a die of that type. These awards can be a bit tricky. It is a matter for each group to find a satisfying set of criteria to follow so that awards are none of: too frequent, too scare, or imbalanced. Remember that all the players should always feel free to make suggestions to one another. This includes "reminding" the referee when such awards are appropriate.

Now you know the constraints on the setting placed by this game — the rest is up to you. Dark ages or renaissance, semi-historic or fictitious world, these are matters of aesthetic and left to you. The ultimate goal of The Guild — if not the player-characters in your game, is to return the Ice to the original, pristine, "dawn of time" state in which it was a force of beauty and goodness. You may choose to incorporate any of a variety of philosophies that deal with the metaphysics of Ice and angels or you may ignore those issues and turn the focus another way. The game leaves this up to you. Mechanically, the game will always be about how (and whether!) to use Ice responsibly.

You also know how to generate characters and resolve conflicts. You may have noted that there is no system in place for damaging characters. Damage is simply narrated. Any character can suffer superficial damage as the outcome of any conflict when appropriate. It is also up to the individual players to indicate through outcome statements or conversation that their character is available for more serious damage up to and including death. Injuries like these act as non-mechanical constraints on narrated play. There is only one circumstance in which the game dictates character death. If at any time, all the dice in a player's sack are Islandization dice (black), that player's character turns to stone. The player has full narrative rights to describe the exact circumstance of the transformation — given that she, again, may not undo any of the conflict that was just narrated.

As noted, the mechanics of the game focus on how to use Ice without losing yourself. As your character acquires crystals/shards/pieces of Ice, you should be adding Ice dice to your sack. Any time you get rid of a piece of Ice, remove one of these dice from the sack. As the characters (often, NPCs), engage in mundane (conflict-free) tasks, they have the opportunity to use Ice to aid them. Because the use of Ice is the point of the game, this use (how and why) and the results should receive some narration. Each time Ice is used for such a task, roll a die for each piece used. Whenever a six is rolled, add an Islandization die to that character's sack.

The selection of characteristics is a bit funny. Considering the extremes: a character with one die each of twenty types is certain to have a limited scope in conflict and has a much easier time gaining dice through play, while a character with twenty dice of one characteristic always knows what to be planning for, has the certainty of broadly scoped outcome statements (with only one subject) and the hardest time keeping her sack of dice fed. There are different kinds of power with different advantages and disadvantages.

In the first paragraph of the "Set" section above, you read that all players set scenes up. Here's how that works. The non-referee players should each request (or be prompted for!) descriptions of scenes in roughly (or exactly) equal amounts. Interspersed through these scenes are scenes framed by the referee. All the players will be expressing their agenda through the scenes they choose. The referee will also be weaving the stories of the players together and providing entertaining adversity.