Appendix B: Items & Tags

Every item in Coterie has a base type and a Tag line. The base types are:

• Artifacts
• Consumables
• Intel
• Miscellaneous
• Structures
• Tech
• Vehicles
• Weapons
• Wearables

How Tags Work & How to Use Them¶

Every item in Coterie is defined by its Tags, not a stat block or extensive description. A Tag is a short, plain-English descriptor in Bold-Title-Kebab-Case, strung together in a fixed order with commas as the glue. A handful of them tell you everything an object does, how it behaves, and what makes it worth caring about. Written well, they never need a lookup: the fiction and the mechanics are the same thing.

That being said, you'll find a full lookup table below, because it's better to just tell you exactly what things do and then let you draw your own conclusions from there. Storytellers are free to invent their own Tags if the big list doesn't cover something. All a Tag needs is a reason to exist, an evocative name, a concise description, and something to stick it on.

Don't Track What Doesn't Matter¶

Coterie has no individual ammunition tracking, but a dusty old double-barrel shotgun you find with Unreliable, 2-Use is fun & fine. No durability points or degradation meters — just use an Unbreakable version, duh. No weight in pounds (but Hefty is great).

Guns need reloading and swords don't, but reloading would classify as a Free Action anyway, so it rarely matters. If limited ammo is fictionally relevant for a specific weapon, that's what Slow-Reload and N-Use are for: "you get 2 shots per combat" is the right level of granularity. Anything more detailed than that is inventory management for its own sake, and this isn't that kind of game.

The Tagging Order¶

Tags sit around the item's name in a set grammar, with mechanical info first, item name and other fiction in the middle, economy last:

N-Harm → Range → N-Armor → Ignore-Armor → [Item Name] → Tags (standard English adjective order) → N-Use/N-Charge → Recharge-X

So picking up a 3-Harm, Close-Far Sawed-Off Shotgun, Compact, Noisy, 2-Use, means you know exactly what it is and how it works at a glance. N-Use or N-Charge are always penultimate, and Recharge-X always goes last so you always know where to look to figure out when you'll regain use of a recharging object. Remember those commas!

For those wondering, this is the standard English adjective order, which native speakers generally already know intuitively (if not academically):

Opinion → Size → Physical Quality → Shape → Age → Color → Origin → Material → Type → Purpose

This is why you always say "a big red latex balloon" instead of "a latex red big balloon" which just feels strange and bad. Just order Tags in the way that sounds right; it'll be close enough to get the point across.

What Makes a Good Tag¶

Every Tag earns its place by telling you something you couldn't already infer from the name of the item. These are the bars that each one ought to clear:

• Plain Language, Zero Context: If you can't guess what it does without a rulebook, it's worthless.
• Describes the Object, Not the Observer: Tags are intrinsic, observable properties. Noisy is real because the thing makes a loud sound, but "Intimidating" isn't on the list because not everyone will be intimidated by the same things.
• No Redundancy: If another Tag, a template (N-Use and the like), or the item's own name already says it, don't bother.
• No Defaults: Only the exception gets a Tag. Just about anything can be traced or hacked given effort, so only Untraceable and Analog are worth keeping around.
• Fiction-First Definitions: A Tag points at the fiction and lets it resolve specifics: "deals Aggravated Harm to anything vulnerable to silver," never a roster of who qualifies.
• Evocative but Clear: Speedy over "Fast" — personality is welcome; confusion is not. Clarity wins.
• Short & Sweet: Tags must never run longer than 3 connected words. If you can't express a property in 3 words or fewer, split it into 2 tags.

The Tag Line IS the Item¶

If you strip away the name and the description, the Tag line should be a fully functional mechanical identity. You should be able to hand someone a Tag line with no name and no description and they'd still know roughly what the object is, what it does, and what's interesting about it. 3-Harm, Hand, Piercing, Concealable is clearly a nasty knife. 2-Armor, Bulky, 3-Fireproof is clearly serious protective gear you nicked from a fire station. The name and description add color, the Tags are the skeleton holding it all up.

Mechanical Riders Are Fine (Within Reason)¶

A few Tags do hard mechanical things (Balanced, Modular, Nitro-Boosted). When they do, the effect carries a real tradeoff or a firm limit. A Tag should rarely be a pure upgrade you'd always want, but if you find such an item, it makes sense to want to keep that around. If you're a Storyteller who just wants a weapon to hit harder, don't invent a "Powerful" Tag, just turn 2-Harm into 4-Harm and/or stick Gruesome on there.

Categories Are Guidelines, Not Fences¶

The middle column says where a Tag usually shows up, not where it's allowed. A USB stick can be Holy or Infernal if the fiction supports it. "All" means it genuinely fits anywhere. Try putting a tag on an object that your players might not expect and see what comes out. A little 1-Harm, Sentient Pair of Scissors has never hurt anybody... and regretted it.

Tags Aren't Always Permanent¶

Plenty of Tags describe a state rather than a fixed property, and the fiction adds or removes them at will. An item is Hidden only while it's stashed (Powers like Ensconce and Cache do exactly this), Anointed lasts until its single use is spent, Marked until the insignia comes off, Stolen until the heat dies down, etc. When the fiction changes the object, change its Tags. It's just that easy!

Counts & Descriptions¶

Most items should have 1–4 Tags. Five is the comfortable ceiling; eight is the hard cap. Past that, the item probably shouldn't exist. Items also carry a free-text description for flavor, but no rules-critical information should ever live there. The Tag line should provide everything you need to know, even if you don't have all of these memorized. In fact, the whole point is that you don't need to memorize any of them.

Some Examples¶

Here's a handful of examples from some assorted categories to get you started. None of these have to exist in your game, but they could (and some arguably should, like Epi-Pens and cool jackets):

• Weapon: 3-Harm, Close-Far Sawed-Off Shotgun, Compact, Noisy, 2-Use (as above)
• Consumable: Intimate Epi-Pen, Compact, Healing, 1-Use
• Wearable: 1-Armor Leather Jacket, Sturdy, Stylish
• Artifact: 4-Harm, Far Wand of Fireballs, Incendiary, Magical, 3-Charge, Recharge-Dawn
• Weapon or Miscellaneous: 1-Harm, Hand Broken Bottle, Fragile, Improvised

Master Tag Table¶