Threats

A threat is an ongoing problem that gets worse if the PCs leave it alone. Not every NPC, monster, or hazard needs to be written up as one — only the trouble that will grow if ignored. Threats are the prep tool the GM reaches for when something stops being a single scene and starts being a force in the campaign.

• After introductions. Look at the first-session notes for problems the players surfaced. Promote them to the appropriate tracker (rabble, wildcard, magical entity, etc.) at whatever level of detail makes sense.
• After a missed Seasons Change roll. A 7-9 already promises a threat-driven adventure; a miss may give you a fresh threat outright.
• After a session that introduced something which could cause trouble later. Capture it while the table's energy is still on it.
• When prepping a known adventure. If the PCs say they're going to do X, and X means encountering Y, and Y feels like trouble — write Y up before next session.

Don't do this during play. Threats are between-session prep.

Each type comes with its own list of GM moves. Skim the moves if the type isn't obvious from the concept.

• Villain — a single ruthless individual with the power to make life awful. Acts through minions; has backup plans. Sajra the Swyn, Anwen the Poisoner.
• Magical entity — spirits, Fae, gods, the Things Below. Lives and breathes power; mundane concerns are alien. Often bound by strange limits. Thornthumb, The Mindgem's Heart.
• Rabble — a group united by emotion, blood, or circumstance rather than shared purpose. Acts collectively. Crinwin warbands, raiding parties.
• Wildcard — an individual whose trouble is mystery, ambivalence, or split loyalty. The fallback when no other type fits. Nia, Tegwen.
• Beast — a creature acting from hunger, territory, or instinct rather than malice. A maddened thunder drake, a swyn in its lair.
• Institution — an organized faction with structure and purpose: a sect, a guild, a noble house, a militia. The White Hand of Three Coven Lake.
• Cataclysm — a worsening condition rather than a creature. Drought, plague, a creeping wood, a sealed-layer breach.
• Wandering monster — a roaming threat tied to a region rather than a place. Shows up when the PCs travel and the dice say so.

Write these in order; the later steps are optional.

1. Name and type. Distinguish it from every other tracked threat.
2. Tracker placement. Drop it on the appropriate page of the GM playbook.
3. Instinct. What it wants — a present-tense verb phrase: "to drag others into her search", "to maintain order at all costs".
4. Description. A quick paragraph including related threats and NPCs.
5. Impending doom. If the threat has momentum: the bad ending if no one intervenes. Subjugates the Hillfolk. Corrupts the spring. Walks the Stranger's Road.
6. Grim portents. The escalating signs that the doom is approaching. Each portent is a discrete event the PCs can witness, interrupt, or react to.
7. Stakes questions (optional). The questions you don't yet know the answer to: Can her link to the spiders be broken? Will the village turn on her?
8. GM moves (optional). Custom moves that further define the threat's behavior, on top of the type's standard list.
9. Player moves (optional). Custom moves the PCs can trigger when dealing with this threat.

Not every threat earns all of this. A wildcard NPC might be just a name, type, and instinct; a villain mid-arc deserves the full treatment.

Threats are how the world keeps moving while the PCs aren't looking. Each session, advance the grim portents of the threats the PCs aren't engaging — the doom approaches, the village changes, new opportunities and pressures appear. A campaign without active threats is a campaign without forward motion.

See the 16 seeded threats for worked examples: each one carries its instinct, impending doom, and grim portents in system_specific so you can run it cold.