Compact is the next iteration of the Annulus ruleset.

Classes
Enterprises
Inventory

Compact has a new ability system in place that is mostly similar to the old, but with a few key changes:

• Limited. The maximum number of abilities that you can learn is equal to your level. You cannot change your loadout.
• Level-Integrated. Learning a new ability happens as part of the level-up procedure and requires an appropriate keystone. It does not require any Supply. You cannot level up unless you have a keystone matching the ability you wish to learn, but can continue banking XP until you do.
• Condensed. Since you cannot change loadouts depending on the situation, many of the more situational abilities have been combined or empowered to make them worthwhile. Ability trees have six abilities in each instead of ten.
• Rebranded. Ability trees are now referred to as “classes”- if you use a bow, you've got one or more levels in the Archer class instead of the Bow tree. You can and should multiclass freely.
• Streamlined. All classes have the same ability structure: the root class ability and five different add-on abilities representing further training. You need the root ability in order to take any other add-on abilities, but that's as far as the nesting structure goes. Information blocks have also been redesigned to help you understand what your abilities can do more quickly and easily.
• Unlockable. You cannot learn an ability unless its class has been unlocked, even if you've got a keystone for it. Unlocking a new class requires research, which consumes keystones and (optionally) Supply. Once a class has been researched it gets unlocked for everybody in the campaign, not just the one who completed the research.
  • Keystones of a locked class can be sacrificed to allow research attempts. This requires a day of experimentation and cannot be done in the middle of a dungeon. Roll a die when performing research; if the result is a 12 then a breakthrough occurred and the class is immediately unlocked. If not, you can try again by sacrificing another keystone. Every keystone sacrificed for research permanently lowers the die number required for future research attempts in that class by 1 point- so the second research attempt for a given class only requires an 11+, the third a 10+, and so on. Research difficulty will be noted on the classes page.
  • You can also spend 3 Supply to make a research attempt. Unlike via sacrificing keystones, Supply-driven research does not lower the research difficulty if the check is a failure. 3 Supply can be much easier to come by than a relevant keystone, however, so the option is there.

The latest version of the settlements system is also rather different from what's come before.

• Retirement-Driven: Instead of being directly purchasable, settlements are primarily developed and customized via a different, somewhat more precious resource: retired adventurers.
• Enterprises: When an adventurer retires, they can choose to add one or more “Enterprises” to an existing settlement. Enterprises are useful effects that later adventurers can take advantage of like curio shops, schools, etc.
• Class-Dependent: Every enterprise effect is tied directly to one or more classes- for example, the Pantry enterprise (which feeds adventurers locally for free) is tied to the Chef or Survivor classes.
• Requirements: To create an enterprise on retirement, an adventurer must have at least three levels in a relevant class and spend 10 Supply. An adventurer can create multiple enterprises at once if they have the relevant training and cash for it. A relevant class can be tapped to create just one enterprise (unless it has been mastered with 6 levels in it, in which case it can be tapped twice for two different related enterprises). Classes with only 1 or 2 levels invested in them cannot be tapped to create an enterprise upon retirement.

• Flat Health. Vitality/Endurance/Flow no longer scale with level, and everybody from simple peasants to mighty dragons have exactly 5. Combat ratings (Melee/Projectile/Area) still do scale with level as normal.
• Universal Miss Chance. To make combats a little less predictable (and potentially more survivable given lowered health totals across the board) all attacks have a universal failure rate of 3 that stacks with all other failure chances. Even under ideal circumstances, only 75% of attacks will accomplish anything.
• Failure Chance Smoothing. Failure chances from all sources are all in multiples of 3 now instead of sometimes being 3 and sometimes being 4. 12s still always hit.
• Critical Formula Change. Critical hits no longer completely ignore defense, as this would lead to a lot more insta-gibs than before. A critical hit applies double Escalation to damage instead of normal Escalation (in addition to applying the Bleeding condition, which is pretty good all by itself).
• Injury. Creatures have a 50% chance of being injured every time they lose Vitality regardless of how much they lost and how much they have left.
• Misery. Mechanics for things like being hungry, tired, stressed out, low on sleep, cold, or traumatized are all rolled together into a single mechanic called Misery. For every 3 points of Misery you have, you lose 1 Vitality that cannot be recovered until you decrease your overall Misery. Misery can be slowly removed by resting for a day (-1 Misery per day, anything that would cause further Misery prevents rest). You accumulate +1 Misery from the following situations:
  • A day without sustenance
  • A day of unpleasant environmental exposure (too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, etc)
  • A night of poor sleep
  • Gaining an injury
  • Witnessing an ally's death
  • A day of forced marching
  • Being dosed with radiation
  • Etc