Player Characters can attempt to turn the tide in their favor by calling upon one of their core Traits: their Identity, Origin, and Theme.
For instance, a character might have Shadow Knight as their Identity, Gaonia Empire as their Origin, and Guilt as their Theme.
After performing a Check, a Player Character may spend 1 Fabula Point and invoke one of their Traits to immediately pick up one or both dice and roll them again, replacing the old roll with the new one. They may do so any number of times as part of the same invocation, but each new reroll (of one or both dice) will cost another Fabula Point.
You cannot invoke a Trait if your character fumbled the Check.
Scenario: Ricard the mage is rushing towards the docking platform of Sorcerer Antigles’ airship. His companions, Edgar and Valea, are held captive within the vessel. There are only a few seconds left before the airship lifts off; Nadia (the Game Master) asks Ricard’s Player, Mark, to perform a 【DEX + MIG】 Check with a Difficulty Level of 13: given that Ricard only has a d6 in both Attributes, the situation is pretty desperate.
Mark rolls the dice and gets a 6 and a 3, definitely not enough for him to succeed. However, Ricard has 2 Fabula Points left. “Ricard’s Identity is that of a Young Traveling Mage, which isn’t that useful here...” Mark frowns, “And his Origin is Malorn Village... which doesn’t help either. But... I could still use my Theme!”
“Tell me more!” Nadia inquires.
“Well, Ricard’s Theme is Belonging. He is terribly afraid of losing the companions he has found, of being on his own again. I think this will push him beyond his limits!”
“Okay! Makes sense. I imagine you're only going to reroll that 3, right?”
“Yeah, I'm hoping for a critical success here... oh wow! I just rolled another 6!!!”
"Which means you succeed automatically...! Care to describe the scene for us?"
Mark grins. "Sure! Oh, and by the way, here's the Fabula Point. So, the guards patrolling the area see a thin boy wearing a pointy hat plunge himself from the platform; but once the airship lifts off, there’s someone clinging desperately to the landing gear!... Uhm, I mean, airships do have a landing gear, right?”
Players should describe their actions in a way that is coherent with their Identity, Origin, or Theme if they want to spend a Fabula Point. Basically, you shouldn’t do this when it feels forced within the narration — but then again, you as a Player have final say on how and when you spend your Fabula Points.