Game Basics - Checks, Challenges, Contests and Combat

The mechanics, the means of physically playing the game, are sometimes the hardest, most arcane, and confusing parts. This section covers those mechanics as succinctly as possible. These come up throughout the material, but nowhere in as great detail as this section, so this article, while here in the full detail, will in other places be rehashed with a link back here.
The basics of Passages are this simple:
Players create Persona. Persona advance over time from their lowest values in the first session, and constantly improve toward the goal of Mastering the assorted Skills they choose to pursue. Interactions between the Persona and the environment, people, and situations take a variety of forms, all of which are outlined here. The shortlist of those forms are Checks, Challenges, Contests, and Combat.

CHECKS

Checks occur in the story when their success/failure affects the Conditions of a scene, the Director deems them necessary, and the Persona is not opposed.

A player may 'practice' any skill, but they will automatically succeed. That is the purpose of practice.There is no need to roll dice; you just do it. Note that such practice does not improve a skill; the skill must be used practically, in pursuit of the story, to be able to be advanced. However, the routine of practice does achieve the objective of 'time taken during a session' to qualify for pursuing a Treatise, and if still located in the location required, as Training, both with Director approval.

1. Calculate the DU and DD values for the intended skill. Double the Skill value for the DU, Halve the Skill value for the DD.
2. Use percentile dice to roll against the skill.
3. Consult the list below for relative success/failure of the die roll.

CRITICAL FAIL: A roll of precisely 100% means the Action fails. This applies even to Mastered Skills (95%)
BLOWN ROLL: A roll higher than the Double Up value. The Action Fails.
DOUBLE UP SUCCESS: A roll higher than the Skill BASE and lower than or equal to double the Skill BASE results as a DU. The Action partially succeeds.
SKILLS SUCCESS: A roll equal to or less than Skill BASE and more than 1/2(Skill BASE). The attempt succeeded as intended.
DOUBLE DOWN SUCCESS: A roll equal to or less than 1/2 Skills BASE value. The attempt is wildly successful, and the Director will embellish the result,

EXAMPLE: A player's Persona with a BASE value of 26 has a skill they wish to use. To prepare for the skill, you determine the DU (Double UP) to be 52 and the Double Down to be 13. Under these conditions, roll; a roll of double-ought(100%) would be a Critical Failure. Any other roll above 52 is a BLOWN ROLL. If the die roll is above 26 and up to 52, it is a Double Up Success. From 26 down to 14, the die roll would be a Skills Success, and 13 or below would result in a Double Down Wild Success.
So, in this case, a roll of 54 would Fail, a roll of 43 would be a DU Success, a roll of 25 would be a Success, and a roll of 13 would be a DD Success.

CHALLENGES

CHALLENGES are Actions hindered by certain circumstances, or specific Conditions decided on by the Director. Challenges use the Skill's Core Value.
Conditions like the environment (Sailing vs. wind storm, for example) might cause difficulty in delicate or precise actions. COMBAT is usually a CHALLENGE Condition, as would be inclement weather, the necessity to hurry an action that usually takes time, or other severe distractions. For this reason, most Contested Actions are usually only undertaken when time is of the essence.
For example, the Persona discovers a treasure chest below decks on a sailing craft sinking in a storm. If the Persona could wait out the storm, the check to unlock the trunk would be standard, but the Director deems it a challenge with the impending sinking. So, for comparison, the Lock-picking skill was at 32. In a Condition-free situation, the Player unlocks the chest with DU partial success at 64, success roll of 32% (DD Wild success at 16%) Under the Stormy Conditions, The Lock Pick Skill Core would be 7, so opening the chest would need a DU success of 14, a Success of 7, and a DD success would be only 3.
Note that that means even a Mastered Skill still has minimal chances of being done under adverse conditions. A Mastered Skill of 95 renders a Core of 19, a noodge over one in six cases.
Unless you created a skill of "opening a chest under duress" for your Persona, that is a different conversation.

CONTESTS

Contests are Actions opposed by another actor on the stage or Scene. The Director determines what is or is not a Contest. In essence, a Contest is when one skill butts directly against what might be considered its opposite. Some examples would be a hunter seeking someone trying to evade them, a horse race through a forest, or two folks trying to grab the last piece of fried chicken from the table.

Contests continue until one party succeeds and the other fails, one or both collapse from fatigue, or one breaks off the engagement by changing their Action to a non-contested one in a successive Turn. Chase scenes, cat-and-mouse stealth contests, and other dualities can be Contests, as well as magical duels (Magic Duels use Magical Resources rather than Fatigue if other than Natural Magics are employed - see the section on Magic Effects for more info).

Each Action is itself an exertion of skill, and each can be a Check OR a Challenge by choice of the Director. This is where the PARTIAL and WILD Success levels matter. Thus, both actors (or more than two, if the opposing actions are different enough to justify it) make their independent Checks as directed.
IF ALL PARTIES FAIL, the engagement continues, but all actors in the Engagement suffer one Tick of Fatigue. IF ALL PARTIES have the same level of SUCCESS, the Engagement continues, but no Fatigue is Suffered. IF ANY PARTY in the Contest rolls a lower level of success (DD over Success over DU), they suffer one Tick of Fatigue. (2 if DD over DU) but the Engagement continues. Once one succeeds and the other fails, the Engagement is over.
For example, one person is attempting to evade, and the other to pursue. Both have the appropriate skill. IF they both fail, they bot tire from the effort but are still engaged. If they succeed at the same level, they are still involved, but no fatigue results. If the Pursuer succeeds wildly, but the Evader only succeeds partially, the Contest continues, but the Evader suffers two Fatigue Ticks.
The loss of fatigue in this context represents the endurance effects of strident competition, so the Director can modify up or down the cost in Fatigue as he or she determines.

COMBAT

Combat is a specialized form of Engagement, and arguably the most challenging form because life is on the line; Conflict at any other level does not have the dramatic, energetic and dangerous feel of a physical fight. Thus the permutation of battles in Passages must also feel, seem as dynamic, and be as quick and effective in conveying those stresses. For combat to feel like a fight, to be effective in conveying injury and exhaustion, position, posture, and placement, it must be quick and definitive. Every Action happens in chronological sequence, and for play purposes, should happen all at once, but this is untenable in terms of gameplay. There have to be considerations to allow for more fluid functionality without sacrificing the fun.
So to accomplish this, the Game State in Combat is important before any Action takes place. It is a compilation of all results of the previous round, stated as if the clock is stopped on the fight, and the values tallied at an instant. This Resolution Point is when one Turn Ends and the Next Begins. So, the Game State is both the end of one and the beginning of the next.

• The Game State is an overview or reminder of every General Conditions of the Scene, each Persona's Health, Fatigue, Combat Eligibility and Combat Status
• Health and Fatigue are the current values of the Persona at the Resolution Point
• Combat Eligibility is the clarification of whether a Persona CAN continue the Combat into the next Turn. (Health or Fatigue at or below Zero, or the Persona is teleported away, for instance)
• Combat Status is a reminder of current Conditions each Persona is dealing with for this particular turn. (This includes terrain effects, injuries, etc.)

The Personae Status is then determined.

• Combatants state their Intent and Timing. Non-combatants declare their Actions only.
• The intent is the statement of which enemy they are engaging, what Condition they are attempting to inflict on that opponent, or what action they are taking that is not a Combat Action. Intent can be a simple injury, disarmament, to change Timing, to counter an adverse Condition, or whatever)
• Timing is a result of Combat Status, and modifies the Combat roll.

Timing is altered by Weapons mismatches, Skill imbalances, and Conditional Advantages

• Weapon Mismatches are most often size issues - a knife in a pike battle, a sword in an archery duel.
• Skill Imbalances occur when the inexperienced go against masters of military arts.
• Conditional Advantages might be fighting from a tower, shooting from behind cover, etc.

The COMBAT SEQUENCE then is as follows.

• GAME STATE- The director outlines the details, conditions, and positions of all known opponents and extras on the Scene at the beginning of the Stage or Turn.
• DECLARATION - Each Persona in the Scene declares to be IN, or OUT of the combat sequence. NOTE: Range weapons do not create a Combat Sequence unless their Opponent is also using Ranged Weapons.
• TIMING - Each conflict pairing resolves in order, with a roll-off determining success or failure of the Combat Action.

Like Contests, there is a hierarchy for determining the outcome.

• If both Actors miss, the Combat continues, and each suffers a Tick of Fatigue for the effort, which takes effect at the Resolution Point.
• If one Actor succeeds and the other fails, then the Actor's Intended Condition will resolve and the other's will not. Further, the succeeding Actor will not suffer Fatigue, but the other will suffer an injury and the attendant fatigue, plus one Tick for failing.
• If Both succeed equally, neither Condition will resolve, both will suffer a Wound but neither will lose extra Fatigue, and the Engagement Continues
• If Both succeed unequally, neither Condition will resolve, the greater will not suffer injury, the lesser will suffer the injury but not lose extra Fatigue and the Engagement continues.

Looking at the combat from the player side:
Failure will mean an extra point of fatigue, whether the opponent succeeds or not. Success means you will not suffer extra Fatigue If the opponent succeeds, you will suffer a Wound, and lose as many Wound and Fatigue Points as the Opponent deals in the attack. If you succeed greater than your opponent, you will not suffer the Wound. If you succeed and your opponent fails, you get to Resolve a Condition.

A Persona can be attacked (thus the object of COMBAT, without being subject to it. In these cases, they can still use non-combat Skills, but any such Action will be a CHALLENGE, not a CHECK.

Determine your Selected Defense and your Selected Combat skills. These can be general fighting styles (Bar Brawl, Soldiery, Street-fighting, that sort of thing) or distinct Attack modes (Cavalry Charge with Lance, Flurry of Blows, Rage). Further, they can be the same skills (Weapon and Shield, Dual-Hand style, etc.)
One's Selected Defense, in combat, is the combat skill you employ to defend yourself (generally, therefore, it will most likely be your highest valued Combat Skill, as that most likely expresses your best chance for survival). There are times when this is not true - for instance if you are Jousting or Dueling, or the 'combat' is ceremonial or something - but for most cases, it is. So your Selected Combat and your Selected Defense are often the same numbers.

Roll your Combat Roll and add your Selected Combat value. Compare the sum with the Selected Defense of the Opponent. If the modified Combat Roll is higher than the Selected Defense, the result is a 'Potential Wound.'

Magic Actions that are damage-dealing resolve into Magical Effects when the Attack Roll + Selected Combat > Selected Defense. Selected Defense is replaced by Magical Defense Effect when it applies, and Magical Combat Effect replaces Selected Combat when that applies.

Wounds, Fatigue, and the Effects of Damage

On the Persona Sheet, Wounds and Fatigue each has a track of 20 5% spaces.
Fatigue reflects the sheer capacity to continue to exert in combat. Even without injury or incident, every Action the Player takes in the game costs some Fatigue. Some are more strenuous than others, exerting more Fatigue costs (by choice of the Director), but generally, any Combat Action causes the loss of at least one 'tick box,' or 5% of Fatigue.

Unless a Persona invokes a Combat Skill, they do not exert themselves in the combat sequence. They may be wounded by others, but they do not, therefore, lose Fatigue based on their actions. Actions other than invoked Combat Skills allow the Fatigue Recovery Rule to apply unless the Skill explicitly says it exerts Fatigue.

Fatigue is recovered by choosing not to exert oneself in combat. Any non-combat skill taken during a Combat Sequence releases one 'tick' of fatigue loss. Specific skills remove more than one, and subsequent rounds of non-exertion releases even more.
When your Fatigue reaches zero, you cannot continue to take Actions other than rest. As you might expect, Recovery of Fatigue occurs when the Persona rests, exits the Scene, or has some Effect restore it. Mechanically, this means an uninjured Persona will allow the Player to make 20 different Actions before they MUST rest. A Single-Action Rest only recovers a small amount of Fatigue - 10% - but extending the rest period heals much of the lost Fatigue. Two rounds of continued rest gain back half the lost Fatigue, and three rounds return the Persona to available Fatigue levels.

To restate, Any non-Combat Skill used during a Combat Sequence does NOT cause Exertion, and instead reduces Fatigue by 5%. The second round of non-exertion regains half of the available Fatigue, and a third sequential round regains all available Fatigue Points

Wounds refer to the impact that serious Injuries have on sheer survival. As Weapon Damage is the primary cause of Wounds, they are the most common Condition causes in the game. Wounds must be tended for the individual to regain so Fatigue and Wound Ticks, so it becomes increasingly necessary to rest to regain those Fatigue points with successive rests. The closer one gets to zero, the fewer the options one has to deploy, so the danger mounts with each Wound inflicted.
When your Wounds reach zero, you are prone, unconscious, and most likely will break the Injunction without the assistance of others.
Damage is based on the Weapon and possible Skill Modifiers.
Once the Damage is determined, it is mitigated/exacerbated by armor type. Only the final adjusted number of Wound Points are deducted from the Wound Track, and the same number of Fatigue points are removed from the Fatigue Track.
After all Combat Rolls have been made for the Round, the Resolution Point occurs.

• Damage results tally first (or reviewed if recorded when dealt).

This deduction of points from the Wounds Track and the Fatigue Track equals the modified Damage.

• Fatigue Reduction for all Combat Actions tallies next.

This deduction rectifies the round of combat and prepares the Scene for any consequences.

• Consequences from Contested or Uncontested Non-combat Actions resolve.

Consequences determine the conditions enacted on the subsequent Turn or at the end of the stage. The primary Consequence of untended wounds is the continued loss of Fatigue Points every Turn after the first.

• RESULTS from Contested Failures (CFs) or Critical Wounds (CWs) resolve before a new Turn/Stage/Scene.

Persona whose Fatigue reduces by Damage, Consequences, or Results to zero is 'Downed' and may only make a Resting Action in the next Turn.
Persona whose Wounds from Damage, Consequences, or Results fall to zero also have their Fatigue value also set to zero and are 'Downed' and 'Unconscious.' Such personae cannot perform any Actions until revived.
Personae / Opponents who DID NO Combat ACTION (including those who were 'Downed' regains one Fatigue box (5%) at the Resolution Point, Personae or Opponents that DID NO Combat ACTION for a subsequent turn recovers HALF of their eligible Fatigue. Personae or Opponents that DID NO Combat ACTION for three turns return to FULL eligible Fatigue.

Damage in Combat

Combat costs the target Fatigue value equal to at least the modified Damage dealt by the attacker each Turn after it has been inflicted.

• (Damage from an Attack Action can be no more than the value of the Attacker's Skill).
• Most Weapons do a set amount of Damage, but that is modified up or down by Particular Combat Skills, Armor, and Magic Effects
  

• Armor can Increase, Decrease, Halve, or Double the damage, based on its characteristics.
  

• Failure to avoid the damage means a loss of Wounds and Fatigue equal to that set value
  

REMINDER: Each Untended Wound Point costs an additional point of Fatigue at the Resolution Point at the end of each Action Phase.

EXAMPLE of Skills and Combat, and how they interact...
Turn ONE: For example, Trayer, a swordsman in brigantine, is in a duel with an unarmored Urgluch called Garbo, using a Long Blade and chooses to use his Soldiery (Sword and Shield) skill (currently at 18) for his Combat and Defense. The Die roll is a 42, so the Combined Attack is 60. The Urgluch, bearing a flail, has 25 Selected Combat and Selected Defense, based on his Two-Hander skills. The Combined Attack is 35 more than the Defense, landing Damage a 3 point Slashing Wound (the weapon deals Damage to Wounds). The Attack succeeded, and the Urgluch was Wounded.
The Urgluch then performs his Action, attempting to put the hurt on the Swordsman. Swinging his flail madly, he makes his Combat Roll and does well, rolling an 80! Adding his Combat of 25 Garbo, even when reduced by Trayer's Selected Defense of 18 (105-18 is 87), the monstrous Attack gets through. Now we reach the Resolution Point in the Action Phase, and each participant reviews their status and reduces their Fatigue Value one Tick for the Combat Action they took.
DAMAGE RESULTS.

• The Damage that Trayer did to Garbo compares against the Damage Type of the Urgluch's Armor.
• As an Urgluch has a Naturally Armored hide, the Damage is reduced by 1.
• Two points of Damage are marked against Garbo's Health and Fatigue tracks.
• Further, Garbo's Attack tallies.
• The Urgluch Attack landed a 3-point Shattering Wound to Trayer.
• Trayer's armor, brigantine, halves the weapon damage (Damage numbers round down), though, so he only suffers one point of Damage. to his Fatigue and Wound tracks.

FATIGUE COSTS.

• As both Trayer and Garbo declared Combat Actions, both suffer a 'one-tick' reduction in Fatigue. (This is in addition to the Fatigue from the Untended Wounds just delivered) So, with no Consequences or Results to consider, the Turn ends.

At the end of Turn One, Trayer is at 99 Wounds and 94 Fatigue remaining. Garbo is slightly worse, at 98 Wounds and 93 Fatigue.

After the Resolution Point, the combatants prepare for the next Action Phase, and the Director adds any changes to the Conditions of the Engagement.
Turn TWO: Going into the second round, then, it seems a fair fight, with a theoretical advantage in the hands of Gargo. Perhaps the beast would continue its Shattering assault. Still, Dark Shards is a game about a progressive use of skills, so each combatant can review their particular arsenal of skills to find advantages.

Each must remember that it is the continuous loss from every untended wound that will play out the difference.

In Round 2, each again chooses an Action. Trayer scabbards his sword and tries to light a torch. He knows Urgluch fear fire and hopes to prevent another Attack. It is a Contested Check against a standard skill (he needs to roll low). Trayer rolls a 13 on the percentile dice, his Campfire skill of 33 (with a core of 7), which is a success. Now he has a lit torch.
It is now Garbo's Action, but because of the torch fire, the Director determines that if he attacks, he has a Condition modifier of -20, having to overcome the fear to make the Attack. He rolls a 33. After reducing it by the Director's modifier of -20, it is still a 13. As Garbo uses a Combat Action, he needs to roll high and add that to his skill of 45; he arrives at 58, a value that is still well over Trayer's Defense by 40 points. Trayer takes another Shattering blow.
This round, at the Resolution point, Trayer regains a Fatigue Tick (5%- bringing him up to 89) for avoiding attacking (even though he was attacled, he was not actively fighting), but takes a Fatigue and Wound for the new Wound, and 1 Fatigue fatigue for the previously taken untended Wound. Gargo did not take any additional damage from an attack by Trayer, but he exerted in combat and has the 2 Wound points yet untended to resolve.
So Trayer is at 98 Fatigue and 98 Wounds remaining, while Garbo is at 91 Fatigue and 98 Wound. Turn THREE: The traditional standing toe to toe just grinding down damage pools is not a rational option. Despite having better armor and dealing slightly better Damage, Trayer considers his options, while Garbo gears up for more combat. This example considers only a couple of the Skills the Persona and Monster might have. There are just too many options to stand and smash anymore.
In this Turn, Trayer opts to continue to rest and try to Intimidate the Urgluch, threatening Garbo menacingly with the lit torch. He rolls the Skill check against a skill value of 32 and gets a fantastic ought-nine, a 9%! Since the Intimidation Skill is uncontested, this is a Double Down Wild success!
The Director determines that since Garbo faced the flames last round to land his second Attack, he should give the Urgluch a chance to make a Resolve save in the face of the Wild Success. He rolls a 90, a blown roll and breaks, running for his life from the burning torch, and Trayer is left triumphant, puffing and exhausted, to tend his wounds...