You Against the World
Every challenge has two components — the character, and everything else. The Skill and Attribute the player uses to create their dice pool, and the target number they want each die to meet, are all about the character. These numbers don’t ever change, whether the character is staring down a bouncer or a sweet-talking Sif.
Situations change all the time, however. Different challenges have varying degrees of Difficulty, which represent the obstacles in a character’s path. Some challenges include Complications, which can trip up even a successful character, and at times a character can leverage Enhancements to improve their chance. These are “everything else.”
Every challenge has a level of Difficulty, which is the number of successes a player must spend to overcome any obstacles and succeed. Every challenge requires at least 1 success to complete, so the minimum Difficulty is 1. If a character wants to vault a Difficulty 2 gap between buildings, she must roll at least two successes to buy off the Difficulty and succeed. If the character doesn’t have enough successes to meet the Difficulty, they fail the challenge and receive a Consolation to keep the story moving. Situations where it’s impossible to succeed do not have a level of Difficulty — characters just don’t roll.
The Storyguide normally sets the Difficulty based on the scope of the challenge. This is called static Difficulty. In other cases, the Difficulty of the challenge is caused by other characters. This is called opposed Difficulty, and it is generated by an opposing character’s own dice roll.
In direct clashes, like a public debate or a brutal struggle, one character is the “defender.” Their dice roll is used to set the opposed Difficulty for the “attacker.” In the case of parallel efforts such as a foot race, or when it’s not clear who the “defender” is, the competing characters compare their total successes for that roll. The smaller number is used to set the level of Difficulty.
Each task in a mixed action has its own level of Difficulty, which a player must spend successes to meet. If the total number of successes is too low to meet both levels of Difficulty, they can choose to fail at one of their tasks in order to succeed at the other.
Some challenges come with a Complication, an unforeseen consequence to success. Complications can be avoided by spending successes, in the same way as Difficulty, but they do not prevent a character from succeeding. They are a “yes, but…,” a drawback that might inflict injuries, cause new problems, or increase the Difficulty for future challenges. For example, if a character climbs over a fence, the barbed wire across the top would be a Complication. She can get over the fence; the question is whether she can spend a moment — and two successes — tossing her jacket over the wire to keep her hands from being sliced open.
Just like Difficulty, each Complication has its own level of severity. Players can bypass a Complication by spending enough successes to meet its level. Complications only affect successful challenges, though characters who fail may face their own consequences. If that fence-climbing character fails to meet the Difficulty of the challenge, she won’t cut her hands, but she might be caught by whoever’s chasing her. A Complication is a good way to make a challenge more daunting without actually stopping a character in their tracks.
Occasionally in the text, you may see an abbreviation like “1c.” This is short for “a level-1 Complication.”
Similar to Complications, you may occasionally see an abbreviation like “1e.” This is short for “1 level of Enhancement” or “+1 Enhancement.”
Example: Eileen’s grabbed a gun loaded with runic rounds that guide her bullets. This is an Enhancement to her accuracy, but it won’t help her vault a barricade. In a mixed action, the character can benefit from Enhancements relevant to either task. However, they can still only use those extra successes for accomplishing tasks appropriate to the Enhancement.
Sometimes using an Enhancement causes problems, even as it helps. These are the drawbacks. For example, getting drunk might ingratiate you to a party of satyrs, but it’ll lessen your fine motor control. When an Enhancement has a drawback, the Storyguide can choose to play it out in one of three ways:
• The drawback adds a Complication.
• The drawback increases the Difficulty of another action.
• The drawback gives antagonists a free Enhancement to use against you.
When one character helps another in a challenge, the assisting character assembles and rolls their own dice pool, and provides an Enhancement equal to the successes they rolled, up to a total of 3. The two dice pools do not need to use the same Skill or Attribute, so long as the teamwork makes sense. For example, a character could use Athletics + Might to perform the heavy lifting of massive server racks for an engineer, who works with Technology + Intellect.
Situations change all the time, however. Different challenges have varying degrees of Difficulty, which represent the obstacles in a character’s path. Some challenges include Complications, which can trip up even a successful character, and at times a character can leverage Enhancements to improve their chance. These are “everything else.”
DIFFICULTY
Every challenge has a level of Difficulty, which is the number of successes a player must spend to overcome any obstacles and succeed. Every challenge requires at least 1 success to complete, so the minimum Difficulty is 1. If a character wants to vault a Difficulty 2 gap between buildings, she must roll at least two successes to buy off the Difficulty and succeed. If the character doesn’t have enough successes to meet the Difficulty, they fail the challenge and receive a Consolation to keep the story moving. Situations where it’s impossible to succeed do not have a level of Difficulty — characters just don’t roll.
The Storyguide normally sets the Difficulty based on the scope of the challenge. This is called static Difficulty. In other cases, the Difficulty of the challenge is caused by other characters. This is called opposed Difficulty, and it is generated by an opposing character’s own dice roll.
In direct clashes, like a public debate or a brutal struggle, one character is the “defender.” Their dice roll is used to set the opposed Difficulty for the “attacker.” In the case of parallel efforts such as a foot race, or when it’s not clear who the “defender” is, the competing characters compare their total successes for that roll. The smaller number is used to set the level of Difficulty.
MIXED ACTIONS AND DIFFICULTY
Each task in a mixed action has its own level of Difficulty, which a player must spend successes to meet. If the total number of successes is too low to meet both levels of Difficulty, they can choose to fail at one of their tasks in order to succeed at the other.
COMPLICATIONS
Some challenges come with a Complication, an unforeseen consequence to success. Complications can be avoided by spending successes, in the same way as Difficulty, but they do not prevent a character from succeeding. They are a “yes, but…,” a drawback that might inflict injuries, cause new problems, or increase the Difficulty for future challenges. For example, if a character climbs over a fence, the barbed wire across the top would be a Complication. She can get over the fence; the question is whether she can spend a moment — and two successes — tossing her jacket over the wire to keep her hands from being sliced open.
Just like Difficulty, each Complication has its own level of severity. Players can bypass a Complication by spending enough successes to meet its level. Complications only affect successful challenges, though characters who fail may face their own consequences. If that fence-climbing character fails to meet the Difficulty of the challenge, she won’t cut her hands, but she might be caught by whoever’s chasing her. A Complication is a good way to make a challenge more daunting without actually stopping a character in their tracks.
Occasionally in the text, you may see an abbreviation like “1c.” This is short for “a level-1 Complication.”
ENHANCEMENTS
An Enhancement is something that makes a challenge easier, such as a useful piece of equipment, or favorable circumstances that a character can take advantage of. If a player rolls at least one success, they receive bonus successes from any Enhancements relevant to that challenge. If an Enhancement does not specifically apply to the task at hand, or if they don’t roll at least one success, the player can’t use it. None but the most exceptional Enhancements offer more than three additional successes.Similar to Complications, you may occasionally see an abbreviation like “1e.” This is short for “1 level of Enhancement” or “+1 Enhancement.”
Example: Eileen’s grabbed a gun loaded with runic rounds that guide her bullets. This is an Enhancement to her accuracy, but it won’t help her vault a barricade. In a mixed action, the character can benefit from Enhancements relevant to either task. However, they can still only use those extra successes for accomplishing tasks appropriate to the Enhancement.
ENHANCEMENT DRAWBACKS
Sometimes using an Enhancement causes problems, even as it helps. These are the drawbacks. For example, getting drunk might ingratiate you to a party of satyrs, but it’ll lessen your fine motor control. When an Enhancement has a drawback, the Storyguide can choose to play it out in one of three ways:
• The drawback adds a Complication.
• The drawback increases the Difficulty of another action.
• The drawback gives antagonists a free Enhancement to use against you.
TEAMWORK
When one character helps another in a challenge, the assisting character assembles and rolls their own dice pool, and provides an Enhancement equal to the successes they rolled, up to a total of 3. The two dice pools do not need to use the same Skill or Attribute, so long as the teamwork makes sense. For example, a character could use Athletics + Might to perform the heavy lifting of massive server racks for an engineer, who works with Technology + Intellect.
TOO MANY COOKS
Storyguides, be careful giving Enhancements over 3 without accompanying drawbacks. These tend to make even difficult rolls quite easy, and remove the challenge inherent in rolling at all. While players can benefit from Enhancements from multiple sources, again, be extremely cautious in allowing the combined Enhancement to exceed 3. Too much help tends to make the task more difficult, balancing out the additional sources of aid, and you can reflect this by simply not awarding the value or by adding a unique drawback.
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