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- | ====== Conflict ====== | ||
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- | Most of the time, a single skill roll should be enough to decide how a particular situation in play resolves. You’re not obligated to describe actions in a particular timeframe or level of detail when you use a skill. Therefore, you could use a single Athletics roll to find out whether you can safely navigate a rock face that will take days to climb, or use that same single skill roll to find out whether you can safely avoid a swiftly falling tree that’s about to crush you. | ||
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- | Sometimes, however, you’ll be in a situation where you’re doing something really dramatic and interesting, like pivotal set pieces in a movie or a book. When that happens, it’s a good idea to zoom in on the action and deal with it using multiple skill rolls, because the wide range of dice results will make things really dynamic and surprising. Most fight scenes fall into this category, but you can zoom into anything that you consider sufficiently important—car chases, trials, high-stakes poker games, and so on. | ||
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- | ===== Challenges ===== | ||
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- | A single overcome action is sufficient to deal with a straightforward goal or obstacle—the hero needs to pick this lock, disarm this bomb, sift out a vital piece of information, and so on. It’s also useful when the details of how something gets done aren't as important or worth spending an intense amount of time on, when what you need to know is whether the character can get something done without any setbacks or costs. | ||
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- | Sometimes, however, things get complicated. It's not enough to unpick the lock, because you also have to hold off the hordes of attacking zombies and set up the magical ward that’s going to keep pursuers off your back. It's not enough to disarm the bomb, because you also have to land the crashing blimp and keep the unconscious scientist you’re rescuing from getting hurt in said landing. | ||
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- | A challenge is a series of overcome actions that you use to resolve an especially complicated or dynamic situation. Each overcome action deals with one task or part of the situation, and you take the individual results as a whole to figure out how the situation resolves. | ||
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- | GMs, when you’re trying to figure out if it's appropriate to call for a challenge, ask yourself the following questions: | ||
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- | * Is each separate task something that can generate tension and drama independently of the other tasks? If all the tasks are really part of the same overall goal, like "detaching the detonator," "stopping the timer", and "disposing of the explosive material" when you’re disarming a bomb, then that should be one overcome action, where you use those details to explain what happened if the roll goes wrong. | ||
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- | * Does the situation require different skills to deal with? Holding off the zombies (Fighting) while pushing down a barricade (Physique) and fixing your broken wagon (Crafts), so that you can get away, would be a good instance for a challenge. | ||
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- | To set up a challenge, simply identify what the individual tasks or goals are that make up the situation, and treat each one as a separate overcome roll. (Sometimes, only a certain sequence for the rolls will make sense to you. That’s okay too.) Depending on the situation, one character may be required to make several rolls, or multiple characters may be able to participate. | ||
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- | <note tip> | ||
- | [people:Tharen Starlight]] is attempting to lead a group of peasants across a poorly maintained plank and rope bridge. Normally this would be difficult; however a band of [[bestiary:goblins]] armed with javelins are in the woods howling with rage as their food escapes. Tharen must make hasty repairs on the bridge, keep the peasants calm and moving across the bridge, and keep the goblins from venturing out of the woods. | ||
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- | The GM descides that this will involve three skills, [[Craftsman]] to repair the bridge, [[Rapport]] to keep the peasants calm across the bridge, and [[Ranged Weapons]] to stop the goblins from attacking the group. A difficulty of Good(+3) is given for the opposition. | ||
- | </note> | ||
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- | To conduct a challenge, call for each overcome action in whichever order seems most interesting, but don’t decide anything about how the situation turns out until after you’ve collected all the results - you want to have the freedom to sequence the events of each roll in whichever order makes the most sense and is the most entertaining. Players, if you get a boost on one of your rolls, feel free to use it on another roll in the challenge, provided you can justify it. | ||
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- | <note tip> | ||
- | The first roll is to make quick repairs on the bridge which yeilds a final result of Good(+3). Tharen succeeds, but gives the opposition a [[Boosts:boost]], which the GM takes as //Loosening Knots//. The second task is to keep the keep the golbins from breaking into the open. Tharen makes a Great(+4) effort with her Ranged Weapons check, which keeps the goblins from exiting the woods. Finally she uses her Rapport to get the get the peasants moving, the GM uses the Loosening Knots boost to push the difficulty to Superb(+5). Tharen's final roll of Good(+3) is not enough to overcome the challenge. | ||
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- | Peasants falling to their deaths is not really interesting, a few of them trapped is more interesting, but the GM decides to allow the challenge to succeed at a [[outcomes:serious cost]]. It is narrated thusly: | ||
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- | As the last of the peasants crosses the bridge Tharen notices that the //poorly maintained// bridge begins to collapse. She drops her bow and grabs the supporting rope to stop it from falling into the chasam. The last peasant just makes it to the other side as the rope slips from her hands and swings to teh other side, even worse is fact that her remaining arrows fall out of her quiver following splintered parts of the bridge into the chasam. | ||
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- | "[[lore:Cyni|Cyni's]] black hand", Tharen curses as the goblins emerge from the woods and her last means of escape finally slams against the opposite wall of the chasam. | ||
- | </note> | ||
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- | {{tag>fate rules}} | ||