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-====== Conflict ======
-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.
-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.
-===== Challenges =====
-A single [[actions#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.
-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.
-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.
-GMs, when you’re trying to figure out if it's appropriate to call for a challenge, ask yourself the following questions:
-  * 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.
-  * 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.
-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.
-<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 [[creatures:goblin|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.
-The GM descides that this will involve three skills, [[Crafts]] to repair the bridge, [[Rapport]] to keep the peasants calm across the bridge, and [[Shoot]] to stop the goblins from attacking the group. A difficulty of Good(+3) is given for the opposition.
-</note>
-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.
-<note tip>
-The first roll is to make quick repairs on the bridge which yields a final result of Good(+3). Tharen succeeds, but gives the opposition a [[aspects#boost]], which the GM takes as //Loosening Knots//. The second task is to keep the keep the goblins from breaking into the open. Tharen makes a Great(+4) effort with her Shoot 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.
-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:
-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 chasm. 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.
-"[[lore:Cyni|Cyni's]] black hand", Tharen curses as the goblins emerge from the woods and her last means of escape slams loudly against the opposite wall of the chasam.
-</note>
-If you have any boosts that went unused in the challenge, feel free to keep them for the rest of this scene or whatever scene you’re transitioning to, if the events of the challenge connect directly to the next scene.
-==== Advantages in a Challenge ====
-You can try to create an advantage during a challenge, for yourself or to help someone else out. Creating an advantage doesn’t allow you to also complete one of the challenge goals, but failing the roll could create a cost or problem that negatively impacts one of the other goals. Be careful using this tactic; advantages can help complete tasks more effectively and create momentum, but trying to create them is not without risk.
-==== Attacks in a Challenge ====
-Because you’re always up against passive opposition in a challenge, you'll never use the attack action. If you're in a situation where it seems reasonable to roll an attack, you should start setting up for a conflict.
-===== Contests =====
-Whenever two or more characters have mutually exclusive goals, but they aren’t trying to harm each other directly, they’re in a contest. Arm wrestling matches, races or other sports competitions, and public debates are all good examples of contests.
-GMs, answer the following questions when you’re setting up a contest:
-  * What environment does the contest take place in? Are there any significant or notable features of that environment you want to define as scene aspects?
-  * How are the participants opposing each other? Are they rolling against each other directly (like in a straight sprint race, or a poker match), or all trying to overcome something in the environment (like an obstacle course, or a panel of judges)?
-  * What skills are appropriate for this contest? Does everyone have to roll the same one, or do several apply?
-==== Now you can get started. ====
-A contest proceeds in a series of exchanges. In an exchange, every participant gets to make one skill roll to determine how well they do in that leg of the contest. This is basically an overcome action.
-Players, when you make a contest roll, compare your result to everyone else’s.
-  * **If you got the highest result, you win the exchange.** If you’re rolling directly against the other participants, then that means you got the highest rank on the ladder out of everyone. If you're all rolling against something in the environment, it means you got the most shifts out of everyone.
-Winning the exchange means you get to score a victory (which you can just represent with a tally mark or check mark on scratch paper) and describe how you take the lead.
-  * **If you [[outcomes#succeed with style]] and no one else does,** then you get to mark two victories.
-  * **If there’s a [[outcomes#tie]], no one gets a victory,** and an unexpected twist occurs. This could mean several things depending on the situation—the terrain or environment shifts somehow, the parameters of the contest change, or an unanticipated variable shows up and affects all the participants. GMs, you should create a new scene aspect reflecting this change and put it into play.
-  * **The first participant to achieve a three-victory lead wins the contest.**
-<note tip>
-Tharen is felled by a thrown dart, but before the goblins can reach her the ground explodes upward and [[people:Gul]] teleports next to her. Gul wants to teleport out with Tharen before the goblins arrive, but his spell takes time to cast. It will be a contest to see if the goblins arrive before his spell is cast.
-Gul will be rolling against his [[Elements]] skill, while the goblins will be using Athletics to close the distance.
-**Round 1** Gul begins casting his spell and gets a Great(+4), while the goblins only get a Fair(+2) on their Athletcs - giving Gul 1 point.
-**Round 2** The goblins get lucky with a Superb(+5) result, while Gul only manages a Good(+3), the goblins pick up a point.
-**Round 3** Gul is very unlucky and gets only a Mediocre(+0), while the goblins get an Fair(+2) result. The goblins have 2 points to Gul's one.
-**Round 4** Gul decides that he cannot let the goblins catch him so he uses a [[Fate Points|Fate Point]] to tag his [[aspects#high concept]] //Wandering Gnome Wizard// for a +2 and ends up getting a Fantastic(+6) result. The goblins only manage a Good(+3) result, which lets him [[outcomes#succeed with style]] and 2 victory points. Gul reaches three points and just manages to Earthwalk away from the goblins with Tharen's unconscious form.
-</note>
-==== Creating Advantages in a Contest ====
-During any exchange, you can try to create an advantage before you make your contest roll. If you’re targeting another participant, they get to defend normally.
-However, doing so carries an additional risk - failing to create an advantage means you forfeit your contest roll, which means there’s no way you can make progress in the current exchange. If you at least tie, you get to make your contest roll normally.
-<note tip>
-[[people:Cohen]] and a guard are both running away from  tries to throw mud in the eyes of Teran the Swift as she’s running to save Zird. Lily says she wants to create an advantage, with Teran as her target and a new aspect called Mud in the Eyes. (Imaginative, we know.)
-She rolls Athletics to create the advantage and gets a Great (+4). Teran rolls Athletics to defend and gets a Good (+3). Teran gets mud in his eyes as Cynere intended, and Lily marks that she has a free invocation on it.
-Because Lily didn’t fail, she gets to make her contest roll normally. Amanda decides that being semi-blinded isn’t going to stop Teran from continuing to cast, so he also gets to roll normally.
-</note>
-==== Attacks in a Contest ====
-If someone tries to attack in a contest, then they’re doing direct harm, and it
-ceases to be a contest. You should immediately stop what you’re doing and
-start setting up for a conflict instead.
-{{tag>fate rules}}