Action Resolution
Basic Actions
Players may do anything in game that they are capable of doing in the real world, no resolution required. If you can run a marathon or bench press 200lbs or read Spanish in the real world, then you can do the same things in game. Period. Nothing else required.
If players wish do something beyond their capabilities, something they have never tried, or something completely foreign, then action resolution is required. The players must spend resources, cards from, their hands, vajra points or other story elements in order to hit the difficulty rating of the action. If they fail to meet the difficulty, the suffer the consequences of failure.
Success Types
Difficulty levels, Consequence Levels and Opposed Actions
Tasks are assigned difficulty based on how far beyond the player's current ability the attempted task is.
The difficulty is divided into 3 categories: possible, impossible, beyond the impossible. The storyteller does not tell the players the difficulty beyond those three descriptors. Difficulty levels 1 through 4 are POSSIBLE. Difficulty levels 5 through 12 are IMPOSSIBLE. Difficulty levels 13 and above are BEYOND THE IMPOSSIBLE.
Once the story teller has told the players the category of difficulty, the exact level of difficulty is written down and placed face down. The Player(s) may then attempt the action by laying cards, spending points, and activating story elements.
The Storyteller will then explain the Consequence level, which is either MILD (1), UGLY (2), DISASTROUS (3), or APOCALYPTIC (4). If a characters fails, then the consequence is applied as a penalty in some way to the situation. The penalty may be added to the difficulty of attempting the action again, say as in picking a lock. The penalty may be applied to the character's avatar as damage (more on that later), say as in injuring ones self attempting to jump up over a wall. the penalty may be applied as enhanced difficulty to later actions, say as in setting off an alarm that makes subsequent stealth attempts more difficult.
Players may choose to apply FOOLISH OPTIMISM to any action attempt where the consequence is not APOCALYPTIC. FOOLISH OPTIMISM, increases the Consequence level by one, and decreases the difficulty by one level (not one category, one level only).
If a player fails by more than two points, they suffer a consequence one level worse than they would otherwise have suffered.
Storytellers may set Difficulty and Consequence levels as they see fit, however a good rule is that in general a consequence should be around half the difficulty level.
If the action involves two individuals competing: fighting, debating, playing chess, racing, etc... then the difficulty level is determined slightly differently. The Storyteller will determine, after discussion with the involved parties, what the base difference in skill is best estimated as being. The person at a disadvantage experiences that disadvantage as a penalty. The difficulty level is then the other individual's total value played on the action. The consequence is still determined by the Storyteller.
Basic Actions
Players may do anything in game that they are capable of doing in the real world, no resolution required. If you can run a marathon or bench press 200lbs or read Spanish in the real world, then you can do the same things in game. Period. Nothing else required.
If players wish do something beyond their capabilities, something they have never tried, or something completely foreign, then action resolution is required. The players must spend resources, cards from, their hands, vajra points or other story elements in order to hit the difficulty rating of the action. If they fail to meet the difficulty, the suffer the consequences of failure.
Success Types
- Amazing Success (Succeed by more than 3 points): Succeed and skip next challenge or generate positive Story Element
- Normal Success (Succeed by at least one point): Succeed
- Problematic Success (Succeed by tie): Succeed but generate new challenge or drawback (Generally a Story Element)
Difficulty levels, Consequence Levels and Opposed Actions
Tasks are assigned difficulty based on how far beyond the player's current ability the attempted task is.
The difficulty is divided into 3 categories: possible, impossible, beyond the impossible. The storyteller does not tell the players the difficulty beyond those three descriptors. Difficulty levels 1 through 4 are POSSIBLE. Difficulty levels 5 through 12 are IMPOSSIBLE. Difficulty levels 13 and above are BEYOND THE IMPOSSIBLE.
Once the story teller has told the players the category of difficulty, the exact level of difficulty is written down and placed face down. The Player(s) may then attempt the action by laying cards, spending points, and activating story elements.
The Storyteller will then explain the Consequence level, which is either MILD (1), UGLY (2), DISASTROUS (3), or APOCALYPTIC (4). If a characters fails, then the consequence is applied as a penalty in some way to the situation. The penalty may be added to the difficulty of attempting the action again, say as in picking a lock. The penalty may be applied to the character's avatar as damage (more on that later), say as in injuring ones self attempting to jump up over a wall. the penalty may be applied as enhanced difficulty to later actions, say as in setting off an alarm that makes subsequent stealth attempts more difficult.
Players may choose to apply FOOLISH OPTIMISM to any action attempt where the consequence is not APOCALYPTIC. FOOLISH OPTIMISM, increases the Consequence level by one, and decreases the difficulty by one level (not one category, one level only).
If a player fails by more than two points, they suffer a consequence one level worse than they would otherwise have suffered.
Storytellers may set Difficulty and Consequence levels as they see fit, however a good rule is that in general a consequence should be around half the difficulty level.
If the action involves two individuals competing: fighting, debating, playing chess, racing, etc... then the difficulty level is determined slightly differently. The Storyteller will determine, after discussion with the involved parties, what the base difference in skill is best estimated as being. The person at a disadvantage experiences that disadvantage as a penalty. The difficulty level is then the other individual's total value played on the action. The consequence is still determined by the Storyteller.
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