Action Scenes #

Action scenes are critical moments of gameplay where the narration of the game goes from a conversational flow to a more structured turn-based flow. Time slows down and every decision matters. For example, a combat against some bandits or a car chase are action scenes.

In action scenes, the GM first establishes which sides are participating in the scene (usually just the players and their opponents, but there could be more sides as well) and which side starts. Each side takes one turn at a time. When it’s the players’ side’s turn, one member of that side can take the following actions:

• Move from one place to another
• Make one roll

Then, the opposing side takes a turn. The GM can use a flat difficulty to represent an enemy’s efforts or use contested rolls when players make attempts against non-player characters and vice versa, following Combat rules.

After taking a turn, a combatant gains the exhausted condition and is not eligible to take another turn. Once every member of a side is exhausted, remove the exhausted condition from them.

Combat #

Combat is a type of action scene where the players fight enemies. Enemies have the following attributes:

• A base combat bonus, ranging from +0 to +10
• A health value, ranging from 1 to around 10
• A list of tags, each with a level ranging from 1◆ to 5◆

For example, the following is an enemy:

Young Red Dragon

• Bonus: +4
• Health: 5
• Tags:
  • Fire Breath 4◆
  • Flying 3◆
  • Hardy Scales 3◆
  • Tail Swipe 2◆

When a player attacks an enemy or vice versa, that player and the GM do a contested roll, with any banes the enemy incurs each reducing its health by one. When their health reaches zero, they are defeated. Enemy tags are not exhausted after successful use. Instead, the enemy cannot use that same tag again until they have used all other tags at least once.

If an enemy incurs more banes than their health, they are defeated and the player gains boons equal to any remaining banes.

Example Combat Roll #

The following is a full example of a roll:

1. If a character attempts to hit the Young Red Dragon above with their sword, then the GM calls for a contested roll between the player and the dragon.
2. The player adds their Combat stat (3◆), their Broadsword tag (2◆), and bonus from stress (1◆) for a total modifier of +6. The GM adds the dragon’s bonus (+4) and a tag it can use in the moment, Fire Breath (4◆), for a total modifier of +8.
3. The player and the GM each roll simultaneously. The GM rolls a 10, which plus the dragon’s modifier of +8, results in an 18. The player rolls a 4, which plus the player’s modifier of +6, results in a 10.
4. Since the player rolled the lower result, they then choose first whether or not to double down. The player decides to risk it and re-roll. They roll a 19, which plus the player’s modifier of +6, results in a 25.
5. Then, the GM can choose to double down for the dragon. They do so and get a total of 16.
6. The dragon then gains banes equal using the player’s result as the difficulty, doubled because the GM doubled down. In this case, the dragon would take ten banes, which is enough to defeat it.