Taking the peaceful option shouldn’t be boring. This system is optional (like most others) and is useful primarily when the team is taking on a long, complicated task that everyone is involved with and/or as an alternative to combat. Not every team will want to fight or be equipped to; this system allows players to approach peaceful resolutions in a way that is just as creative and tactical as combat can be.
This system shouldn’t be used for every non-combat encounter; that would be a lot of work for everyone and get boring besides. Use this system when a solution:
- Requires considerable effort, time, or planning
- Demands everyone on the team to work together
- Has a suitably epic pay-off
HOW IT WORKS
Everyone may use a Skill they possess once. Think of something you could do using that Skill that will help solve the current problem. No repeats on solutions even across teammates.
There are two ways a player can have each Skill expression resolve:
AUTOMATIC PASS
There’s no rolling required; every unique bit of Skill use that helps solve the problem counts as one success removed.
TAKE A RISK
However, if the players are worried about reaching the required number of total successes, they may TAKE A RISK. In this situation, they will still come up with a unique Skill use, but will make the appropriate roll against the assigned difficulty of the scenario. Every success they get will remove a needed success…but they can also fail.
Typically, a scenario will require some combination of AUTOMATICS and RISKS TAKEN in order to succeed.
If Players realize they won’t have enough successes, they may go back and TAKE A RISK on a previous AUTOMATIC PASS, but they cannot do the reverse.
TACTICS POINTS
TACTICS may seem useless for non-combat situations, but they’re incredibly important. Your group’s highest TACTICS points (possessed by any member of the team) equal the total number of times your group can fail before the SCENARIO fails.
CALL IN THE BONDS
Each player may call in one Bond with an appropriate bit of player-Bond player RP about how the Bond can help from where they are. Any solution proposed by the Bond must not be a repeat of any player-created solution. Each Bond provides a number of successes equal to the strength of the Bond.
EXAMPLE
The three members of TEAM NUCKFUTS are in a DOWNWELL where the Nemesis is based around the feeling of SADNESS, specifically mourning. They need to defeat the Nemesis, but none of them enjoy combat or feel comfortable in their abilities to do so. To get around this, they’ve decided to ERODE the Nemesis using counter emotions: JOY and CELEBRATION. They decide to stage a festival: the opposite of a funeral.
The GM sets a success threshold of 20, the total they need to reach to destroy the Nemesis.
Tessa has four Skills she can use: Sneak, Sense, Connect, and Perform.
- She SNEAKS around, whispering in people’s ears that something really awesome is going to happen.
- She SENSES that loud music would disrupt the heavy atmosphere most effectively.
- CONNECTING with one of the Downwell prisoners, she learns that back in their World, it’s time for a harvest festival.
- To open the party, she PERFORMS a version of the harvest festival dance from the prisoner’s World.
Boltroy has three Skills he can use: Move, Observe, and Rewrite.
Ambiguity III has five skills they can use: Stamina, Research, Resist, Endure, and Instinct. (The other two also come up with unique ways of using their Skills to stage a festival.)
12 Skills in total. If they all use AUTOMATIC PASS, they couldn’t reach the success threshold, so some of them will have to TAKE A RISK.
Since the team has an average TACTICS score of 3, that’s the number of times they can fail a roll during TAKE A RISK before their plan fails completely.