Taking Action

The Core Mechanic

When opposing another character, or there is a significant obstacle in your way:

ADD the number for your SKILL and the number for your APPROACH to determine the size of your DICE POOL, then roll that many TEN-SIDED DICE (d10). Each die that comes up 8 or higher counts as a HIT. Each result of 10 counts as 2 hits; each result of 1 subtracts a hit.

Once your dice are rolled, there are two ways to gain bonus hits: ASPECTS, which can grant you additional bonuses in exchange for spending resources, and STUNTS, which can grant automatic bonuses to your rolls when specific conditions apply.

Tally your total RESULT, including all hits from the dice, any applicable stunts, and any aspects you paid for. Then, compare your result to the OPPOSITION, which is either an active opposed roll or passive target number from 1 to 5.

Some of these terms may not make sense to you yet; that's fine. Most of them will be explained as you progress through this page. Aspects, Boosts, and Invokes are referred to frequently; if you want to jump to that explanation first, see #Aspects & Fate Points below. For the rest, see 3 Skills, Approaches, & Stunts.

Interpreting Results

NEGATIVE HITS Catastrophic failure
HITS BELOW OPPOSITION Failure
TIE OPPOSITION Tie
1 - 2 HITS ABOVE OPPOSITION Success
3+ HITS ABOVE OPPOSITION Success with style

Defining Costs

Many failures or ties come with COSTS, which can be either minor or severe.

A MINOR COST is a story detail that's problematic for your character, leaving you in a somewhat worse position than you started from, but doesn't necessarily damage your progress. It could involve:

• Creating a situation aspect for a PC or the scene
• Offering a boost to someone opposing the character
• Foreshadowing encroaching or imminent danger, enemies, or other opposition
• Introducing or shortening a time limit
• One new obstacle appearing between you and your goal
• Presenting a PC with a difficult choice
• A PC taking some harm (typically 1 or 2)
  • Note: this is only a worthwhile cost if the PC is likely to take more harm in the same scene; otherwise, choose something else.
• Some other significant complication

Most costs in the game are minor, and they typically occur on failures or ties.

A SEVERE COST is significant and can have a long-lasting impact - something about the current situation gets meaningfully worse, and the stakes shoot up. This can be any kind of minor cost scaled up to the next level. It could involve:

• You or an ally taking an automatic consequence at your lowest free level
• Creating an advantage with a free invoke for someone who opposes the PCs
• Reinforcing, strengthening, or healing your opposition or enemy
• New danger, enemies, or other opposition appearing immediately, before you have a chance to react
• Threatening your current progress toward your goal
• Necessitating a completely different approach to your goal
• Some other enormous complication

There are only two ways to trigger this: a catastrophic failure gives the GM the option to escalate to a severe cost, or the player can accept an offer from the GM to turn a failure into a success with a guaranteed severe cost.

The GM can find more detailed guidance on how and when to apply different complications in 5 Running The Game#Calibrating Costs.

The Four Actions

Overcome

Achieve assorted goals appropriate to your skill and approach.

The catch-all action. When there's something between you and a goal - difficulty, time pressure, or some other kind of obstacle - that doesn't fit the other three action types, you're probably trying to overcome it.

EXAMPLES:

• A character tries to Move Boldly to win a dance contest
• A character tries to Sway Carefully to calm a crowd
• A character tries to Tinker Quickly to fix a broken wagon axle after a desperate chase.

FAILURE: You fail, sometimes with an additional cost. The GM may instead allow you to succeed, but at a guaranteed severe cost. If you choose to succeed with a cost, you MUST describe what you do differently as you desperately redouble your efforts after the initial failure.
TIE: Partial success, or success with a minor cost.
SUCCESS: You get what you want with no cost.
SUCCESS WITH STYLE: Get what you want and an added benefit or boost.

Create an Advantage

Make a situation aspect that gives you a benefit, or claim a benefit from any aspect you have access to.

Create an advantage covers a broad range, unified around using your skills to take advantage of the environment or situation you're in. Sometimes, that means actively changing your circumstances; other times, that could mean discovering new helpful information or taking advantage of something you've previously learned or observed.

When you roll to create an advantage, you must specify whether you're creating a new situation aspect or taking advantage of one that's already in place. If the former, are you attaching that situation aspect to a character or to the environment?

If your target is another character, their roll always counts as the #defend action.

EXAMPLES:

• Throwing sand in an opponent's eyes or setting something on fire

• Learning the weakness of a monster through research or careful observation

• Taking advantage of a character's infamously foul temper

MAKING NEW ASPECTS
FAILURE: You either don't create the aspect, or you create it but whatever you end up doing works to someone else's advantage instead - they get the free invoke.
TIE: You get a boost instead of the situation aspect you were going for. This might mean you have to rename the aspect to reflect its temporary nature (e.g. "Rough Terrain" becomes "Rocks on the Path")
SUCCESS: You create a situation aspect with a free invoke.
SUCCESS WITH STYLE: You create a situation aspect with two free invokes.

USING EXISTING ASPECTS
FAILURE: You give a free invoke on that aspect to someone else who could benefit tangibly and to your detriment.
TIE OR SUCCEED: Free invoke on the aspect.
SUCCEED WITH STYLE: Two free invokes on the aspect.

Attack

Harm someone in a conflict or take them out of a scene.

The most straightforward of the four actions. An attack isn't always physical; some skills allow you to hurt someone mentally as well.

Most of the time, your target will actively oppose your attack. Passive opposition means you've caught your target unaware or otherwise unable to make a full effort to resist you, or the NPC isn't important enough to bother with dice. Passive or not, the opposition always counts as a #defend action.

FAILURE: You don't cause any harm to your target, and there may be an additional cost.
TIE: You don't cause any harm, but you gain a boost.
SUCCESS: Inflict harm on your target equal to the number of hits above the opposition. The target must use STRAIN to push through the harm or take CONSEQUENCES; if that's not possible, your target is TAKEN OUT of the conflict.
SUCCESS WITH STYLE: As normal success, but you may also reduce the value of your hit by one to gain a boost.

For more about harm, consequences, and getting taken out, see 4 Challenges, Conflicts, & Contests#Taking Harm.

Defend

Avoid an attack or prevent someone from creating an advantage against you.

Whenever someone attacks you in a conflict or tries to #create an advantage on you, you always get a chance to defend. As with attacks, this isn't always physical - some skills allow you to defend against attempts to harm your mind or damage your resolve.

Because you roll to defend as a reaction, your opposition is almost always active. If you're rolling a defend action against passive opposition, it's probably because the environment is hostile to you somehow (e.g. poison gas, a blazing fire, or a deliberately-placed trap), or the NPC isn't important enough to bother with dice.

FAILURE: You suffer the consequences of whatever you were trying to prevent.
TIE: You grant your opponent a boost.
SUCCESS: You avoid the attack or the attempt to gain an advantage on you.
SUCCESS WITH STYLE: As normal, but you also gain a boost as you momentarily turn the tables.

Aspects & Fate Points

ASPECTS are phrases that describe some significant detail about something or someone. Your character's aspects are WHY YOUR CHARACTER MATTERS and why we're interested in them. Aspects cover anything that helps you invest in the character as a person, like personality or descriptive traits, beliefs, relationships, issues. Aspects can describe things that are beneficial or detrimental, and the best aspects are both at once - DOUBLE-EDGED SWORDS.

FATE POINTS are a meta-resource that players and the GM can use to influence the game. You SPEND THEM to force the narrative to go in your favor, and you EARN THEM by allowing it to turn against you. You start each scenario with a pool of fate points equal to your character's REFRESH, and reset to that number if you end a mid-scenario session with fewer points than your refresh. You will spend or gain fate points when your aspects come into play, which should happen very frequently.

Types of Aspects

Character Aspects

Most of what's on your character sheet: critical information about a character's personality traits, past, relationships with others, items or titles they possess, problems they're dealing with, goals they're working toward, reputation, obligations they carry, or nearly any other conceivable detail that's important to understanding a character. EXAMPLES "Leader Of My Band Of Survivors," "Mad Dog On A Leash," "My Country Right Or Wrong," "Haunted By Voices Of The Dead."

Consequences & Breakdown

Temporary aspects that cover lasting physical, psychological, or social harm. EXAMPLES "Damaged Sensor Suite", "Sprained Ankle", "Debilitating Self-Doubt", "Humiliated At Prom"

Situation Aspects

Aspects describing the surroundings or scenario where the action takes place. Usually vanishes at the end of the scene it's part of, or when someone does something that would change or get rid of it. EXAMPLES "On Fire," "Heavy Traffic," "Dense Debris Field," "Heavy Police Presence."

Boosts

An extremely temporary or minor situation. You CANNOT COMPEL a boost - you may INVOKE IT ONCE FOR FREE, after which it vanishes. An unused boost vanishes when the advantage it represents no longer exists, which may be a few seconds or the duration of a single scene. Boosts never persist beyond the end of a scene, and you can hold off naming one until you’re using it. If you’re in control of a boost, you may pass it to an ally if there’s rationale for it.

Using Aspects

Aspects come into play in conjunction with fate points. When an aspect benefits you, you can spend fate points to INVOKE that aspect for a bonus. When your aspects complicate your character's life, you gain points back - this is called accepting a COMPEL.

Invoking an Aspect

When you make an action roll, and you're in a situation where an aspect might help you, you can spend a fate point to invoke it and change the dice result. This allows you to either REROLL the dice or ADD 1 HIT to your roll, whichever is more helpful. YOU MUST EXPLAIN OR JUSTIFY how the aspect is helpful in order to get the bonus. Sometimes it's self-evident, sometimes you'll have to get creative.

You may decide to invoke an aspect before or after the roll. You can spend more than one fate point on a single roll, gaining another reroll or an additional +1 with each, as long as each point you spend invokes a different aspect.

You can invoke ANY ASPECT that's relevant and helpful to you, not just your own. Invoking an enemy's aspect against them is called a HOSTILE INVOCATION, and when you spend a fate point to do it, you give that point to that enemy instead of spending it normally - though they can't use it until AFTER THE SCENE you give it to them in.

Declaring a Story Detail

You can spend a fate point to INTRODUCE NEW INFORMATION about the world that works to your character's advantage. As long as it relates to an aspect in play, this detail can be nearly anything, but some common examples include:

• Adding IMPORTANT OR UNLIKELY objects or details to the scene (e.g. "Actually, I've had a few sticks of dynamite on me this whole time" or "There's a very fast car parked nearby, and its owner conveniently left the doors unlocked and the keys inside.")
• FLASHING BACK to declare that you already prepared for something in the past (e.g. "Good thing we bribed the night guard last week!")
• Introducing NEW MINOR NPCS into the fiction (e.g. "there's a janitor with keycard access to the CEO's office and gambling debts we could leverage.")
• Declaring NEW FACTS that build on established information (e.g. "We already know the sheriff's corrupt, and now he's also working with the infamous Shaw Gang.")

The GM has VETO POWER over declared details, and should exercise it if any of the following apply:

• The detail being declared would CONTRADICT OR REDEFINE information already established in the fiction, including secondhand information. You can't change things your characters have already experienced or declare "actually, that NPC was lying to us!"
• The detail would serve as a DEUS EX MACHINA and instantly resolve a major problem or dramatic question, without also introducing a more interesting replacement problem or complication to deal with. Declared details can give you the necessary tools or get you into position to deal with your problems yourself; they cannot solve your problems for you.
• The detail is TOO FAR-REACHING to reasonably cost only one fate point. You can't create, destroy, or redefine major campaign elements.
• The detail would change the game in a way that's no longer consistent with the agreed-upon premise, tone, or content restrictions.
• The rest of the table isn't on board with the idea

For further GM guidance on this option, see 5 Running The Game#

Compelling an Aspect

Aspects can be COMPELLED to complicate the situation and EARN FATE POINTS. To compel an aspect, the GM or a player offers a fate point to the player whose character is being compelled, and tells them why an aspect is making things more difficult or complicated.

Compels generally fall into two categories: EVENTS and DECISIONS. Events look something like "You have X aspect and are in Y situation, so unfortunately, it makes sense for Z to happen to you. Damn your luck." If you REFUSE the event compel, you must spend a fate point from your own supply and describe how your character avoids the complication. If you don’t have any fate points, you can’t refuse.

Decisions are choices your character makes based on an aspect that end up causing problems, something like "You have X aspect and are in Y situation, so it makes sense that you'd decide to Z. This goes wrong when N happens." Usually, the interesting part of a decision compel is in the complication that comes from it, rather than the choice itself. Decisions are OFFERED, not imposed, and it does not cost a fate point to refuse them - barring exceptional circumstances like mind control, you have the final say over the choices your character makes.

The general rule: If the compel causes something to happen to your character, it's an event. If it causes your character to do something, it's a decision.

ANY ASPECT can be compelled—whether it’s a character aspect, situation aspect, or consequence—but it must be something that affects the character being compelled. ANYONE CAN OFFER A COMPEL. The player proposing the compel must spend one of their own fate points. The GM then takes over running the compel for the affected target. The GM does not lose a fate point by offering a compel—they have a limited pool of fate points for invoking aspects, but can compel as much as they’d like.

Compels can be retroactive. If a player finds they have roleplayed themself into a complication related to one of their aspects or a situation aspect that concerns them, they can ask the GM if that counts as a self-compel. If the group agrees, the GM slides the player a fate point.

It’s okay to recognize a compel as off-the-mark and withdraw it. If the group agrees that a proposed compel wasn’t appropriate, it should be withdrawn at no cost to the compelled character.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ON THIS PAGE

ASPECTS ARE ALWAYS TRUE - an aspect isn't just a cool ability you have, it's a declaration of fact. Aspects DEFINE THE POSSIBILITY SPACE of what's open to your character and what's closed to them. If you have the aspect "precog sniper," that means you're always a crack shot who can glimpse the future. You don't need to Invoke that aspect to line up an impossible shot; having it at all means that's something your character gets to attempt at will. Invoking it just means you're digging deep and drawing on something fundamental to push through an obstacle and succeed when it really matters. Compelling them is just a way to incentivize letting them make your life difficult when they would naturally do so anyway, rewarding you, the player, for making the story more interesting.

IN ACTUAL PLAY: Putting the mechanics front-and-center in the conversation at the table can affect the flow in ways some people find deeply off-putting and take you out of the experience - "using Fate-speak for everything" is the one of the most common dealbreakers players and GMs report when they bounce off the system. Don't say "Can I spend a Fate point to invoke 'hair-trigger teenage fury' to let my emotions take over and hit harder for a reroll?" Instead, JUST DO THE THING - "I give in to my rage and start slashing wildly; I'll reroll" as you pass a fate point token across the table. Compelling works the same way; for the same example aspect, don't say "I'd like to compel 'hair-trigger teenage fury' to blow that little dig at me way out of proportion and derail this negotiation," just say "I'm going to absolutely flip out over this" or go straight to acting out the resulting tirade in character, and the GM should pass you a fate point (if they don't, then you can remind them).

In the same vein, nobody should ever be saying "the building has the 'On Fire' situation aspect" - the GM just says "the building is on fire," and because EVERYTHING IS AN ASPECT the building being on fire is now a situation aspect that can be invoked or compelled like any other.

THE MECH LAYER

Your mech is an EXTENSION of your character, not a replacement for it. This is not a game built around constant mech combat - you will fight often, but the on-foot action is just as, if not more, important. Therefore, your mech's aspects and stunts are LAYERED ON TOP OF those for your pilot - while they're in the cockpit, both sets apply.

You should expect at least half of all sessions not to include you piloting your mech. Every time you get in the cockpit and sortie should feel like a meaningful event, one where lives are at stake and everything about the story can change in an instant without warning. See 2 Character Creation#Mech Creation for special rules on building and using your mech.

NEXT STEP

2 Character Creation