Common situations

Throughout any adventure, certain situations seem to appear again and again. Whether it’s disputes between characters, tense confrontations with villains, or tricky moments that test their skills, these recurring scenarios have ways to handle them efficiently. This section offers guidance on how to navigate these common challenges so the story keeps moving and the game stays fun.

Fights

Sooner or later blades are drawn and blood is shed. When this happens the players are likely to start hacking and slashing, volleying, and defending. Think about more than just the exchange of damage. Villains might be trying to capture the characters or protect something from them. Understand what the fight is about; what each side wants and how that might affect the tide of battle.

No self-respecting villain just stands still for their beating. Combat is a dynamic thing with participants moving in and out of range, taking cover, and retreating. Sometimes the battlefield itself shifts. Have your villains take action that the players will react to. Make sure you’re making use of consequences beyond just dealing damage.

And make sure everyone has a chance to act, and that you know where each player is during the chaos of combat. Make a map of a complex battle so that everyone knows just what’s happening and can describe their actions appropriately.

Traps

Traps may come from your prep, or improvised based on consequences. If nothing has established that the location is safe, traps are always an option. 

The players may find traps through clever plans, trap sense, or discerning realities. If a character describes an action that doesn’t trigger a consequence, but the action would still discover a trap, don’t hide it from them. Traps aren’t allowed to break the rules.

Attempting the impossible

When a player attempts an action that does not follow from any of their character’s clichés, allow the roll but frame success and partial success as incremental progress. The outcome should, without fully resolving the action, move the situation forward by reducing obstacles, creating opportunities, or positioning the character for future success.

Example:

A Ninja Baker (3) attempts to disarm a bomb.

GM: This isn't an Easy-Bake Oven you are staring at. It's a purpose built demolition charge full of redundant timers, pressure switches, and interlocking circuits. Wires are bundled and re-bundled with no obvious logic, and half the labels are scratched out or written in a short hand you don’t recognize. It’s the kind of device designed so that guessing is fatal. Are you sure you don’t want to wait for help?

Player: No time.

GM: Well, you'll be rolling at two disadvantage for this. Still sure?

Player: Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. I draw my Ginsu and cut the first blue wire I see. Rolled a 6.

GM: The eggs are in the pan and it looks like the countdown has slowed. It’s still armed but you’ve bought yourself some time. Do you want to keep going?

A full success buys time without resolving the threat and creates space for follow up actions. Partial success? Too much heat and too much seasoning. The device unstable and the timer is racing faster than before, but the character can still try to recover. Failure burns everything: ruined eggs, ruined pan, and no way to prevent the inevitable with a few moments left to act. 

Successfully disarming the device will require additional rolls and, most likely, assistance from characters with more relevant clichés. A further success doesn’t neutralize the charge outright, but creates another opening. Perhaps a walkie-talkie clipped to the casing crackles to life, the distant voice of a demolitions expert asking after their partner.

People

Dwarven smiths, Elven sages, humans of all shapes and sizes occupy the world around the characters. They’re not mindless stooges to be pushed around but they’re not what we’re playing to find out about either. The non player characters are people! They have goals and the tools to struggle towards those goals. Use them to illustrate what the world is like. Show your players the common people struggling for recognition or the noble classes seeking to uplift their people. 

Some whole adventures might take place in an environment of people rather than an isolated dungeon. Some classes, the bard in particular, are adept at manipulating and using people as resources. Don’t shy away from these situations. Be a fan of these characters, giving them interesting, nuanced people to interact with.

People, just like dungeons, change over time. The passing of the characters through their lives might inspire or enrage them. The characters’ actions will cause the world to change, for good or ill, and the people they meet with will remember these changes. When the characters roll back through a town they were less-than-kind to on their previous visit, show them how the people are different now. Are they more cautious? Have they taken up a new religion? Are they hungry for revenge?

Relationships between characters are represented by the bonds but relationships with NPCs are more tenuous. If the players want to make real, lasting connections with the people of the world, they need to act. Remember, “what do you do?” is as valid a question when faced with the hopes and fears of a potential new ally or enemy as it is when staring down the business end of a longsword.

Player VS. Player

Sometimes, your characters aren’t on the same side or they just can’t resist a little conflict. Instead of forbidding it or resorting to chaotic solutions like blue bolts or coin flips, we let the players bid for narrative control using their clichés. Here’s how it works:

1. Who goes first?

The player who declares their action first is the “attacker.” The other player is the “defender.”

2. Bidding the story

• The attacker states what they want to do.

• The defender responds with what they want to do in return.

• Players continue taking turns describing their intentions until one player can’t come up with a counter.
  
  

3. Rolling the dice

Once a player can’t counter, the other player uses their relevant cliché to resolve the outcome.

If the attacker rolls 

• Full Success: The defender suffers exactly as the attacker intended.

• Partial Success: The defender suffers, but not as much as the attacker planned.

• Failure: The attacker suffers instead, either from the defender’s intentions or from a GM-imposed consequence. The roles then swap: the attacker becomes the defender.

If the defender rolls 

• Full Success: The attacker suffers according to the defender's intention.intended.

• Partial Success: The defender suffers, but less severely, based on the attacker’s original intention.

• Failure: The defender suffers based on the attacker’s intention.

4. Repeat as needed

Conflict continues in this back and forth fashion until the scene naturally resolves. Every turn is a chance for the players to narrate, react, and roll dice which keeps both strategy and story in play.

Seems complicated, so how about an example. Consider Flinch, a Dwarven Ninja Assassin (4), and Ando, an Andorian Space Samurai (4). They’re dining at opposite ends of the galley on their ship, sharing a meal and making polite conversation… until the Andorian princess comes up. Flinch’s inappropriate comments push Ando over the edge.

Ando: “That’s it! I charge across the table, igniting a laser sword in each hand. When I get to the other end, Flinch’s tailor won’t have to worry about whether he dresses to the left or right!”

GM: Ando is the first attacker. Flinch, how do you respond?

Flinch: “I dab the corners of my mouth with my napkin, and when Ando gets close, I yank the tablecloth, causing a spectacular wipe out.”

GM: Flinch has countered. Ando, can you respond to that?

Ando: “I’ll use my Space Samurai cliché to sense it coming.”

GM: Ando counters. Flinch, do you have another move?

Flinch: “Not today.”

GM: Okay, the back-and-forth ends here. We now resolve the outcome with the attacker’s cliché—Ando rolls his Space Samurai cliché.

Ando rolls… just 1s and 2s.

GM: A failed roll! Instead of a perfect charge, Ando is sent head-first sliding down the table tangled in the tablecloth. The scene now swings to Flinch—he’s the new attacker. The bottle of château lafite is flying toward the floor. What do you do?

Flinch: “That bottle is coming out of Ando’s hide. I go for the KO with a palm strike right between his stupid blue antennas.”

GM: Okay, roll your Ninja Assassin cliché for the strike.

Flinch rolls… 6, 6, 5.

GM: Full success! Ando goes out cold, the bottle shatters, and your tux is stained with ambrosia. What do you do now?

Flinch: “Tuck him into his bed and throw his laser swords in the trash compactor.”

GM: Two inspiration points for Flinch—one for the tablecloth trick and one for tucking him in. Scene complete!

But what if it's too close to call and both players are attacking? Try this.

1. Both players state their characters’ intentions.

2. Both players roll their characters’ clichés.

3. Both rolls are resolved and both characters suffer based on the stated intentions of the other.

For example, imagine a pair of gunslingers characters in a showdown. When the clock strikes noon they will both shoot to kill so each will make their gunfighter cliché roll and the GM will resolve as follows: 

• Full success: the other character is killed.

• Partial success: the other character is killed unless someone intervenes. 

• Failure: the other character is unharmed.

This means it's possible for both characters to kill each other or leave each other unharmed or for one or both to survive if help arrives in time. 

In other cases the full, partial, and failure may lead to different consequences, but the idea of a simultaneous defenseless conflict remains the same.

One last note: while these rules can be applied to scenes involving players and non-player characters or villains, it should be used sparingly. Perhaps only in climactic moments, such as the final showdown with the story’s main antagonist.