The key to understanding how you want to approach any contest is based on the
"Goal" as stated by the player. In the combat example, if the player wants to beat the
opponent, then I'd say the primary trait is going to be the closest melee fighting skill
to stickfighting the hero has, augmented by everything else appropriate. If the goal
was to escape, get by, or distract the opponent long enough for help to arrive, I'd use
Agility or some other appropriate skill augmented by everything else.
With all augments, I require the player narrate some action that SHOWS how the augment helps out. With simple contests, this becomes a back and forth betweeen me and the players, narrating actions in turn, and applying modifiers or augments. It becomes an informal "round" system. At some point, things are climatically built up for resolution(or both sides run out of augments/narration), and things are totalled and rolled.
I use modifiers quite a bit to encourage creative play. A player who comes up with a cool and smart action may impose -10 on the opposition(or +10 to himself, house rule), or whatever number is appropriate. This gives folks who are less skilled a chance to make up the difference with smart tactics.
For example-"He's focused on my axe, right? I'll feint to get him to raise the shield,
grab it, slam it into the wall, and stick it there by lodging my axe into it and the wall!"
"Hey, that's cool! And unexpected! You get +15 to pull that off!" Etc.
Chris
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