Re: Some questions about Simple Contests and Lingering Consequences

From: Ashley Munday <aescleal_at_...>
Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 21:18:40 +0100 (BST)


Hi Aaron,

>From the example you've given, it looks like you've got the mechanics on the nose (given the usual caveats that I might be getting them wrong as well). However you might be limiting yourself too much by saying "Security Expert -3" is the consequence of failure. Instead of saying something dry like that, try asking the player what went wrong and assign the lingering penalty from that:

This tells you something interesting about the state of the character AND gives you an idea of when to apply the penalty. It doesn't just apply to the ability the character used to mess up the conflict but to anything that's covered by the name of the penalty.

Once you've named the penalty, the player can then try and work the story to removing the penalty:

For a -3 penalty I usually reckon a moderate challenge or staying out of the way for a couple of scenes does the trick.

The same thing goes had he or she succeeded and got a lingering bonus:

And again, this gives a clue to the sort of thing that removes them:

Basically use the same techniques you'd use for naming abilities to name lingering bonuses and penalties and you'll go a long way.

Cheers,

Ash

PS: In addition, you said:

"My concerns are mainly centered around the Lingering Penalty for a well-attempted plan. [...] That seems... harsh."

There are two points to consider here. The first is that the plan may have been well attempted but it went wrong. The second is that the penalty isn't that harsh. The difficulty for the next contest the character is in will probably have a lower target number than the one they failed so it all tends to balance out in the end.

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