Playtesting has indicated that these rules don’t work as well as hoped.
We’ll leave them here for historical reasons, but newer versions of N-Dimensional Tourists do not use these rules.
These rules describes how to resolve Conflicts between
two parties or more during a role-playing game using
the N-Dimensional Tourists ruleset.
This mechanism is designed to be generic enough to handle
pretty much any kind, while remaining mostly narrative.
The core idea behind this mechanism is that parties
involved battle for Control of the Conflict. Losing
Control means that your party will have to take more
risks to achieve the same results. With sufficient
Control, a party may essentially dictate the outcome
of the Conflict.
A Conflict is a scene in which two parties or more have
agendas, which cannot be fulfilled simultaneously. In most role-playing
games, the most common form of conflict is the combat, but that is by
no mean the only form possible: conflict could be car races, social wit,
political campaigns, chess, battlefield strategy, attempting to ruin your
opponent’s reputation or fortune, popularity contests, football matches,
etc.
Conflict does not have to be symmetrical. A guerilla may be attempting to
cause maximal damage to infrastructure while the government forces attempt
to destroy the guerilla forces. An outlying party may be attempting to
propagate its doctrine while the more traditional parties attempt to
maintain the status quo. A sniper may attempt to kill a target. A child
may be attempting to attract attention during a kidnapping attempt. A
mountain may be attempting to kill a climber while taking the risk of
losing the ability to surprise that climber.
Conflict does not have to be about killing or maiming. A chess game may
very well be a Conflict in which players are risking their reputation
and self-esteem. A soccer match between to groups of friends is a
Conflict in which both parties agree tacitly neither to take (too many)
risks, nor to make the other party take risks.
Conflicts assumes that both parties have some manner of assessing their
situation, and have some ability to act. In other words, as long as the
target of the sniper is not aware of the sniper, there is no conflict between
the sniper and the target. In other words, if no other factors are in play,
the act of sniping will most likely be a simple case of Overcoming an obstacle.
On the other hand, if the target is running away, there is a – very asummetrical —
conflict between the sniper and the target. Similarly, if an enemy patrol is
currently looking for an infiltrator, there is a conflict between the sniper’s
smarts, stealth and sniping ability and the enemy patrol’s smarts and detection
ability. Similarly, if the traditional parties are busy quelling a political
crisis or are unaware of the outlying party, there is no conflict between the
outlying party and the traditional parties – although there could be a
conflict between the outlying party and a specific candidate.
Conflicts decide whether any of the parties manage to reach their desired
outcome. In the case of a race, the desired outcome is typically arriving
first. In the case of a gang fight, the desired outcome is typically getting
the other gang to end up broken and bleeding or fleeing. In the case of a
sniper vs. patrol, the desired outcome is typically evading the patrol and
killing the target vs. capturing the intruder before he has the chance to
cause damage. The players representing each party must have a clear idea
of the desired outcome for the conflict.
Credits: Flickr user Paul K
They are, of course, entirely free to change the desired outcome, but this
may end up completely changing the state of the conflict. For instance, if
the hidden sniper finds themself cornered, they may decide to change plan,
create maximum chaos and attempt to escape – but that’s a new conflict.
a few tokens per party (a total of 10 tokens or 1d10 should be amply sufficient);
lots of space on the table.
As you will need to organize your cards into several heaps, we suggest using
the following Playing Mat. Experience shows that it is very helpful
for your first few attempts.
As a bonus, it recapitulates the Conflict resolution rules.
During a Conflict, each party attempts to reach a goal, by adopting shifting
tactics.
The key concept during a Conflict is the Control, which represents how close the
Dominant party is to having complete control of the Conflict. If the Conflict is
balanced, there is no Dominant party and the Control is 0. Otherwise, there
is a Dominant party, and its Control value is a positive number. Regardless of
how many parties are involved in the Conflict, only one party may have the Control.
Once a party has complete control of the Conflict, none can stop it from reaching
its goal.
The Conflict takes place as a sequence of Rounds. Each Round represents all parties
attempting to execute their tactics to either grab the Control, if the Conflict
is Balanced, or otherwise strengthen/weaken the Control. Two successive Rounds may
represent entirely different durations, depending on what makes sense in the story –
one round may very well last ten minutes and the next one ten years, without problem.
To grab the Control, strengthen their Control or weaken the opponent’s Control,
each party may need to take risks. With risks come the possibility of Losses. Depending
on the Conflict, Losses may represent wounds, engine issues, delays, lack of information,
loss of soldiers, etc. As a
party accumulates Losses, it becomes weaker, hence making it easier for other parties
to beat them. Losses may end up with a party being Wiped Out. That’s not something
you want to see happen to your party, as this represents the worst possible outcome –
possibly death, or slavery, or social infamy, or life behind bars, depending on the
Conflict. Rather, most parties leave a Conflict by Conceding it, which may represent
for instance the party surrendering, fleeing, stepping down from power, etc. depending
on the Conflict.
Taking risks is represented by a bidding mechanism – each card drawn increases the party’s
chance of achieving their tactics for the round, but also the chance of being hit by
Losses. Higher Control gives the Dominant party the ability to draw more cards before
they start taking risks.
If, during the Conflict, a party finds itself in a situation in which it can suddenly
gain an advantage for reasons related to the story, rather than the cards themselves,
this party may take the opportunity, hence causing the Conflict to end immediately
and resume on different terms. This is called Reframing the Conflict. This is what
happens if a discussion leads to violence, or if a fleeing driver leaves the vehicle
to enter the subway, or if a political figure caught in a scandal declares a War
on Terror to distract the public opinion.
Consider a Kaiju setting. This is Wednesday morning, so a giant monster is attacking Tokyo.
For some reason, everybody knows its name: Levinulon. The Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force is currently mobilizing. Tokyo’s Police is attempting to shoot at Levinulon using whatever is
at hand, but they have no chance of doing any damage. Civilians are fleeing. A gang of
criminals (“Family Z”) is taking advantage of the chaos to rob a bank.
What are the sides? Well, it depends on who is interesting.
Picture by Wikipedia User D J Shin – My Toy Museum – Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0
If we are interested in Levinulon and the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force, then these are the two sides. Levinulon intends to destroy the city, while the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force intends to
save the city. The Police and civilians will certainly take damange, as well as Tokyo itself, but they have no means of altering the outcome of the Conflict. Rather, they will be used for narrative purposes, to show the progress of Levinulon.
Or, maybe we are concentrating on the Conflict between Family Z and Police. Family Z intends
to grab the contents of the bank vaults and leave during the chaos, while the Police intends
arrest or shoot the gangsters. In this case,
the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force, Levinulon and the Civilizans will be there only for
narrative purposes, for instance to explain why the Police may end up losing Control
against such a low-profile gang (“all our communication channels are busy, we can’t
synchronize”).
Or maybe we are concentrating on the efforts of Police officers to evacuate civilians towards safety bunkers. In this case, the parties are the Police officers and Generalized destruction.
Police officers intend to avoid Civilian losses, while Generalized destruction intends to
maximize it – of course, this only makes sense if Generalized destruction can somehow be interpreted as having a goal and tactics. This depends entirely on the kind of story you intend to tell. Here, the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force, Levinulon, the Civilians and Family Z are there purely for narrative purposes, and will serve to explain increasing or decreasing Control by
Police officers and Generalized destruction.
Note that none of these examples has to be a Conflict. The Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force
vs. Levinulon, or Family Z vs. the Police, or the Police vs. Civilian losses may very well
be represented as Overcoming Obstacles if one of the sides is considered a simple obstacle
rather than an active Conflict Party. The GM gets to decide what feels more interesting.
Apparently, the US Covert Mech Operations are in Tokyo for an unrelated reason. They are going to join the Conflict.
Does this make it a three-sided Conflict? Well, it depends on what the US Covert Mech Operations intend to do.
If the US Covert Mech Operations join forces with the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force, then no. They are going to help with the initial Control, and they are going to have a narrative role, but for the purpose of rules, they are part of the same party as the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force. So, this remains a Conflict between two sides.
Now, it is possible that the US Covert Mech Operations was in Tokyo for economic warfare purposes, and the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force has strict orders to disable their mechs and help the Police capture the US Covert Mech Operations agents, in addition to fighting Levinulon. The US Covert Mech Operations need to reach the Tokyo Stock Exchange and hack it before Levinulon destroys it, shooting down any Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force Officer that comes in the way. Meanwhile, Levinulon is quite happy to destroy everything. In this case, we have three sides in the Conflict.
By the way, it looks like a helicopter crew of All Nippon News Network has just arrived on the site. The objective of this helicopter crew is, of course, to gather the best possible images, which may mean putting itself in danger. A vicious GM may decide to make this helicopter crew yet another party. One of the objectives of the Mechanized Tokyo Defense Force is to defend the All Nippon News Network Crew, which means preventing it from getting the best images. The US Covert Mech Operations must not leave any recorded trace, which also means destroying the helicopter crew. If so, the site has just become a four-sided Conflict.
Each party gets to pick the Attribute they use for the Conflict, as long as it makes sense within the story. Driving Mechs to battle requires either Blades (for the violence), Serpent (for the quick reflexes) or Paper (for the strategy) – of course, you may only do so if you have an Aspect that implies that you can drive Mechs at all. Destroying Tokyo with sheer force requires either Blades (for the violence) or Stone (for the raw power). Leading Civilians to safety requires either Paper (for the strategy) or Stone (for the authority).
Take the numerical value of the Attribute of the party as a baseline. For each Aspect that the party has that makes sense within the Conflict, add 1. Similarly, for each Weakness that makes sense, remove 1. If the party doesn’t have its own Attributes but is composed of several characters, take as baseline the best Attribute across characters, and all the Aspects and Weaknesses that make sense, for all characters.
When creating NPCs or parties, it is common to write directly a specialized Attribute that may be used during such conflicts, e.g. Levinulon may have Destroy Everything at 8.
The party with highest total starts with the Control. The value of the advantage is the number of ranks of difference between the highest total and the second-highest. Note that if this rank is 5 or more, the chances of the leading party winning are extremely strong, so it may not be necessary to actually have a Conflict. If no party has the highest total, the Conflict starts Balanced.
In a Conflict with three parties or more, this may mean that a party that is comparatively much weaker than the others starts Balanced. This represents the fact that both stronger parties will be much busier fighting each other than fighting this smaller party.
If one of the Parties has a Control of n ranks, put as many tokens in front of the corresponding player.
Let us concentrate on the main event: the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force vs. Levinulon. As mentioned above, Levinulon has been defined with a specialized attribute Destroy Everything at 8.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force as a whole is defined with a Paper of 5, thanks to the excellent command team. On its character sheet, it also a Well-trained team (+1), The most agile mechs in the world (+1) and Excellent knowledge of Tokyo (+1). Sadly, during the latest fight, it was determined that The second-in-command is severely wounded – and is probably still in the hospital – (-1). The total is 7.
With 8 - 7, Levinulon has a slight Control (1). The GM gets one token to materialize this Control.
Picture by Flickr User Brian Rinker – Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0
Let’s add the US Covert Mech Operations to the mix. It is a team of Highly-trained Operatives (+1), with a Blades of 5. It also has Deadly tactical weapons (+1), Space-to-Ground support (+1), Regenerative Alloy (+1). It has been established as Weakness that they also have Limited Knowledge of Tokyo (-1). This gives them a total of 8, at equality with Levinulon. Consequently, in a three-sided Conflict, the Conflict starts Balanced.
Nobody receives any token.
This remains true if we add the All Nippon News Network Crew, with a Serpent of 4 and No Fear (+1) for a total of 5. Despite the fact that the Crew is so puny with respect of all the other parties, the rules don’t give it a specific disadvantage.
Note that, despite the Balanced start, the All Nippon News Network Crew has no ability to actually attack Levinulon. Therefore, its goal simply cannot be to somehow beat Levinulon. Also, if the goal was to beat Levinulon, the All Nippon News Network Crew would have been considered part of the
same party as the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force.
All player-controlled characters and parties have a Reserve of Cards, which they use to counter bad luck or make their own luck. That’s because they are, after all, main characters/parties. Antagonists typically also have a Reserve of Cards. Most antagonists are only expected to appear in a short part of the story, so they only get a smaller Reserve.
How many Reserve Cards a non-player party gets is decided by the GM. A typical number is one Card per opposing faction that has a Reserve.
If a non-player party gets Reserve Cards, draw them before the Conflict and put them on the party’s character sheets.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has been defined, as a whole, with a single character sheet. It therefore has one Reserve, which may contain cards or be empty. Therefore, Levinulon draws one card and puts it in its Reserve.
However, if the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force had been created as a set of 5 different characters with individual sheets, each characters would have one Reserve. Therefore, Levinulon would draw 5 cards into its Reserve.
A conflict is composed of rounds. During each round, each party has a tactics to either
grab the advantage (if the Conflict is Balanced), consolidate their advantage (if they
are the Dominant party) or weaken the advantage of the Dominant party (otherwise).
Each round is composed of a succession of bids. Each bid is an opportunity for a party to
take more risks in the pursuit of their immediate tactics. Once bids are complete, parties
get to narrate what happened to their character during the round.
Before drawing cards, each party must describe their tactics for the round. Tactics may
change from round to round, and should always be a manner of achieving either control
of the Conflict or reaching the stated Goal of the party.
Tactics live purely in the fiction, rather than the rules – in other words, they have no
impact on the drawing of cards. However, they open the way to Reframing the Conflict
(see below).
Ludwig Elsholtz Napoleon I. mit seinen Generalen – Public Domain
Of course, tactics are only acceptable if they make sense within the fiction.
Levinulon: “I will simply attempt to do as much damage as I can, trampling the subway if it’s close to me.”
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “For the moment, we’re spreading around the area, attempting to find the best angle of attack.”
US Covert Mech Operations: “We’re pushing to maximum speed, trying to find a path to the Tokyo Stock Exchange before we can be seen on camera and before anybody or anything blocks our way.”
All Nippon News Network Crew: “For the moment, we’re being cautious, we’re moving on top of a building, getting ready to jump into the action.”
Balance Breaker Rounds happen whenever no party has managed to grab the Control. Balance Breaker Rounds can cause minor Losses, but nothing more dangerous.
In a balanced round, bidding proceeds as follows:
Each parties draws one card.
If one of the parties has drawn the Excuse:
Bidding is over.
Proceed to the end of the Round. The next round will be another Balance Breaker Round.
Otherwise, if one of the card has drawn a card that beats all other cards
This party now has a Control of 1. Give that party one token to represent this Control.
Bidding is over.
Proceed to the end of the round. The next round will be Unbalanced.
Otherwise
Bidding is over.
Proceed to the end of the Round. The next round will be another Balance Breaker Round.
This flow may be altered by taking advantage of Losses (see below).
Do not discard the cards immediately. Reversed cards will be reused at the end of the Round.
As we see, the All Nippon News Network Crew has drawn the XVI of Triumph, which beats
all non-Triumph cards (in this case, the US Covert Mech Operations) and all Triumph
cards with lower numbers (Levinulon and Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force).
The All Nippon News Network Crew has gained an Initiative of 1. The next round will therefore be an Unbalanced Round.
The three reversed cards will be collected and reused as temporary Losses below.
If a round starts Unbalanced in favor of a party (the Dominant), the objective of the Dominant
is to both use their power to drive the other parties (the Contenders) out of the game and to consolidate their advantage. Conversely, the objective of the other parties (the Contenders) is to stay in the game and decrease the advantage of the Dominant, hopefully returning it to Balance. To do this, the Dominant and the Contenders take part in a succession of bids.
At the start of an Unbalanced Round, if the Dominant has an advantage of n, the player must have n token in front of them.
Bidding is the act of deciding to draw one card, then placing it in front of the player without changing its orientation. Drawing a card increases both the risk to the party and its ability to grab or consolidate advantage.
Contender parties speak first, in an arbitrary order (clockwise around the table works nicely),
each bidding or passing;
Dominant may then bid or pass;
repeats until one of the conditions below is encountered:
If a party has just drawn the Excuse:
The Control of the Dominant is decreased by 1, possibly returning the Conflict to Balanced.
The player who drew the Excuse discards it, regardless of orientation, and draws another card for narrative purpose. If this card is reversed, it will be reused at the end of the Round.
Proceed to the end of the Round.
Otherwise, if the party has drawn 5 reversed cards during this round:
The party is Wiped Out and is now out of the Conflict.
If at least one party is still part of the Conflict and has not passed
Continue bidding
Otherwise
Proceed to the end of the Round.
Otherwise, if all parties that are still in the Conflict have just passed
If at least one Contender (including a Contender that has just been Wiped Out) has a set of cards that beats all the cards of the Dominant (each card of the Dominant needs to be beaten only by one card of the Contender)
The Control of the Dominant is decreased by 1, possibly returning the Conflict to Balanced.
Otherwise
The Control of the Dominant is increased by 1.
In either case, Proceed to the end of the Round.
Note that no stalemate is possible in an Unbalanced Round.
This flow may be altered by using the Control, or Using the other party’s Losses (see below).
We have previously established that, in a two-sided Conflict, Levinulon has a Control of 1. So the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force draws first.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force draws
Levinulon draws
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is currently losing, with its Paper beaten by the Blades. Consequently, it draws
Levinulon is still winning as its Blades beat both the Paper and the Serpent, so it passes.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force draws
Levinulon is now beaten by the Triumph, so it draws
At this stage, Levinulon could incur a Temporary Loss (see below). However, using its Control Token (see below), it turns the card around, into
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is currently winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
It now has experiences at least a Temporary Loss (see below).
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is still winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is still winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is still winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is still winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is still winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is still winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is still winning, with the highest Triumph, so it passes.
Levinulon draws:
At this stage, Levinulon has at least a Lasting Loss (see below).
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force’s Triumph is now beaten by a higher Triumph. Reasoning that it has only about 10% chances of finding a Triumph higher than XVI. in the remaining cards, the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force passes.
Levinulon still passes.
Bidding is over.
Levinulon has increased its Control, but at the cost of a Lasting Loss (see below), while the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has escaped without Loss.
When we left the four-sided Conflict, the All Nippon News Network Crew had a Control of 1.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force draws
The US Covert Mech Operations team draws
, which means that it will suffer at least a Temporary Loss.
Levinulon draws
The All Nippon News Network Crew draws
and uses its Control token to avoid a Temporary Loss (see below) by turning it to
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has the lead and passes. If the All Nippon News Network Crew does not manage to beat this card, it will lose the Control in the next round.
The US Covert Mech Operations team is content to let the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force take care of removing the All Nippon News Network Crew’s Control, and passes.
Levinulon similarly passes.
The All Nippon News Network Crew attempts to conserve the Control and draws
.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force still has the lead and passes.
The US Covert Mech Operations still passes.
Levinulon similarly passes.
The All Nippon News Network Crew continues its attempt to conserve the Control and draws
.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force still has the lead and passes.
The US Covert Mech Operations still passes.
Levinulon similarly passes.
The All Nippon News Network Crew continues its attempt to conserve the Control and draws
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force still has the lead and passes.
The US Covert Mech Operations still passes.
Levinulon similarly passes.
The All Nippon News Network Crew continues its attempt to conserve the Control and draws
With this card, the All Nippon News Network Crew now suffers from a Temporary Loss.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force still has the lead and passes.
The US Covert Mech Operations still passes.
Levinulon similarly passes.
The All Nippon News Network Crew continues its attempt to conserve the Control and draws
If The All Nippon News Network Crew draws a third reversed card, it will suffer a Lasting Loss.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force still has the lead and passes.
The US Covert Mech Operations still passes.
Levinulon similarly passes.
Reasoning that drawing another card would mean about 50% chances of a Lasting Loss and roughly 10% chances of beating the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force’s Triumph, the All Nippon News Network Crew stops taking risks for this round and passes.
Bidding is over. The All Nippon News Network has lost its Control of 1, meaning that the Conflict will now need a Balance Breaker.
Conflicts are risky. This is represented by reversed cards that accumulate,
resulting in Temporary Losses, Lasting Losses of increasing gravity, or
even Wipe Outs.
If, during the Round, a party has drawn…
0 reversed cards
they have experienced no Loss;
1 or 2 reversed card
they have experienced a Temporary Loss;
put either one of the cards on the table, on a line of cards reserved for Temporary Losses;
the party must narrate the Loss;
this Loss is Temporary – it will disappear as soon as it has been used by an adversary, or at the end of the Conflict;
3 or 4 reserved cards
they have experienced a Lasting Loss;
put 3 of the cards on the table, on a second line of cards, reserved for Lasting Losses;
the party must narrate the Loss;
this Loss will carry over after the end of the Conflict, until it has somehow been cured;
narratively,
the first Loss of a party during a Conflict is something that will be very easy to cure/heal/fix – a little rest, maybe some first aid, etc. will do wonders;
the second Loss of a party during a Conflict is something that should be relatively easy to cure/heal/fix – the kind of Loss that can happen automatically between two scenarios, or by seeing a professional;
the third Loss of a party during a Conflict is something that should be difficult to cure/heal/fix – a scenario might be necessary to find a cure;
the fourth Loss of a party during a Conflict is something very hard to cure/heal/fix – an entire campaign might be necessary to find a cure;
further Losses are permanent – they may never be cured, short of a miracle.
A few points to remember:
For narration purposes, use at least one of the cards that make this Loss. While this is not always possible, ideally, you should be able to weave a narrative that uses all the cards.
While you may narrate things that have happened to you because of other parties’ actions, each player has sole narrative control upon their party. In other word, other players may overrule any description you make of their actions and successes.
You are the sole owner of your character’s narration, hence the only person who can describe your Losses. You get to determine whether a Loss is physical, psychological, emotional, material, etc. Just keep in mind the gravity of the Loss, as seen above.
During the first Round, Levinulon has drawn the following reversed cards:
That’s three reversed cards, so Levinulon experiences its first Lasting Loss:
Levinulon: “While stomping around Tokyo and causing general havoc, I knock out a major electricity relay and somehow electrocute myself. In a matter of seconds, the relay goes down, leaving me barely phased.”
This establishes the Fact that Levinulon is (at least somewhat) vulnerable to electricity. All players will be able to weave this Fact in their narrative.
As this is Levinulon’s first Lasting Loss of the conflict, it will be able to recover with only a little rest. However, a second Lasting Loss will be more consequent. There’s still hope for Tokyo!
During the Balance Breaker, several parties drew reversed cards.
Levinulon drew
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force drew
US Covert Mech Operations drew
They all experience Temporary Losses:
Levinulon: “In an attempt to go too fast, I stepped on a bridge, causing it to collapse with me on top of it. I’m so large that it’s not a problem, but it will take me a few seconds to get back on course.”
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “It took a few minutes for the communication center to reach Hazuki, so we arrived a bit late.”
US Covert Mech Operations: “With the number of cameras and armed forces on scene, we risk an international incident, so our mobility is limited for the moment. Also, since Levinulon drew a card which clearly represents the Stock Exchange, if it’s ok, I’m going to assume that Levinulon is on our way and pretty close to the Stock Exchange, which makes things harder for us.”
US Covert Mech Operations: “The police network channel that we were hacking to get traffic information has been disrupted by the destruction. We’ll have a few difficulties mapping our route.”
All Nippon News Network Crew discards one of the cards, decides to interpret the Snakes card as a labyrinth: “Our pilot picked an approach route that keeps us out of the line of fire, but he needs to fly between buildings, which takes all his concentration.”
At the start of the Round, each party has narrated the tactics that they were going to employ during the Round. They now get to narrate what has happened, exactly, starting with whoever won the Round (if there is a winner), then whoever lost it (if there is a loser), then everybody else (if there is an everybody else).
A few points to remember:
For narration purposes, use at least one of the cards that you have drawn during this Round. While this is not always possible, ideally, you should be able to weave a narrative that uses all the cards.
While you may narrate things that have happened to other parties because of or in reaction to your party’s tactics, each player has sole narrative control upon their party. In other word, other players may overrule any description you make of their actions and successes.
Whether your actions succeeded or failed is entirely up to you to decide. What the cards have determined is how the Control has progressed, but even whether you gained/lost, strengthened/weakened your advantage, you may well decide that all your individual actions have failed, or that they have succeeded, or that they have had unexpected results, etc.
Levinulon: “I will simply attempt to do as much damage as I can, trampling the subway if it’s close to me.”
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “We move to intercept Levinulon and distract it from the crowds.”
Despite its Lasting Loss, Levinulon has increased its Control, with a few cards including
This not only suggests that the tactics have succeeded, but also that Levinulon has managed to destroy quite a lot of things.
Levinulon: “For the moment, I’m enjoying myself in this sandbox. I don’t think that the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has managed to grab my attention yet, and the electrical shock I have just sustained doesn’t manage to bring down my enthusiasm, so I’m happily stomping around, Leaping like a Giant, leaving behind me A very, very obvious trail, playing Absolute Power. I assume that, in the imagination of the citizens, my Rising to Power to become a very, very credible threat.”
Of course, the player behind Levinulon could have decided an entirely different story, for instance fighting the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force.
On the other side, the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force drew
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “Obviously, we failed to intercept Levinulon. That’s because of Levinulon’s accident with the power relay – we couldn’t get too close, either, to avoid damaging our Mechs. However, thanks to this incident, we believe that we have Uncovered a weakness of Levinulon. We’re reporting this to the headquarters so that they can try and Create a strategy or some gadgets to help us.”
Again, these elements may be used in the rest of the Conflict: the weakness of Mechs to electricity, the constant communication with headquarters, the headquarters looking for a manner to use electricity against Levinulon.
During the 4-sided Balance Breaker, the parties had established the following tactics:
Levinulon: “I will simply attempt to do as much damage as I can, trampling the subway if it’s close to me.”
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “For the moment, we’re spreading around the area, attempting to find the best angle of attack.”
US Covert Mech Operations: “We’re pushing to maximum speed, trying to find a path to the Tokyo Stock Exchange before we can be seen on camera and before anybody or anything blocks our way.”
All Nippon News Network Crew: “For the moment, we’re being cautious, we’re moving on top of a building, getting ready to jump into the action.”
All Nippon News Network Crew then won the Round with
All Nippon News Network Crew: “We found a great angle with visibility on all the rampage. I don’t think we have noticed the US Covert Mech Operations yet, but we have a great footage to capture the imagination of spectators. I think that we’re the only helicopter with such great footage, so we’re going to have great ratings!”
Levinulon lost with
Levinulon: “I may have been a bit overeager there trying to reach the subway and stepping on that bridge. I’m wasting time getting back on course from that bridge collapse. Nothing awful, of course, I’ll be back with more mayhem in a second.”
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force lost with
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “Due to this delay, we’re arriving a bit late, but we’re now ready to step into the action.”
The US Covert Mech Operations team lost with
US Covert Mech Operations: “Due to the necessity for discretion, we need to slow down.”
During the second Round, the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force won with
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “Let me confess something: at the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force, we don’t really like the press. Like the Police, we have to play nice with them, and show them a smiling face and cooperate, but we secretely hate these people. We have to get them out of danger right now, and if this means showing them a face that they won’t like either, that’s ok. So our commander takes the microphone and starts yelling something along the lines of ‘You, in the helicopter, you are in a restricted area. If you haven’t left the danger zone within five seconds, we’re going to open fire, and if you happen to be in our reticles, you’ll end up shot. This is your only warning!’ “
The All Nippon News Network Crew lost with
All Nippon News Network Crew: “Oh, gosh. We’re going to take this warning seriously and exercise Caution. But, well, we’re the All Nippon News Network Crew, we Make the Future Happen on TV or online, so we’re not giving up. Actually, that’s probably the reason for which we had to go in this labyrinth between buildings. So, we left the immediate fire zone, turned around the conflict, and we’re now hidden between these buildings, where we hope that nobody can see us, or at least shoot us down. It might also be a good angle to notice the US Covert Mech Operations, by the way.”
Levinulon neither won nor lost with
Levinulon: “So, I’m back on my course of destruction. I believe that I’m actually much faster than the news crews, and they have difficulties catching up with me. Other than that, I’m merrily stomping on a school right now.”
The US Covert Mech Operations neither won nor lost with
US Covert Mech Operations: “We’re still heading towards the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It’s tricky because of the chaos, and we have lost our traffic data, plus we still need to be discreet, but we’ll get there, eventually.”
Being Wiped Out is not something to be taken lightly. The victor of the Conflict has complete narrative control of the situation and may decide whatever makes sense within the story – this may include killing all the party members, shaming them in front of their pears, leaving them no choice but exile, or dragging them to a convent to spend the rest of their lives in isolation, or driving them to bankrupcy…
While the issue is not necessarily strictly fatal, it is clearly Very Bad.
For this reason, this is not how most Confrontations end. Rather, most parties will decide to Concede a Conflict rather than Wiped Out. Conceding is something that may happen at any end of round, provided that the party hasn’t been Wiped Out yet.
Conceding the Conflict still means that the party has lost and that their objective now cannot be achieved anymore. It is costly. However, the players keep narrative control over their characters.
Also, in the interest of helping the story bounce back, Conceding a Conflict restores the Cards Reserve of the party that has just Conceded.
It is not possible to return to the Conflict after having Conceded it. If this was your intention, take a look at Reframing the Conflict.
Let’s fast-forward our two-sided Conflict, to a point where the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has suffered five consecutive reversed cards. The force is out of Reserve cards and doesn’t have any Control point, so there is no way to cancel this fifth reversed card.
The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has just been Wiped Out.
The player behind Levinulon (in this case, the GM), has full control over what happens to the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force. This player may, for instance, decide that all team members are dead – and how they died. Incidentally, Levinulon has won and will destroy most of Tokyo.
The GM decides to keep the party alive, barely. Levinulon has no special interest in destroying the force itself, just the city. So, the mechs are destroyed, the headquarters of the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force have been trampled and destroyed in the process, killing most of the supporting NPCs and all of the infrastructure. That’s not all, as Levinulon also crushed the bunker hosting the Japanese Prime Minister, causing an unprecedented political crisis in Japan.
The mech pilots somehow manage to get out of their mechs and to make their way towards an hospital outside of Tokyo. After a few days of watching the catastrophe on all TV channels and websites, they are all deeply depressed, some of them suicidal. To make things worse, the army dispatches the military police to round up the pilots and arrest them, on trumped up charges of treason, in the false hope that scapegoats and a hope of revenge will help the army keep some discipline in the country. Their story will continue with them in prison, waiting for word of their execution.
Let’s now fast-forward our four-sided Conflict, to a point where the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has suffered three Lasting Losses, two of them due to a firefight between itself and the US Covert Mech Operations team. Most of the Japanese Mechs are destroyed,
Levinulon is happily rampaging – and has the Control – and given their current condition, there isn’t anything that the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force can do about it.
The player beyind Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force decides to Concede. The combat is lost for the team, but as this is a Concession, the player can determine the terms of this loss, as long as it makes sense.
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force: “I’ll somehow get in touch with the commander of the US Covert Mech Operations team. If necessary, I’ll use the loudspeakers. ‘Commander, I don’t know who you are, but I will call upon your honor. Me and my team are severely wounded, we need to withdraw immediately. Please, commander, whatever your mission is, you have won. I now beg you to spare my soldiers. And if you find it in yourself to concentrate your fire on the best that is now murdering the innocent citizens of Tokyo, please, please, do so.’”
Since these terms require collaboration from the US Covert Mech Operations, the player may decide to reject them, in which case the
Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force player will need to come up with an alternative explanation of why the US Covert Mech Operations doesn’t manage to tear them to pieces. For instance, it is possible that a skyscraper suddenly falls on both teams, forcing them apart, and that the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force takes the opportunity to call for retreat.
Fortunately, the player behind the US Covert Mech Operations decides to accept the conditions of the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force. The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force may limp away from the fight, hoping to eventually recover from their losses. Since there have been three Lasting Losses, getting back up to strength will require a campaign-long quest, attempting to gather political support, the technological knowledge and the rare material needed to build new and upgraded mechs, despite the loss of face just incurred, and possibly recruiting new team members.
The Conflict continues with only three sides.
Despite having surviving mechs, the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force may not return to the Conflict.
If only one party remains, all the other ones either have been Wiped Out or having Conceded, the last party standing is the victor, and achieves their objective.
In many stories, a Conflict will end before being resolved, simply because the characters have changed their objectives, or their means. Perhaps a fisticuff has become a battle of wits or magic, or perhaps a poker game has ended with a character drawing their gun. Perhaps a chess player has decided to drug their opponent’s drink, threaten their family and invite pole dancers to provide a distraction and prevent them from thinking properly. Perhaps a time-traveller or a multiverse tourist has decided to abandon mundane manners to resolve a quarrel, and have decided to bring in a few dinosaurs to the car race. Perhaps two of the three cow-boys locked in a Mexican Stand-off have decided to join forces and finish their common enemy, at least until the unavoidable betrayal.
Or perhaps a party has found a last-minute idea to avoid being Wiped Out.
In terms of rules, all of these complete changes to the layout of the Conflict are called Reframing. Note that simply using a different tactics to achieve the same goals does not, by itself, Reframe a Conflict – that’s simply what happens naturally at every round. A Reframed Conflict must have different goals and different means. The GM is in charge of validating whether a change in a Conflict is simply a new tactics or a full Reframing.
When a Conflict is Reframed, the Conflict stops immediately. Parties, goals and Control are re-established. Generally, this means that a party that had a high Control must restart with a lower Control, or possibly without any Control. If you have experienced Temporary Losses, they are discarded. If you have experienced Lasting Losses, copy them to your character sheet as Weaknesses, but discard the cards. Your next Lasting Loss will be, once again, something simple to heal/fix.
Once all of this is done, re-establish the Control.
Now that The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has limped away from the fight, there are only three sides left, with the following objectives:
Levinulon: Destroy Tokyo, including the Tokyo Stock Exchange, destroying anything that annoys it.
US Covert Mech Operations: Infiltrate the Tokyo Stock Exchange, killing anything in their way, including witnesses, and outmanoeuvering Levinulon.
All Nippon News Network: Film everything, even if it means putting other parties in jeopardy.
But what if the following changed?
Perhaps the All Nippon News Network crew may change their objectives and decide to try and lead Levinulon away from the city. In this case, the US Covert Mech Operations will be able to get into the Tokyo Stock Exchange without trouble, hence removing them from the Conflict. This changes the parties in presence and the objectives, which means that the Conflict is Reframed.
Perhaps the US Covert Mech Operations may decide to change weapons and use orbital fire support to attack Levinulon? That’s not a change in objectives, just one in tactics, so the Conflict proceeds as previously.
What if the US Covert Mech Operations decided that the only way to maintain anonymity was to abandon the mission and somehow call for gravity harpoons be dropped on Tokyo in the interest of fighting the monster? That is a drastic change in situation – rather than fighting its way towards the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the US Covert Mech Operations team now needs to leave Tokyo before the carpet bombing. This would also Reframe the Conflict – or perhaps change it into something altogether different from a Conflict, such as a race against the clock.
What if the US Covert Mech Operations and Levinulon somehow managed to communicate and reached an agreement? They would stop fighting each other, letting the US Covert Mech Operations reach its objectives and concentrate fire on witnesses and obstacles. This would also Reframe the Conflict – or, once again, perhaps change it into something altogether different.
What if the US Covert Mech Operations and the All Nippon News Network somehow managed to join forces in an effort to destroy Levinulon? They would both abandon their objectives, Reframing the Conflict into a combined trap against the monster. Until, of course, the unavoidable betrayal by one side or the other.
Having the Control means that you don’t need to take as many risks to achieve your goals. This is materialized by the ability for the party with the Control to turn cards – to either reverse them (hence causing or increasing Losses for other parties) or un-reverse them (to avoid Losses).
With a Control of n ranks, you may (un)reversing n cards during a Round. To remember this limit, if you have an Control of n, you start the round with n Control Tokens (or, equivalently, one d10 set to n). Each time you turn one card, this costs you 1 Control Token. All Control Tokens not expended by the end of the round are lost.
As you can imagine, having many Control Tokens is a considerable boon. Recall that, if an adversary party has 5 cards in front of them and you can afford to spend 5 Control Tokens, you can simply decide that this party has been Wiped Out during the round.
You may only turn a card immediately after that card is drawn and placed on the table. Control does not work against Reserve Cards.
In the four-sided conflict above, the All Nippon News Network Crew had drawn its first card reversed. Rather than facing an immediate Temporary Loss, it decided to use its sole Control Token to un-reverse the card.
For the next round, there is no Control, so nobody will be able to turn a card.
Your Losses make your party weaker. This is materialized by the ability for adversary parties to reject cards drawn by your party.
Whenever your party experiences Losses, whether Temporary or Lasting, these Losses are represented by cards, face visible, on your side of the table. A Temporary Loss is represented by 1 card, a Lasting Loss by 3 cards. As long as you have such cards, face visible, when it is your turn to draw a card that another party doesn’t like, that other party may ask you to simply discard the card you have just placed. Since a Loss has been used against you, you get to turn one of the Loss cards in front of you face down, which means that it won’t be used against you again.
As you can imagine, having many Losses makes it very hard to reach for the Control or to keep it. That’s in addition to the gravity of Lasting Losses, which you’ll carry over after the Conflict.
When a Temporary Loss has been turned face down, it is expended and you may discard the card. However, to keep track of Lasting Loss, you keep Lasting Losses in front of you, even after they have been turned face down.
Losses can only be used against you immediately after you have drawn a card. They do not affect Reserve Cards.
During the first round of the two-sided Conflict, Levinulon has electrocuting itself, suffering a Lasting Loss.
On Levinulon’s side of the table, the following cards are now visible
During the next round, Levinulon draws immediately
This is the highest Triumph, which makes Levinulon pretty much unbeatable. That’s bad. Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force immediately requests a redraw.
Levinulon discards the card, hides one of it’s Lasting Losses cards
and redraws
It’s still a Triumph, but one that the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force has a chance of beating. The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force may decide to overrule this draw or to conserve the Losses for later use. Note that, even once these three cards are hidden, the Lasting Loss remains.
At the end of the Balance Breaker Round, Levinulon, the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force and the US Covert Mech Operations have each suffered one Temporary Loss.
Given that the card drawn by the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force is hard to beat, the All Nippon News Network Crew could have decided to use the Temporary Loss of the Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force to request a redraw. The Tokyo Mechanized Defense Force would have then discarded both the Temporary Loss card and the Triumph.
In any story, there are major characters/parties and secondary ones. Major characters – including antagonists – are harder to shake away than mere extras. This is represented by parties involved in a conflict having Reserve Cards – or no Reserve Cards for secondary antagonists.
A party may use their own Reserve Cards to replace a card that has just been put on the table, or turned, by any party, provided the following conditions are met:
if the party wishes to replace their own Card, they must narrate how one of their own Aspects, Weaknesses or Losses that are still on the table helps them in this circumstance;
if the party wishes to replace the Card of another party, they must narrate how one of the Aspects, Weaknesses or Losses that are still on the table of the other party hinders that party in this circumstance.
In other words, the Reserve Cards are one materialization of the Aspects, Weaknesses and Losses of all parties involved. If the conditions are met, the party may take one of their Reserve Cards and put it on top of the card that they intend to replace.
Reserve Cards are replenished as follows:
during the Conflict, whenever you win a round, you can draw a new Reserve Card immediately, as long as you do not go past the number of Reserve Cards on your character sheet;
at the end of the Conflict, if you have Conceded, you can restore, you can draw
as many Reserve Card as were used against you to replace your cards during the Conflict, even if this brings you past the number of cards indicated on your character sheet;
plus one more card.
There are other ways to replenish Reserve Cards out of Conflict, which we won’t detail here.
Photo by Wikipedia user William Tung – Cosplay of DC Comics characters at San Diego Comic Con 2015. – Licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0 – Source: Wikimedia Commons
Most commonly, the player’s characters will, together, be one party in the conflict. This does not change the rules above, but it does lead to interesting questions, such as: “who’s getting that permanent Loss on their character sheet?”, “who’s spending one Reserve Card?” or “who’s receiving one Reserve Card?”
Whenever a Balance Breaker takes place, players should decide who draws the card.
Whenever it is the turn of the player’s party to to pass/bid, if the players collectively decide to bid, one of the players must take the responsibility of drawing the card.
In both cases, whoever drew the last card of the round for the party will receive the entire benefits (in terms of Reserve Cards) and pay the entire cost (in terms of Losses).
Any of the players may only use their own Reserve Cards. If they use a Reserve Card to cover one of their own cards, this must be narrated in relation to one of the Aspects, Weaknesses or Losses of the player’s character.
If the party won the round, the player who drew the last card for the party receives the bonus Reserve Card.
Reserve Cards used by opposing parties to cover the party’s cards are accounted for separately for each player. If you, as a player, drew the card that was covered, the Reserve Card gets, upside down, in front of you.
A character may Concede the Conflict individually. If so, the character gets one Reserve Card for Conceding, plus one for each Reserve Card used by opposing parties to cover the player’s cards.
If the party Concedes the Conflict as a whole, this is equivalent to each character Conceding individually.
If a single character manages to Reframe the Conflict, this affects all parties for the entire Conflict.
