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The final Difficulty of such actions is a hard thing to judge. Generally, anyone with a greater Skill Rank than you will have quite an edge. Even a little Active Opposi tion can make such actions as sneaking up on someone very Difficult. As Director, you'll have to adjust the inherent Difficulty of the action by the level of the Active Opposition. For example, attempting to hit an opponent in combat, who is roughly equal to you in skill and build, is probably a Normal Difficulty. A Judo flip used against the same opponent would be a Difficult action. Against someone much better than you, a punch might be a Difficult action, and a flip would be Extraordinary. We'll discuss the Difficulty of combat actions further, in the chapter entitled 'Combat'. Rule Of Thumb As a rule of thumb, you can consider raising or lowering the Difficulty of Actively Opposed actions by one step, for each two full points of difference in the oppo nents' Skill Ranks. This is a very rough rule, and will certainly fluctuate depending on the genre being played and the situation at hand. An action can't be harder than Impossible, and any action less Difficult than Easy is pretty much an Automatic Action. So, if you're going to win out over opponents two or more full points better than you, then you had best be very clever, or bring the battleground into an area where you have the advantage once again. THE ACTIVE PARTICIPANT In most cases, as Director, you needn't make sepa rate adjudications for each party in an Actively Opposed action. Choose one party to be the Active Participant. This is generally the person the camera would be focusing upon in a movie. If the choice is between an Actor and a member of the Supporting Cast, then unless you have good reasons not to, choose the Actor. First, set the Active Participant's Difficulty in terms of the action. Next, adjust the Difficulty to take into account the Skill Rank of the opposition, the environment, and most importantly, the roleplay of everyone involved. Make any judgement of Results based off your adjudication for the Active Participant alone. DUELING SUCCESSES There are some instances where you'll want to make separate adjudications for several of the participants in an Actively Opposed action. Instead of basing the Result of an Actively Opposed action off of the roleplay of a single participant, you can choose to make multiple determina tions of Result. This is the normal route to take in combat. This means that you'll be setting the Difficulty and making 58 Theatrlx - The Core Rules determinations of Success and Failure, separately and simultaneously, for each participant. This also means that it's possible for both sides in the action to Succeed, both sides to Fail, or one to Succeed while the other Fails. To give you an indication of the possibilities, think of the Western showdown example, given earlier under 'Skill Vs. Plotline'. All we knew was that both parties in that conflict had drawn and fired. Yet, even disregarding their roleplay, and their respective Skill Ranks in both Marks manship and the Fast Draw, there were still a lot of interesting possibilities based upon the assignments of Success and Failure alone. We touched on only a few of them. Taking into account the other factors as well, these situations can get very messy. RESOLUTION FLOWCHARTS Resolution Flowcharts are structured decision paths that easily allow you to reach a suggested outcome for any series of actions. To use the flowcharts, all you need to have is a good visual impression of the actions you wish to find a Result for, firmly in mind. By using the flowcharts, you'll quickly develop your own sense of the questions you'll need to answer, in order to create good interactive drama from your fluid impressions of the roleplay. A single Resolution Flowchart may apply to a broad cat egory of situations. Which flowchart best fits a particular dramatic moment is up to the discretion of the Director. Using the Resolution Flowcharts is a two part opera tion. Normally, you'd begin with the chart marked 'Basic Resolution Flowchart', so take it out and have a look at it now. To use the flowchart, start with the middle box at the top. Answer the question in the box, following the arrow with your answer on it to the next indicated box. Don't worry terribly about having the 'correct' answer. Simply answer the way your judgement leans toward and go on. Proceed similarly with each subsequent box. When you reach a box exited by a black arrow, you're done with the first stage. The next step is to choose the most appropriate 'Advanced Resolution Flowchart' for the action. You may choose from flowcharts for 'Athletic Activities', 'Combat Activities', 'Intellectual Activities', and 'Interpersonal Ac tivities'. Other, more genre specific flowcharts will be available in future supplements (many are included within our Setting Books). Once you've found the appropriate flowchart to continue with, start with the box on the new chart, that duplicates your ending box from the previous chart. Move out along the arrows, passing along the most appropriately marked path. Again, don't worry about being overly 'correct'. This is a theatrical game, so keep the pace and be fluid with your decisions. The text at the end of each path is a description that captures the structure of the suggested Result. Just apply this Result to the action in question.
RESOLUTION PATHS The questions and paths available on the 'Basic Resolution Flowchart' should be fairly self-explanatory. After some use, you may find that you no longer need to look at this chart in order to resolve your judgements. The 'Advanced Resolution Flowcharts' are somewhat more condensed, and you may find yourself referring to them more often. If there's anything that you don't understand on either chart at first glance, don't worry, because we're going to run completely through both charts explaining all the little boxes and ovals. After this, we'll also go through a few full examples, JUst to make sure you're comfortable with the whole system Basic Resolution Paths Start by taking out all the flowcharts that accompa med the 'Core Rules' you're reading now. Take a look at the 'Basic Resolution Flowchart', starting at the top and center. This is where we'll begin. The first box reads 'Does the Plotline require some particular Outcome?'. Does the Plotllne require some particular Outcome? This question is asking whether there is some reason, for the sake of the story, that the action you're resolving should be either a Success or a Failure, despite all other factors, such as Skill Rank or Difficulty. If your answer to this question is 'Yes', then we take the path to the box which reads 'Does the Plot demand Success or Failure?' Does the Plot demand Success or ll II Failure? This is a straightforward question, and leads to the right hand side of the chart, which deals with Success, or the left hand path, leading to the various Failures (no philosophical Judgements are intended in our use of right and left handed paths). If your answer to the center starting box was 'No', then you follow the path to the box which reads 'Skill Vs. Difficulty - Are they capable of the action?' Are the y capable of lhe Action? This is your judgement as Director, and should take into account Skill Rank, Difficulty, any Spectalizations, and most of all, Roleplay. Your answer once again splits off onto either the right hand path of Success, or the left hand path of Failure. The choice IS yours If you simply can't decide, then you might try using the semi-random die rolling method we discuss under the section tttled 'Randomness', at the end of this chapter. After the above decisions, you'll find yourself look ing at one of two boxes. Both of them have to do with the question of whether to release the tension and reveal your deciston now, or whether to h1de the outcome in some way, holding the tension of the moment. Both of these boxes are scope independent. What we mean by this, is that your decision can apply as easily to a s1ngle ex change of blows in combat, a whole combat, weeks of research, or the execution of an intricate and detailed plan. You may dectde the outcome of a whole combat in one pass, using the flowcharts to help direct your storytelling of the interventng events. Or, you may use the charts to help resolve the outcome of a single action, passing through the charts many times in order to resolve some thing as large as a whole combat, research project, or plan. How much you want to compress into a single decision really relies upon such factors as timmg, tens1on, the importance of the events, and the details of your own story. The charts work JUSt as well, no matter how you WISh to use them We'll start with the left hand box, which reads 'Release the Tension or let them Struggle?'. Release the Tension or Let them Struggle? This is really an aesthetic decis1on, but we suggest that you m1lk your best Scenes for all they're worth. The Theatrlx - The Core Rules 59
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()eslan: David Berkman, Trav1s Eneb
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1J [Bll f)f tf)J[1J§ c INTRODUCTIO
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Downtime Pregaming APPLAUSE JELLYBE
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Page 12 and 13: Chapter V- Lights ... Camera ... Ac
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Page 16 and 17: pretend to be this other person tha
Page 18 and 19: ¢ A league of super-powered heroes
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Page 32 and 33: Books If you're creating your own g
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Page 38 and 39: Example Skills The following page c
Page 40 and 41: Personality Trait Activation In add
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Page 44 and 45: Descriptor Activation Like Personal
Page 46 and 47: CONCEPTION The concept for your cha
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Page 66 and 67: RANDOMNESS If there are times when
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Page 76 and 77: However strange this turn of events
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Page 92 and 93: WOUND LEVELS We suggest the followi
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Johnny- Yeah, the instant I drop th
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Director- [Accepting Scott's improv
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Johnny - Right. We're gomg for the
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Research A quick note on research.
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UPDATING THE CORE RULES The Theatri
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end, or be re-rolled if the scores
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in question will fly as fast as a s
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q character q action q direction Q
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What mood will it evoke? What 1s y
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need Plot Tum II spins the action i
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ecome violent. The Troupe can look
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9 Person's Name 9 Involvement in th
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DCPTI I don't have much to say here
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strong,just like you would expect t
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Midpoint Scene tV Pinch II Plot Tur
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ATTRIBUTES (3.5) Sltength (4 OJ Sta
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Theatix 12efeence Sheet A Skill Ran
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I Plain Fighting Theatr-ix l2efer-e
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