Challenges, Contests & Conflicts

Not every dramatic situation is a fight. Fate has three structures for extended action, and the GM picks by asking who's trying to hurt whom. Full rules in @Missing file.

Challenges

Several different tasks, one situation, nobody actively fighting back: disarm the alarm while forging the manifest while keeping the clerk talking. Each part is one overcome roll, and the mix of outcomes writes the scene — two successes and a serious cost is a job that worked, mostly. @Missing file opens this campaign as exactly that.

Contests

Two sides want the same thing but aren't harming each other: the chase, the race, the shouting match. Roll opposed each exchange; win an exchange to score a victory (with style: two), first to three takes it. Contests are where create-an-advantage shines — seed the route with aspects, then cash them at the finish.

Conflicts

When the goal is to harm — swords, threats, or words that leave marks — it's a conflict, played in exchanges on a map of zones. Zones are rooms-worth of space: moving one is free, moving farther or through a barrier is an overcome. Turn order runs on Notice for physical conflicts, Empathy for mental ones; on your turn you get one action, and defending happens on everyone else's. The rooftop approach in @Missing file shows how zones carry their own aspects and barriers — the fog and the gap between buildings are as much combatants as the Tidewatch is.

Reading the room

The skill of playing Fate well is noticing which structure you're in. In a challenge, spend effort where a serious cost would hurt most. In a contest, bank advantages early. In a conflict, watch the stress boxes across the table — and remember that walking in with three free invokes beats walking in with a bigger sword. The dice barely outweigh one invoke; preparation is worth two.