Narrative Play
This is the half of the game where you are a person rather than a gun platform, and it runs on one loop.
You go first, always
The GM cannot ask you for a roll until you name a goal. They describe the situation and then wait. You say what you want to happen. Only then does anyone reach for dice.
If your group stalls, dithers, or looks at the GM to find out what happens next, you have handed initiative over and the GM will move the story without you. That is the deal.
The loop
- Name your goal. Not "I search the room" — "I want to find out who signed the transfer order."
- The GM names the cost of failure, out loud, specifically.
- You roll, adding a trigger or an invoked background if one applies.
- 10 or higher and you get your goal. 9 or less and you do not, and the named cost lands.
The GM may only inflict a consequence they announced. If they cannot think of one, you simply succeed and no dice are rolled.
The six costs
Failure is rarely damage. Expect:
HARM — injury. Usually 1–2, more at close range. TIME — it takes far longer, and something else moves meanwhile. RESOURCES — ammunition, a favour, standing, a reputation. COLLATERAL — somebody else takes it. A bystander, an ally, the building. POSITION — you end up somewhere worse. EFFECT — you get a lesser version of what you wanted.
Difficult, risky, heroic
Before you roll, the GM may declare the attempt:
- DIFFICULT — 1 DIFFICULTY on the roll.
- RISKY — the cost lands on anything under 20, including a success. You get what you wanted and the complication.
- HEROIC — only 20+ succeeds, and anything less brings the cost.
Trying again
A failed check means you failed that goal. You cannot retry unless something has changed — time, gear, approach, help.
Or you push it, and the check immediately becomes RISKY. A RISKY check becomes HEROIC if the GM allows it. HEROIC cannot be pushed further.
Helping
If several of you work at one thing, one person rolls and gains 1 ACCURACY, no matter how many are helping. Everyone who helped shares the consequence.
Working together on something large
A skill challenge: everyone makes a relevant check, and more successes than failures carries it. For a plan with several stages, the GM may run several rounds and you need to win the majority.
The enemy does not roll
NPCs never make rolls in narrative play. If you lie to someone and succeed, they believe you — that is the whole ruling. If the GM thinks somebody is unusually hard to fool, they say the check is DIFFICULT before you roll it, and you get to decide whether it is worth trying.