FATE Quick Reference
Player Page · Conflicts · Stress, Actions, Consequences
Rules Reference

Conflicts in FATE

This page is a quick reference for conflicts in FATE: what each action does, how attacks and defense work, and how stress and consequences keep you in the fight. Keep this open during play and use it as your at-a-glance rules sheet.

Actions in a Conflict

These are the core things you can do in a conflict. Below each action is a quick reminder of what happens on a failure, tie, success, or success with style.

Action 1

Overcome

Use this to remove an obstacle, escape a situation, cross danger, break free, disarm a trap, or otherwise deal with something that is in your way.

Failure
You fail, or succeed at a serious cost if the GM offers it.
Tie
You succeed, but at a minor cost, complication, delay, or reduced effect.
Success
You do what you were trying to do.
Success with Style
You succeed and gain an additional benefit or flourish.
Action 2

Create an Advantage

Use this to place or discover an aspect, gain leverage, set someone up, reposition, distract, intimidate, feint, throw sand in their eyes, or otherwise improve the situation.

Failure
You fail, and the opposition may gain a boost or another advantage from your attempt.
Tie
You gain a boost instead of a full aspect.
Success
You create or discover an aspect with 1 free invoke.
Success with Style
You create or discover an aspect with 2 free invokes.
Action 3

Attack

Use this to harm, pressure, or force someone out of the conflict. The target usually rolls to defend. If you beat the defense roll, the difference becomes shifts of harm.

Failure
Your attack misses, is blocked, or fails to land meaningfully.
Tie
You deal no stress, but gain a boost.
Success
You deal stress equal to your shifts.
Success with Style
You may either deal stress normally, or reduce the stress by 1 to gain a boost.
Reactive Action

Defend

Use this when another character attacks you, creates an advantage against you, or tries to overcome something you are actively preventing.

Failure
The opposing action succeeds against you.
Tie
You stop the opposing action, but gain no extra benefit.
Success
You stop or reduce the effect of the opposing action.
Success with Style
You stop the action and gain a boost.

Quick reminder: A boost is a temporary aspect with one free invoke. It is fragile, short-lived, and usually disappears if not used quickly.

Action Outcome Cheat Sheet

If you just need the fastest possible reminder, use this table.

Action Failure Tie Success Success with Style
Overcome Fail, or succeed at serious cost Succeed at minor cost Do it Do it + extra benefit
Create an Advantage Fail; opponent may gain a boost Gain a boost Aspect with 1 free invoke Aspect with 2 free invokes
Attack No hit No stress, but gain a boost Deal stress equal to shifts Deal stress, or reduce by 1 to gain a boost
Defend Opposing action succeeds Stop it Stop/reduce it Stop it + gain a boost

Stress, Shifts, and Taking a Hit

When an attack succeeds, the number of shifts the attacker got over your defense is how much harm you must absorb.

Stress Basics

How Stress Works

  • Stress is short-term pressure, fatigue, luck, scrapes, and near-misses.
  • You absorb a hit by checking one stress box of equal or higher value.
  • You do not add multiple stress boxes together for one hit.
  • Stress clears quickly, usually by the end of the scene.
Important Rule

One Stress Box Only

If you take 3 shifts of harm, you need a 3-stress box or higher, or you need to take one or more consequences to reduce the hit first.

Example: If you take 5 shifts, you could absorb it with:
  • a 5-stress box, if you have one,
  • a moderate consequence (4) + a 1-stress box,
  • or a mild consequence (2) + a 3-stress box.
Step 1

Take the Hit

Work out how many shifts got through after defense.

Step 2

Absorb It

Use one stress box, one or more consequences, or both.

Step 3

If You Can’t

If you cannot absorb all shifts, you are taken out.

Ending a Conflict

Most conflicts end one of two important ways: conceding or being taken out. These are very different.

Best Defensive Exit

Concede

  • You give up the conflict before the dice or fiction force you out.
  • You lose the conflict, but keep some control over what happens to you.
  • You cannot concede after the roll that takes you out has already landed.
  • You usually get fate points for conceding.
Use this when: you know you’re losing, want to survive, or want a dramatic escape, surrender, retreat, or capture on your own terms.
Forced Exit

Taken Out

  • This happens when you cannot absorb a hit.
  • You are removed from the conflict.
  • The other side decides what happens to you, within reason and the logic of the fiction.
  • That might mean unconsciousness, capture, humiliation, panic, injury, or worse.
Use this as a warning sign: if it looks likely, consider conceding before the decisive roll lands.

Consequences Cheat Sheet

Consequences are more serious than stress. They represent actual injuries, trauma, magical backlash, social damage, or lasting impairment. Each consequence also creates an aspect that can be invoked against you.

Mild

2-Shift Consequence

  • Absorbs 2 shifts
  • Examples: Bruised Ribs, Shaken Confidence, Twisted Ankle
  • Still matters in the fiction
  • Usually the first consequence taken
Moderate

4-Shift Consequence

  • Absorbs 4 shifts
  • Examples: Deep Cut, Panic Spiral, Burned Hand
  • Clearly serious and limiting
  • Will shape the scene and often later scenes too
Severe

6-Shift Consequence

  • Absorbs 6 shifts
  • Examples: Crushed Shoulder, Soul-Shaken, Publicly Broken
  • Major lasting fallout
  • Represents a genuinely heavy price
Consequence Absorbs What It Means How Long It Lasts
Mild 2 shifts A meaningful but not devastating injury or setback Typically lasts through the current scene and clears quickly after recovery time
Moderate 4 shifts A serious injury or heavy complication Usually lasts longer, often through the next session of play
Severe 6 shifts A major, defining injury or trauma Usually lasts the longest, often through the remainder of the scenario
How to Use Them

Taking Consequences

  • You can combine consequences with stress to absorb a hit.
  • Each consequence reduces the hit by its listed value.
  • The consequence becomes an aspect on you immediately.
  • The opposition usually gets at least one free invoke on that consequence.
Very Important

They Stay in the Story

  • Consequences are not just numbers; they are fiction.
  • If you have Broken Arm, that should affect what you can do.
  • If you have Rattled Nerves, that can be compelled and exploited.
  • Even after recovery starts, the aspect can remain until fully healed.

Quick example: You take 7 shifts from an attack. You could absorb that with a moderate consequence (4) and a 3-stress box, or with a mild consequence (2), a moderate consequence (4), and a 1-stress box.

Player tip: If a hit looks too large and being taken out would be bad, think about conceding before the next dangerous roll. Conceding often gives you a much better narrative outcome.