Quick Rules Reference

Conflicts, Contests & Challenges

Use this page when a single roll is too small for the moment. Pick the structure by asking what the scene is really about: solving a dynamic problem, racing an opposing goal, or hurting someone until one side gives way.

Choose the Right Frame

Do not start with “combat” or “skill challenge”. Start with intent, opposition, and stakes.

One scene, one dominant question

Challenge

Use when: the situation is complicated, dynamic, or multi-part.
Opposition: environment, time pressure, dispersed obstacles, or no single dominant opponent.
Main action: multiple overcome rolls.
Question: “How well do they handle this messy situation?”

Contest

Use when: two or more sides want mutually exclusive goals.
Opposition: active rivals, but direct harm is not the main way to win.
Main action: one overcome roll per side per exchange.
Question: “Who gets there first?”

Conflict

Use when: characters can and want to harm, break, exhaust, terrify, or force each other out.
Opposition: direct hostile sides.
Main actions: attack, defend, overcome, create advantage.
Question: “Who concedes or gets taken out?”

Fast rule: If the opposition cannot meaningfully be harmed, it is probably not a conflict. Escaping the living mountain is a contest or challenge. Finding the secret that lets you wound it may be a challenge. Fighting it after that may become a conflict.

Core Roll Results

Compare the roll to active or passive opposition. The difference is shifts.

Fail · Tie · Success · Style

Result	Meaning	GM Use
Fail Lower than opposition	You do not get what you want, or you get it at a serious cost.	Escalate danger, add opposition, worsen a clock, require stress/consequence, or hand an enemy a free invoke.
Tie Equal to opposition	You get a minor cost, a lesser version, or a temporary benefit.	Offer progress with complication. In many cases this means a boost rather than a full aspect.
Succeed 1–2 shifts over	You get what you wanted without cost.	Let the fiction move. Do not invent extra friction just because the roll was important.
Succeed with Style 3+ shifts over	You get what you wanted plus an added benefit.	Boost, extra free invoke, extra contest victory, cleaner result, or useful story detail.

The Four Actions at a Glance

OvercomeGet past an obstacle, solve a problem, move through danger, resist a hazard, complete a concrete task. On style, often gain a boost.

Create an AdvantageCreate a new aspect, discover an aspect, or place free invokes on an existing aspect. New aspect: tie gives a boost; success gives one free invoke; style gives two.

AttackTry to harm someone in a conflict. Success creates a hit equal to shifts. Style may reduce the hit by 1 to gain a boost.

DefendReact to an attack or direct advantage attempt. Success prevents it. Style prevents it and gives a boost.

No stacked mirror results: if an attack ties and the defender’s rule also says the attacker gets a boost, that is one boost, not two.

Challenge Procedure

Best for storms, rituals, investigations, rescues, collapsing buildings, political set-pieces, or any multi-part problem that needs the whole group.

Dynamic problem

Define the situation. What is happening, what is unstable, and what happens if the group handles it badly?

Pick contributing actions. Choose a number of useful approaches/skills/tasks. Aim near the number of involved characters, then adjust for difficulty.

Set difficulties. Use passive opposition unless someone is directly interfering. Different tasks can have different difficulties.

Roll each task as an overcome action. Each roll resolves its own piece of the problem. Teamwork is allowed, but may cost time or attention.

Interpret the mix. Do not reduce the whole scene to pass/fail. Successes, failures, costs, and style results shape the next situation.

Good challenge outcome: “You save the villagers, but the bridge collapses behind you and the relic is carried downstream.” Partial victory is often the point.

Contest Procedure

Best for chases, races, debates, stealth pursuits, ritual races, social showdowns, and escaping a danger before it closes in.

Declare each side’s intent. Everyone needs a clear, mutually exclusive goal.

Run exchanges. Each side gets one main overcome roll per exchange. Allies can help with teamwork or create advantages.

Compare efforts. Highest effort marks a victory. If the winner succeeds with style and nobody else does, mark two victories.

Handle ties. If the highest efforts tie, nobody marks victory. Add an unexpected twist or new situation aspect.

End at the target victories. Standard is three victories. For extended contests, use more, but avoid going beyond five unless there is a strong reason.

Contest Advantage Rules

Before the side’s overcome roll, participants may try to create advantages.
The target, or anyone who can reasonably interfere, may defend.
Each participant may create an advantage in addition to rolling or providing a teamwork bonus.
If the advantage attempt fails, choose: forfeit your side’s overcome roll, or preserve it by giving the opposition a free invoke as the cost.
If the advantage attempt ties or succeeds, proceed with the side’s overcome roll or teamwork bonus as normal.

Threat contests: If a danger is attacking during a contest, anyone whose side rolls lower than the threat’s attack/static rating takes a hit equal to the shifts of failure.

Conflict Procedure

Best when the scene turns on direct harm, coercion, defeat, surrender, or forcing someone out of the scene.

Concede or be taken out

Set the scene. Establish situation aspects, zones, sides, visible threats, and what everyone wants.

Choose turn order. Use your table’s initiative method. Popcorn order works well: active character chooses who acts next.

Start an exchange. On your turn, take one action: overcome, create advantage, or attack. Move once if the fiction allows.

Defend as needed. Characters may defend as a reaction whenever attacked or directly targeted by create advantage, as long as the fiction supports it.

Resolve hits immediately. A successful attack creates shifts of harm. The defender must absorb all shifts with stress/consequences or be taken out.

Repeat exchanges. Continue until everyone on one side has conceded or been taken out.

Zones & Movement

Use zones when positioning matters. Two to four zones handles most scenes.
Anyone in the same zone can usually interact directly.
Adjacent-zone movement is free with your action if nothing blocks you.
Impeded movement requires an overcome action.
Ranged attacks can reach adjacent or further zones only if the fiction and sightlines support it.

Scene Aspects

Start with three to five useful details.
Good categories: mood, weather, blocked movement, cover, hazards, usable objects.
Aspects can apply to the whole scene or a specific zone.
Free invokes from setup are optional, but they encourage interaction with the environment.
New aspects can enter play when characters create advantages or when the fiction clearly changes.

Harm, Stress & Consequences

Tool	Use	Important Detail
Hit	Created when an attack beats defense.	Hit value equals attack effort − defense effort.
Stress	Short-term pressure that keeps you in the scene.	Mark boxes to absorb shifts. Stress clears at the end of the scene.
Mild Consequence	Real harm, but relatively recoverable.	Absorbs 2 shifts. Becomes an aspect with a free invoke for the attacker.
Moderate Consequence	Serious harm that lingers.	Absorbs 4 shifts. Should matter in the fiction after the scene.
Severe Consequence	Major harm or lasting trauma.	Absorbs 6 shifts. This should reshape what the character can safely do.
Taken Out	When you cannot or will not absorb all shifts.	The attacker decides the terms, bounded by the fiction and table expectations.

GM Pressure Prompts

When a roll failsAdd a hard cost: worsen the position, spend time, split the group, reveal danger, give the enemy an invoke, or force a consequence.

When a roll tiesKeep momentum but add texture: reduced effect, new complication, a boost instead of full aspect, or success that exposes someone.

When a contest tiesChange the board: a bridge snaps, the crowd turns, the quarry changes route, a storm intensifies, or a third party enters.

When conflict dragsChange the stakes, compel aspects, offer concession terms, introduce a timer, make the environment active, or have enemies pursue objectives besides damage.

Aelun-style reminder: Do not make every conflict about reducing stress. Make some enemies protect something, flee with something, corrupt something, expose a truth, or force a choice.

One-Screen Summary

Scene Type	Use For	Roll Pattern	Ends When	Best Stakes
Challenge	Complex problem with multiple moving parts.	Several overcome rolls, often across the group.	The needed tasks are resolved and costs are interpreted.	Partial success, collateral damage, time loss, new complication.
Contest	Opposed goals without direct harm as the main method.	One overcome per side per exchange; advantages before the roll.	A side reaches the target number of victories.	Who gets there first, who convinces the crowd, who escapes.
Conflict	Direct harm, coercion, or forceful removal from the scene.	Turns and exchanges using all relevant actions.	One side is taken out or concedes.	What defeat costs, what concession preserves, who controls the aftermath.