Running Conflicts

Once a **conflict** begins, follow this regular pattern.

1.     Frame the scene.

2.     Establish the groups in the conflict.

3.     Establish initiative.

4.     Begin the exchange

a.     Take actions

b.    Resolve actions

5.     Repeat step 4, beginning a new exchange.

### **Step 1: Framing the Scene**

The GM first needs to set up the basic details of the scene. When and where does the conflict take place? What are the particular qualities of that “arena”? What are the primary things that could influence the conflict in that arena? You don’t need an encyclopedic amount of detail— just enough to get the group on the same page about what the overall situation is when the conflict starts.

 The GM’s primary tools for framing the scene are **zones** and **scene aspects**. A zone is an abstract region of the space the conflict takes place in, loosely defined as an area in which two characters are close enough to interact directly (which is a nice way of saying “can talk to or punch each other in the face”). Placement in zones affects things such as whether or not characters have to use ranged weapons to attack each other. As a rule of thumb, characters in the same zone can touch each other, characters one zone away can throw things at each other, and characters two zones away can shoot at each other (some guns can shoot three or more zones away).

 In general, any given conflict should not involve more than a handful of zones, although folks looking for a more tactical experience may want to increase that number. Considering that guns operate easily two zones away, two to four zones are sufficient for most scenes. Don’t feel pressured to include more zones than the area naturally seems to support, though—if it’s a small space, it’s perfectly fine to say that everyone’s in the same zone.

 Don’t ignore zones, even if they’re just represented by a hastily scribbled map on a napkin. Even a little bit of a map to interact with goes a long way toward making a conflict more interesting.

 The GM also needs to set aspects for the scene—basically anything about the scene that could give advantage or disadvantage in the conflict. These aspects are available for anyone in the scene to invoke. Normally, these aspects aren’t available for tagging unless a player has to discover the aspect through assessment, or if he’s put the aspect on the scene before the conflict starts. On the other hand, some GMs may want to encourage players to interact with the scene aspects right away by treating each aspect as having one “open” tag available to those players fast enough to incorporate them.

 Generally, the more scene aspects there are, the livelier the environment is. GMs should therefore be pretty liberal about throwing scene aspects out there, giving the players a very tactile way of interacting with the environment and incorporating those details into their action descriptions. Five scene aspects, give or take a couple, is usually a good number.

### **Step 2: Establish Groups**

It’s important to have a clear idea about who is going to attempt to take on whom in a conflict, even if it’s every man for himself. Normally, the standard division of groups is the PCs vs. an opposing group of NPCs run by the GM, but this isn’t always the case. Maybe two PCs have vastly different goals in the conflict or even opposing ones, and maybe some of the NPCs are allied with the PCs.

 Make sure everyone agrees on the general goals of each “side,” who’s on which side, and where everyone is situated in the scene (like who’s occupying which zone) when it begins. Once you’ve done that, you need to break down how those groups are going to “divvy up” to face one another—is one character going to get mobbed by the bad guy’s henchmen, or is the opposition going to spread itself around equally among the PCs?

 Usually this is pretty self-explanatory, but it can be an important step in more complex scenes, such as those involving three or more groups with opposing goals.

### **Step 3: Establish Initiative**

The next step is to decide the order in which the characters act. This is referred to as te order of **initiative** (as in, “X takes the *initiative* to do Y”)—most often, people just say “initiative.” The skill used for determining initiative in a physical conflict is Alertness. Whenever a conflict starts, the character with the highest Alertness gets the first turn, followed by the second highest, etc. Every character gets one turn per exchange. Some powers and stunts can modify the initiative order; otherwise, the same initiative order is used from one exchange to the next.

  Empathy might determine initiative in a social conflict, whereas Discipline might work for a mental conflict. In the case of a tie, call upon some other relevant skill to resolve things. In physical conflicts, ties would probably resolve with Athletics. You may opt to delay your action until a future point in the exchange, allowing you to interrupt someone else’s action later in the initiative order. Once this happens, your initiative is set at that point for the rest of the conflict, unless you delay again.

#### **Options for Initiative**

Some groups may feel like skill-based initiative is a little too technical and rigid, preferring a greater variance for turn order in conflicts. That’s fine—if you want, you can do it in a more context-based fashion: simply allow the person who initiates the conflict to go first, and then have the turns go clockwise around the table. In the next exchange, let the next person go first, so that the “spotlight” of going first gets passed around during the conflict.

 Keep in mind, however, that GMs may need to adjust some other rules to make skills like Alertness and abilities like Speed feel significant, as a large part of their function in the game has to do with keeping initiative. If your group is making the switch, make sure that playerswho have these on their character sheet aren’t screwed over by it.

### **Step 4: Take Action!**

When your character’s turn comes up in the exchange, describe what your character is doing in terms of one of the basic conflict actions. The basic conflict actions are:

**Attack :** Roll against an opponent to try to inflict stress or **consequences**  on him directly.

**Maneuver:** Roll against an opponent or against a fixed difficulty to try to place an aspect on the opponent or the scene.

**Block:** Roll to set up a preemptive defense against a specified future action; anyone committing that named action will have to roll against the block to succeed.

**Sprint:** Roll to change zones, with a higher roll allowing a greater degree of movement.

Each character gets one basic action per turn, but under certain circumstances your character can take a **supplemental action** and/or a **free action** in addition to that main action. Of course, in lieu of anything else, a character may choose to just duck and cover:

 **Full Defense:** You can always choose to do nothing active in the exchange at all; your character is assumed to be concentrating entirely on defense. As such, any defense rolls you make to avoid attacks or maneuvers are done at +2.

Also see **Social Conflict**, **Mental Conflict**, and **Advice on Mental and Social Conflict**.