Ending Conflict

*Conflict ends one of several ways for those involved. When combat does not end in your favor this could include getting taken out, concessions, and even death.*

### **Getting Taken Out**

If the damage exceeds the character’s stress track, or occupied boxes “push” the stress off the right side of the stress track, the character is taken out, meaning the character has decisively lost the conflict. His fate is in the hands of the opponent, who may decide how the character loses. The outcome must remain within the realm of reason—very few people truly die from shame, so having someone die as a result of a duel of wits is unlikely, but having him embarrass himself and flee in disgrace is not unreasonable.

Generally speaking, getting taken out applies only to the venue of the attack in question. For instance, getting taken out socially means a character has lost his cool and is totally flustered, but he may still be able to punch someone or run away. Getting taken out physically might mean the character is physically incapacitated, but he may still interact socially in some way (though unconsciousness and death do tend to put a small crimp in such things).

Given that a character has a maximum of 4 stress boxes, it’s pretty obvious that taking someone out isn’t all that difficult. There are a couple of ways to mitigate this pain, though: consequences and concessions.

### **Dictating Outcomes**

While the player of the attacker that takes out an opponent gets to decide the manner in which his victim loses, this does not mean that the attacker has the authority to dictate specifics that are completely out of character for the loser. The loser still controls his own character in an essential way and is allowed to modify whatever the winner states to make sure that whatever happens stays true to form.

 To build on an example given here, if someone wins a duel of wits by taking out his opponent, he can say “you embarrass yourself and flee in disgrace,” but he can’t add in embellishments like “…and so you run out of the hall, arms flapping, screaming like a child.” That sort of thing is a color detail that the loser still controls. So if the loser was, say, John Marcone, he might simply fold up his napkin and walk stiffly out of the room. That’s much more in character, but still fills the spirit of the defeat described by the winner.

 Note that this also means that when someone uses her taken out privilege to decide that her opponent dies, the opponent still owns his death scene and can describe his dying words however he wishes.

### **Concessions**

Sometimes, pursuing a goal in a conflict comes at too high a price. Heaven knows what might happen to your character if he gets taken out and has a bunch of consequences to deal with later. Losing can be a very daunting thing—possibly more than you want to deal with at the moment. If loss seems to be inevitable, you can offer a **concession** instead of continuing the conflict.

 A concession is basically a special form of being taken out—you lose the conflict, but you get to decide your character’s fate on your own terms instead of your opponent’s. That way, your character doesn’t have to take any consequences you’re not willing to take and can avoid fates that might arise from being taken out by the opponent, such as getting captured, killed, humiliated, etc.

 A concession has to pass muster with the group before it is accepted—the conditions of the loss still have to represent a clear and decisive disadvantage for your character. If the group (note that your opponent is part of the group for this!) feels like your character is getting off easy, you’ll need to rework the concession until it’s acceptable.

 Here are some guidelines for determining what constitutes a “clear and decisive disadvantage.” These may also be used to represent defeat conditions if the character is taken out:

* The character has at least one moderate or worse consequence as a result of the conflict.

* The outcome creates significant difficulty for the character in the future. The character might offer a concession to avoid getting maimed, but maybe that means an artifact he was protecting gets stolen, or something along those lines.

* The outcome creates a situation that restricts the character’s behavior in some significant way, like owing a large debt to someone. This may require adding an additional, long-term, temporary aspect to the character, separate from his consequence track, so that the defeat can be enforced via compels.

Finally, a character cannot be saved from a roll that takes him out by offering a concession. You have to offer the concession *before* the roll that takes out your character. Otherwise, it’s cheating the opponent out of victory.

### **Cashing Out: The Bright Side of Defeat**

 Losing a conflict, either by concession or by being taken out, grants the player *one fate point per consequence taken in the conflict*. This is called cashing out of the conflict. You can think of this as a compel of each aspect taken in the conflict, because the assumption is that those consequences directly contributed to the character’s defeat.

### **Taken Out, Concession, and Character Death**

So, inevitably, characters are going to get into conflicts where getting taken out means they could die. By a strict reading of the rules, a physical conflict that’s severe enough and takes you out could result in your opponent going, “And you die from your wounds.” This is something you’re going to want to talk about as a group out-of-game, to see where everyone is on the subject…some people have a very “come what may” attitude about it and feel that if that’s what happens and it’s by the rules, then that’s what happens. Others don’t want to see the protagonists that they’ve invested time in get killed by something as potentially insignificant as a bad die roll, or by something as lopsided as heavy fate point spending on the opponent’s part.

 If your group does permit calling for character death in certain physical conflicts, expect players to use concessions a lot to avoid that final fate. This is, in fact, exactly what you want—it ensures that when a player *does* decide to fight to the end, it will be over a conflict that has a lot of meaning for the character, and if he dies, the death will resonate in the emerging story.

 As a rule of thumb, when death is on the line, announce it in advance, preferably at the start of the conflict—e.g.*,* “This guy’s playing for keeps. If he can kill you, he will. You can see it in his eyes.” or “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” That way everyone has plenty of time to see utter defeat coming and can keep an itchy finger on the concession trigger.