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Challenges, contests, conflicts, and scene structure
Most moments resolve with a single roll—do you quiet the courtyard, read the inscription, or sway the scribe to share her notes? Other times you face extended engagements that take several rolls. For those, use challenges, contests, and conflicts. Each fits a different shape of pressure.
No matter the mode, the GM frames the space, pressures, and opportunities so players see what’s at stake and what they can use.
Zones are a quick sketch of space—discrete areas that shape movement, sight, and reach. A manor court might have four zones: Outer Gate, Courtyard, Gallery, Private Chambers. Two to four zones handle most scenes; add more only if the fiction needs it.
Seed the scene with 3–5 vivid details that constrain and enable play. Examples:
Anyone may invoke or compel these. If you slam a cultist into Oil Jars Everywhere, expect consequences.
As play flows, add more when obvious (“Are there shadows here?” → Deep Shadows). Others appear because a PC Creates an Advantage (e.g., Smoke in Their Eyes doesn’t exist until someone makes it so).
GM’s call. A few pre-seeded free invokes can pull the party toward the environment. You can also grant start-of-scene free invokes from prior prep.
Some situation aspects apply only to a particular zone: Knee-Deep Mud (Outer Gate), Broken Colonnade (Courtyard), Smoke-Choked Gallery (Gallery). They shape tactics and movement and often invite Overcome or Defend when exploited.
GM tip: Put one “up-for-grabs” free invoke on a prominent Zone Aspect at scene start to spark early interaction.
When order matters (contests and conflicts), play proceeds in exchanges. In each exchange, every involved character takes one action (Overcome, Create an Advantage, or Attack) and may move once. Defend is reactive—you can Defend as often as needed on others’ turns if the fiction allows.
Use elective action order (“popcorn”). At scene start, the table decides who acts first based on the fiction. After a character acts, they choose who goes next. The GM’s characters enter the chain like PCs do; when an NPC acts, the GM chooses the next actor. After everyone has acted once, the last actor chooses who starts the next exchange.
Example: Ruth and Tirzah reach a shrine at dusk. False worshipers chant while guards scan the path. Because the chanters are focused, the GM says the PCs act first. Tirzah rushes the masked acolyte, Creating an Advantage: Thrown Off the Pattern. To capitalize, she passes to Ruth, who Attacks with Precision, invoking the new aspect. The acolyte staggers—but now Ruth must hand off to the opposition. She names the masked leader, and the GM smiles; a string of foes will act before the exchange closes.
Save notes:
- If a hazard hits you right now (falling stone, choking smoke, sudden dread), you make an Attribute Defend—a save on yourself (Strength, Mind, Heart, or Soul as appropriate).
- If you protect someone else, that’s a Skill Defend (e.g., Compassion to steady, Combat to interpose, Agility to yank them clear).
Fate’s three teamwork avenues all apply:
Most problems resolve with a single roll—quiet the courtyard, translate the inscription, or persuade the steward to open the records. Sometimes the moment is layered and dynamic: smoke thickens in the gallery while the lintel groans, a fearful crowd surges, and you must find the ledger before the guard captain returns. In such cases, use a challenge—a short series of Overcome actions that together address a bigger issue.
Aim for a number of tasks ≈ number of participating PCs. For a harder challenge, add one or two extra tasks or raise difficulties.
Example: Tirzah props the cracked lintel (Overcome with Persevere), Sered soothes the rising panic (Overcome with Compassion), and Ruth searches the shelves (Overcome with Awareness) while a page watches the stair (Create an Advantage: Footsteps Above). Mixed results might save the ledger but set the Watch Alerted for the next scene.
A contest is a race, chase, or debate where sides pursue mutually exclusive goals without directly trying to harm each other. (Hazards can still hurt you; you’re just not trading blows.)
Contests proceed in exchanges. In each exchange:
Ties for highest produce no victory and an unexpected twist—the GM adds/changes a situation or zone Aspect that shifts the terrain (e.g., Market Crowd Surges, Loose Stones, Gate Half-Closed).
If a neutral hazard (flash flood, falling masonry, hostile crowd) threatens participants during the contest, resolve it once per exchange at an appropriate point:
Before your side’s Overcome in an exchange, participants may try to Create an Advantage to set up the main roll. Interference uses Defend as normal.
Example (chase): Raiders bolt through the Broken Colonnade toward the Outer Gate. The party’s side uses Create an Advantage (Cut Them Off) before their Overcome with Agility; the raiders counter with Defend with Agility. End of exchange, highest effort claims a victory; a tie spawns Panicked Goats in the courtyard, complicating both sides next round.