Terminology | Ability Burn | Action Scene | Aspiration | Bane | Boon | Breaking Point | Character Sheet | Credo | Dice Rolls | Downtime | Exploration Scene | Initiative | Influence | Impediment | Multi-action Penalty | Obsession | Positioning | Pivotal Event | Range | Round | Surge | Turn | Treasure | Zone
Action Scene
An action scene is usually a pivotal event taking place where something of importance is occurring, usually immediate danger. This can include battle scenes, chase scenes, or even environmental hazards such as a building or cavern that is caving in and characters are fleeing the falling rubble. Every second counts in an action scene, so they play out in turns, with each turn taking roughly 3 seconds in the game world.
Players make initiative rolls to determine their turn order relative to each other, and the GM does the same for any NPCs taking part in the scene. GMs may make a single roll for all NPCs or make a separate one for each at their discretion. Players make a single roll for their character and presume all their minions act immediately after their main character does (if any).
An initiative roll is usually just one die with no bonus, but if a GM rules a particular ability is relevant, they can add that ability's rank to the roll. Players can also spend surges to improve an initiative roll, adding a bonus to it or rerolling it.
Starting from the highest initiative roll and working towards the lowest, everyone takes turns determining what their character does. Each character can take only 1 action on their turn and 1 reaction between their turns. After everyone has acted, the cycle starts again at the top of the initiative order.
This continues until the action scene is resolved and the danger is no longer immediate.
Players are typically rewarded XP for action scenes as they are usually pivotal events, but in cases where they are not pivotal events, the GM may not reward XP.
Actions:
Attack
Defend
Disengage: leave the zone requires 1 success, plus you can move an additional zone per success. If you're 10 zones away, you're typically considered to have escaped the action scene and moved into a chase scene.
Engage: move towards a target requiring a number of successes depending on how many zones away they are (1 success per zone).
Help
Shift
Sprint
Stride