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Roll an Ability score to resolve opposed actions. Spend one point of your Will pool before rolling to Invoke an Aspect and get bonus dice.
You and your opponent both roll; whoever rolls the highest number on a single die wins. The number of successes is the number of dice that beat the loser's highest die. (In other words, the loser's high die sets the TN for the winner.)
If both sides have the same highest die, discard that pair and look at the next two dice. If all the dice are tied, the side who rolled more dice wins, with one success.
If both sides have the same size pools and rolled exactly the same roll then it's a real stalemate, and the GM shifts the situation.
What do successes do?
1 - “Damage.” The number of successes are applied directly to the opponent's Power track. Cross off the box equal to the number of successes - just that one box. If the box is already crossed off, cross off the next highest uncrossed box.
When this happens (a “bump”) the character gets a new “Injury Condition” equal to the number of the box that was crossed off.
A “Condition” is just like an Aspect (in fact, it is one). Describe whatever just happened to the character and note it on the character sheet. You can spend a Pool point to Invoke it to your advantage, if it makes sense. Others can Invoke it against you if that makes sense. (Your Broken Ankle can help you get sympathy, but will get in the way if you try to run away!)
2 - “Maneuver.” A Maneuver is a setup roll. On your very next roll, you get to use all the successes from the Maneuver as bonus dice. (This costs a Will point. Think of the Maneuver as creating a 1-use Aspect for you to invoke on your next roll.)
Maneuvers can be risky, though. If the Maneuver roll fails, the roll you were trying to set up may not happen at all!
Since it costs a Will point to use the successes as bonus dice (paid after rolling the Maneuver), maybe failing a Maneuver roll should refresh you a will point, Lady Blackbird / The POOL style.
3 - “Effect.” An “Effect” is just like an Aspect (in fact, it is one). Instead of using the successes right away on the very next roll, pay a point from your Pool to make them stick around as an Aspect of the setting, scene, or situation. The Effect lasts until it goes away naturally as a result of the fiction, or until someone does something to get rid of it. You, (and others, if it makes sense) can pay Will to Invoke the Effect on future rolls, just like usual.
You can apply Damage against an Effect to get rid of it; just reduce the Effect by the number of successes you roll (Effects don't have Power tracks; only people do!)
Since Conditions and Injuries are Aspects, you can get rid of them the normal way by spending Advances.
As usual, this is all governed by fictional positioning. If you get cut up, the cuts will eventually heal and the Condition will go away on its own as game time passes.
If you're Ashamed and Embarrassed it might just evaporate when you start the next scene.
If your arm got cut off, it won't grow back (unless your'e an axolotl).
Once you get it down to 1 die it becomes a permanent feature of your character (“One-armed man”) rather than an injury (“arm cut off 3D”)
You can spend an advance to move it to your Background. You'll still only have one arm, but it won't cause you problems or give you advantages, mechanically.
Other characters can make Recovery rolls to help you. This can be actual doctoring / first aid (for physical injuries), pep talks / encouragement for “social injuries,” and so on. Successes reduce the severity of the Injury die for die.
Penalty Dice -
Penalty dice come from Aspects being Invoked against your character. Whenever someone Invokes an Aspect against you to give you penalty dice, you get to add a point to your Will pool.
If person Invoking the aspect is a player, the point comes from that player's Will pool. If the person Invoking the aspect is the GM, the point doesn't come from anywhere, you just get one. (The GM has, effectively, an unlimited Will pool for this purpose.)
Penalty dice add to the opponent's pool.
Power Track -
The Power track is like temporary hit-points. It is fully restored by having a Refreshment scene with another character. Refreshment scenes also clear up any transient Conditions / Injuries / Effects that may be hanging around. (Your arm won't grow back, but you'll stop feeling Panicked!)
I like Eero's rule that when you have a refreshment scene you're letting your guard down. So you get to heal up whenever you want, but when you do the GM gets to fuck with you.
Players call for refreshment scenes between scenes. You can get one whenever you want, between scenes, but you can't get one in the middle of a scene.
Refreshment scenes also restore your Will pool, if it has fallen below its starting value. If you have more Will than the starting value, you don't lose the extra Will. (Or maybe Will just can't go over its maximum, which means if your Will is full, people can invoke Aspects against you for free.)
In addition to triggering Injury Effects, the Power track also determines when you're knocked out of a confrontation. If the last (highest) box of the Power track is ever crossed off, you're out of the scene.
Gear -
Gear give you bonus dice or penalty dice depending on the scene. Gear probably doesn't give more than +/-3 dice.
You don't pay or receive Will to use Gear; the dice simply apply.
XP -
XP comes from Keys
There are two kinds of Keys:
Dramatic Key Framework: Keys of this type describe dramatic motifs
1 XP - The dramatic issue is involved in a scene 2 XP - The character encounters significant challenges related to the theme. 5 XP - The motif progresses. Buyoff (10XP) - The theme is discarded from the game.
Motivation Key Framework: Keys of this type describe psychology
1 XP - The character expresses the motivation 3 XP - The character follows the motivation despite risk, personal cost, or other considerations Buyoff (10XP) - The character opts to let go of the trait represented by the Key
Every 5 XP is an Advance.
You can spend your Advances right away, or save them.
In general, it costs 1 Advance per die to change your character.
So, 1 Advance can move a 1D Aspect to your Background (or promote a Background to a 1D Aspect), or promote a 1D Cultural Identity Ability to 2D, or create a new 1D Aspect out of thin air (well, out of fictional positioning). A new Key also costs 1 Advance.
It costs 2 Advances to raise or lower a 2D Aspect or Ability one die, 3 Advances to raise or lower a 3D Aspect or Ability one die, and so on.
You can see why it's generally better to heal your wounds with First Aid than with Advances…
