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<chapter id="sactions" revision="$Revision: 1841 $ $Name$"

  vendor="1.39" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude">

  <title id="stactions">Action Resolution</title>

  <para>For resolving an action in Harmonies, three aspects must be

    determined.  The first one is the type of action, the second its

    difficulty, and the last is the <link

    linkend="scompniveau">Competency Level</link>.  Those details must

    be determined by the Game Master and, again, the rules are simply

    there to help her or to suggest some solutions.  She can do

    everything she want with.</para>

  <section id="sdifficulte">

    <title id="stdifficulte">Action Difficulty</title>

    <para>The action difficulty give the chance of success of an

      action for a typical character (one with zero in all her

      attributes and competencies).  A typical character will have 50%

      to succeed an action of difficulty zero.  An action with a

      positive difficulty (low) will be easier to succeed than an

      action with a negative difficulty (high).</para>

    <para>The principle is simple.  Choose first the Competency and

      Attributes that will be used.  The Game Master then choose the

      difficulty for this particular action.  This difficulty is the

      same for everyone, whatever their level.  It's the action

      difficulty.  Then, the Game Master can add or remove to the

      difficulty depending on particular situations, like the ground

      or the current visibility.  For example, it's far more easy to

      do an acrobatic jump on a flat and dry ground than on a wet

      floor.</para>

    <para>This is very similar to what we used for Attributes.  When

      an action is twice as difficult <emphasis>to succeed</emphasis>,

      the difficulty is higher of 3 points (in Value, this mean that

      we subtract 3 points to the difficulty of the action).  If the

      action is three time more difficult <emphasis>to

      fail</emphasis>, it's mean that we <emphasis>add</emphasis> 5

      points to the difficulty.  The final difficulty is calculated by

      adding the action difficulty, adjusted with the current

      situation, to the <link linkend="scompniveau">Level of

      Competency</link> of the character.</para>

    <example id="xdifficulty">

      <title id="xtdifficulty">Action Difficulty</title>

      <para>A character with a Competency of +2 in Acrobatic try to do

        a simple flip. The Game Master decide that this jump is a +3

        difficulty (remember, the difficulty is for a caracter with 0

        in Acrobatic, and a simple flip must be

        <emphasis>easy</emphasis> for an acrobat).  However, since it

        rained all the afternoon, the Game Master add a adjustment of

        -5 to the difficulty for a total of -2.  Hopefully, the

        character has +2 in Agility and +1 in Maneuver, this give him

        a Level in Acrobatic of +5.  The final difficulty will then be

        ( +5 + -2 = ) +3.</para>

    </example>

    <para><xref linkend="treussites"/> resumed the

      <emphasis>approximated</emphasis> probabilities of success in

      percentile for the final difficulty.  They are, however, not

      exact and should only be used to give an idea on the odds for a

      given action.</para>

    <table frame="all" id="treussites">

      <title id="ttreussites">Probabilities of success of an

        action</title>

      <tgroup cols="11" align="center">

        <colspec colnum="1" colwidth="1in" align="left"/>

        <colspec colnum="2" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="3" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="4" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="5" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="6" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="7" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="8" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="9" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="10" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <colspec colnum="11" colwidth="0.55in"/>

        <tbody>

          <row rowsep="0">

            <entry>Difficulty</entry>

            <entry>-20</entry>

            <entry>-19</entry>

            <entry>-18</entry>

            <entry>-17</entry>

            <entry>-16</entry>

            <entry>-15</entry>

            <entry>-14</entry>

            <entry>-13</entry>

            <entry>-12</entry>

            <entry>-11</entry>

          </row>

          <row>

            <entry>Odds</entry>

            <entry>0.5%</entry>

            <entry>0.6%</entry>

            <entry>0.7%</entry>

            <entry>1.0%</entry>

            <entry>1.2%</entry>

            <entry>1.5%</entry>

            <entry>2.0%</entry>

            <entry>2.5%</entry>

            <entry>3.0%</entry>

            <entry>4.0%</entry>

          </row>

          <row rowsep="0">

            <entry>Difficulty</entry>

            <entry>-10</entry>

            <entry>-9</entry>

            <entry>-8</entry>

            <entry>-7</entry>

            <entry>-6</entry>

            <entry>-5</entry>

            <entry>-4</entry>

            <entry>-3</entry>

            <entry>-2</entry>

            <entry>-1</entry>

          </row>

          <row>

            <entry>Odds</entry>

            <entry>5.0%</entry>

            <entry>6.0%</entry>

            <entry>8.0%</entry>

            <entry>10%</entry>

            <entry>12%</entry>

            <entry>15%</entry>

            <entry>20%</entry>

            <entry>25%</entry>

            <entry>30%</entry>

            <entry>40%</entry>

          </row>

          <row rowsep="0">

            <entry>Difficulty</entry>

            <entry>+0</entry>

            <entry>+1</entry>

            <entry>+2</entry>

            <entry>+3</entry>

            <entry>+4</entry>

            <entry>+5</entry>

            <entry>+6</entry>

            <entry>+7</entry>

            <entry>+8</entry>

            <entry>+9</entry>

          </row>

          <row>

            <entry>Odds</entry>

            <entry>50%</entry>

            <entry>60%</entry>

            <entry>70%</entry>

            <entry>75%</entry>

            <entry>80%</entry>

            <entry>85%</entry>

            <entry>88%</entry>

            <entry>90%</entry>

            <entry>92%</entry>

            <entry>94%</entry>

          </row>

          <row rowsep="0">

            <entry>Difficulty</entry>

            <entry>+10</entry>

            <entry>+11</entry>

            <entry>+12</entry>

            <entry>+13</entry>

            <entry>+14</entry>

            <entry>+15</entry>

            <entry>+16</entry>

            <entry>+17</entry>

            <entry>+18</entry>

            <entry>+19</entry>

          </row>

          <row>

            <entry>Odds</entry>

            <entry>95.0%</entry>

            <entry>96.0%</entry>

            <entry>97.0%</entry>

            <entry>97.5%</entry>

            <entry>98.0%</entry>

            <entry>98.5%</entry>

            <entry>98.8%</entry>

            <entry>99.0%</entry>

            <entry>99.2%</entry>

            <entry>99.4%</entry>

          </row>

        </tbody>

      </tgroup>

    </table>

    <para>In our preceding example, the +3 difficulty give a 75%

      chance of success to our character.</para>

    <note userlevel="adv">

      <para>Someone said to me that the right probabilities to compare

        two values is equal to the Measure of the Attacker divided by

        the sum of both Measures.  In our system, this give us that

        for A <= B, if A = B, the difficulty is 0, if 0 < B-A

        <= 3, the difficulty is -B-1, if 3 < B-A <= 6, the

        difficulty is -B-2, and if B-A > 6, the difficulty is -B-3.

        In the case that B is lesser then A, invert A and B.  This

        method is complicate and I don't find that it add something

        needed.  The remark is however right and that's why I put it

        here.</para>

    </note>

  </section>

  <section id="smarge">

    <title id="stmarge">Margin of Success</title>

    <para>The margin of success determine at which degree a character

      have succeed or failed.  This margin can influence the results

      for the will of the Game Master, and this can go from the

      apparent ease in the accomplishment, to the quality of the final

      result.  However, the margin of success shouldn't be used to

      modify the action that the character try to accomplish.  For

      example, a character who try to do a simple flip will not do a

      double flip if she got +3 degrees of success.  Instead, her jump

      will be simply more <emphasis>elegant</emphasis>.</para>

    <para>The success margin is easy to find.  When the final

      difficulty is found, the player rolls the dice and add the

      result to it.  The total is the margin of success.  If the

      margin of success is equal or greater than zero, the action is

      successful.  If it's less than zero, the action has failed.  We

      can then also talk about a failure margin.  For example, a

      success margin of -3 is equivalent of a failure margin of

      +3.</para>

  </section>

  <section id="sacttypes">

    <title id="stacttypes">Action Types</title>

    <para>The type of action help you to find how an action will be

      resolved.  They are mostly suggestions that make the game more

      interesting and offer a kind of challenge to the players.  There

      are many types of actions presented here:</para>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>

        <para>The <link linkend="sactsimple">simple actions</link> are

          those that we can only success or fail and that only depends

          on the ability of the character.</para>

      </listitem>

      <listitem>

        <para>The <link linkend="sopposition">actions in

          opposition</link> are those that encounter a resistance from

          one or many opponents.</para>

      </listitem>

      <listitem>

        <para>The <link linkend="sconfrontation">actions in

          confrontation</link> permit a parry from the

          adversary.</para>

      </listitem>

      <listitem>

        <para><link linkend="sactmult">Simultaneous actions</link> is

          when the character try to do many things at the same time.</para>

      </listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

    <section id="sactsimple">

      <title id="stactsimple">Simple Actions</title>

      <para>Simple actions are those that directly oppose a difficulty

        to the character's <link linkend="scompniveau">Competency

        Level</link>.  This difficulty can be choose by the player

        (for example, "Do I try to do a great meal or a simple soup?")

        or imposed by the Game Master (in a precision shot for

        example).  We determine then the <link

        linkend="scompniveau">Level of Competency</link>, roll the

        dice and add the result to the final difficulty to get the

        degrees of success.</para>

    </section>

    <section id="sopposition">

      <title id="stopposition">Opposition Actions</title>

      <para>Opposition actions put the character in front of an

        obstacle able to resist her, her adversary.  They can be done

        in one or two rolls.  The difficulty is always zero.  With two

        rolls, each adversary roll dice and the one with the greatest

        margin of success win.  With only one dice roll, the roll is

        made with a difficulty equal to the Competency Level of the

        character minus the Competency Level of the opponent.  If the

        degrees of success is greater than zero, the character wins.

        If they are less than zero, the opponent wins.  If the result

        is exactly zero, nobody wins, it's a draw.</para>

    </section>

    <section id="sconfrontation">

      <title id="stconfrontation">Confrontation Actions</title>

      <para>Those actions permit a parry from the victim of the

        action.  An action in confrontation is a variant of the

        opposition action and are done in two steps.  We begin with a

        simple action with, often, a basic difficulty determined by

        the player that roll the dice.  If the action fails, nothing

        happen.  But if the action succeed, the adversary can parry

        the action by taking the same difficulty but not always the

        same Attributes, Competency and adjustments.</para>

      <example id="xconfrontation">

        <title id="xtconfrontation">Confrontation Actions</title>

        <para>A player decide to fast talk a merchant to get a better

          price by making him believe that she's not interested by the

          item.  With the Game Master, they decide that's worth a -3

          difficulty and so the players roll under Intuition +

          Maneuver + Fast Talk.  Since her character have respectively

          +2, +3 and -1, this give her a total difficulty of +1.  The

          player rolls the dice and obtain 6 on her fortune dice, and

          5 on her misfortune one.  The margin of success is +2 and

          so, the player have give a good fast talk.  The merchant,

          played by the GM, can however parry.  The GM decide to roll

          under Intuition + Precision + Fast Talk, for which the

          merchant has a total of +5.  With the -3 difficulty of the

          lie of the player, this give him a final difficulty of +2.

          If the merchant fail, he will think that the player is less

          interest and will <emphasis>may be</emphasis> put down his

          prices to interest him a little (or may be he has something

          else to show to the player?).  If he gets it, the merchant

          we have see clear in the player lie and will refuse to put

          down his price, being sure that the player is interested to

          buy.</para>

      </example>

      <para>It's important to note that it's really the difficulty

        choose at the start by the player and not her degrees of

        success that's the difficulty of parry.  So, even if in the

        previous example, the player has made a success margin of +10,

        the difficulty for the parry will still be the same: -3.  To

        make the roll more difficult for the defender, the player

        would have choose a greater difficulty, like pretending to be

        a church man with high influence to the lord of the region.

        The lie will be more difficult to make believable (a more

        difficult roll for the player) but also, if succeed, more

        difficult to refute by the merchant ("To lie that's good, it

        must be true!").</para>

      <note userlevel="adv">

        <para>This rule is not intend to be realistic but fun.  In

          real life, the simpler solution is often the best, but there

          is no pleasure without risk.</para>

      </note>

    </section>

    <section id="sactmult">

      <title id="stactmult">Multiple Actions</title>

      <para>Multiple actions happen when a character try to do many

        things at the same time, when she usually can only do one.

        Each supplementary action will augment the difficulty of

        <emphasis>all</emphasis> actions by three points.  So, if a

        character try to do three action at the same time, the

        difficulty of each action will be increase by 6 points.</para>

    </section>

  </section>

</chapter>

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