Action Resolution

+ Action Resolution + + 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 Competency Level. 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. + +

+ Action Difficulty + + 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). + + 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. + + This is very similar to what we used for Attributes. When + an action is twice as difficult to succeed, + 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 to + fail, it's mean that we add 5 + points to the difficulty. The final difficulty is calculated by + adding the action difficulty, adjusted with the current + situation, to the Level of + Competency of the character. + + + Action Difficulty + + 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 + easy 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. + + + + resumed the + approximated 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. + + + Probabilities of success of an + action + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Difficulty + -20 + -19 + -18 + -17 + -16 + -15 + -14 + -13 + -12 + -11 + + + Odds + 0.5% + 0.6% + 0.7% + 1.0% + 1.2% + 1.5% + 2.0% + 2.5% + 3.0% + 4.0% + + + Difficulty + -10 + -9 + -8 + -7 + -6 + -5 + -4 + -3 + -2 + -1 + + + Odds + 5.0% + 6.0% + 8.0% + 10% + 12% + 15% + 20% + 25% + 30% + 40% + + + Difficulty + +0 + +1 + +2 + +3 + +4 + +5 + +6 + +7 + +8 + +9 + + + Odds + 50% + 60% + 70% + 75% + 80% + 85% + 88% + 90% + 92% + 94% + + + Difficulty + +10 + +11 + +12 + +13 + +14 + +15 + +16 + +17 + +18 + +19 + + + Odds + 95.0% + 96.0% + 97.0% + 97.5% + 98.0% + 98.5% + 98.8% + 99.0% + 99.2% + 99.4% + + + +

+ + In our preceding example, the +3 difficulty give a 75% + chance of success to our character. + + + 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. + +

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+ Margin of Success + + 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 elegant. + + 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. + +

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+ Action Types + + 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: + + + + The simple actions are + those that we can only success or fail and that only depends + on the ability of the character. + + + The actions in + opposition are those that encounter a resistance from + one or many opponents. + + + The actions in + confrontation permit a parry from the + adversary. + + + Simultaneous actions is + when the character try to do many things at the same time. + + + +

+ Simple Actions + + Simple actions are those that directly oppose a difficulty + to the character's Competency + Level. 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 Level of Competency, roll the + dice and add the result to the final difficulty to get the + degrees of success. + +

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+ Opposition Actions + + 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. + +

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+ Confrontation Actions + + 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. + + + Confrontation Actions + + 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 may be 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. + + + 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!"). + + + 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. + + +

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+ Multiple Actions + + 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 + all 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. + +

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