In Progess. Arm Wrestling John and Marc are arm wrestling each other. Because this occurs at the same time and the order in which players allocate effort does not matter, this is not considered a focus situation, so we do not have to deal with haste.

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John has a fitness rating of +2. He allocates 2 points of effort from fitness and 1 point of experience from his athletics skill. While the director does not allow the characters to use free effort from the athletics skill since they are not moving, he does make an on-the-spot judgement to permit them to use experience from it.

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Marc has a fitness rating of +1, muscle flair of +1, and flexibility flair of +1. He allocates 3 points of effort from his fitness rating and muscle and flexibility flairs. Marc also expends 1 point of luck. Normally only one flair is useful for a task, but Marc’s player provides a very compelling explanation of how Marc is using his flexibility to gain more leverage on the table, so the director makes another improvisational decision and allows effort to be exerted from both flairs in this case.

•	The director is not that interested in difficuly since it would be the same for both characters, so he just compares effort: John has exerted a total of 3 points of effort. Marc has exerted a total of 4 points of effort.

Marc wins the contest because he exerts more effort than John. However, Marc also exerted more effort than his discipline rating of 2 (he exerted 3 points of effort from fitness), so this contest also becomes a prostrated task, and Marc receives 1 grade of fatigue. Being Stealthy Colonel Killins is on maneuvers and must sneak across the compound without being detected by the patrol. Since the guards need to use their observation/investigative powers to detect the Colonel’s stealth skill, this is a resisted task. This can be played as a focus situation or not. Focus requires a new resisted task each time the Colonel is exposed or the patrol gets close. Otherwise, only one resisted task is required for the entire scene. The director can either allow each member of the patrol to attempt a task to detect the Colonel or just the leader. For this example, only the leader is required to get involved.

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The Colonel exerts 2 points of effort from his fitness ability, and his proficiency in stealth grants a bonus of 2 free effort, and the director adds one more point of free effort because of the Colonel’s special stealth uniform, for a total of 5 effort. The core rules do not include stealth, but this shows how flexible the rules are—simply create a stealth skill for your game if needed.

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The patrol’s leader exerts 1 point of effort from awareness. The leader’s expertise in investigation grants a bonus of 3 free effort, for a total of 4 effort. The director decides that awareness is more important for this investigation task than reasoning. This is an example of the flexibility of task resolution, permitting the director to choose the most appropriate ability for the situation.

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Because this is just a routine (2) task (nothing too hard so long as the Colonel is not encumbered or making a lot of noise), the Colonel achieves 3 points of overkill (5 total less the 2 required), making the difficulty of the leader’s investigation task 3. The director further modifies the difficulty by +2DIFF because of various other factors. Therefore, the total difficulty rating for the task to detect the Colonel is 5. The director takes the environment and character’s health into consideration: +1DIFF due to fog and +1DIFF because the leader is stressed.

The patrol leader does not succeed in detecting the Colonel because his total effort is only 4 when he needed 5. Fantasy Combat Claymore the Wise has been challenged by Lord Simean. These characters have been created using the heroic rules and with fields of expertise rather than skills. Both of these characters are expert warriors. Claymore the Wise; Barbarian Warrior

fitness

awareness

creativity

reasoning

influence

luck

discipline

+3

+2

0

0

0

4

4

Fields of Expertise: fighting
Gimmicks: tolerance to pain
Weapons: claymore (B2), dagger (B1)
Armor: leathers (A2) Lord Simean; Knight

fitness

awareness

creativity

reasoning

influence

luck

discipline

+2

+1

0

0

+2

4

3

Fields of Expertise: knightly duties and swordsmanship
Gimmicks: authority (lord of the land), prestige
Weapons: broadsword (B2)
Armor: plate mail (AB1), shield (AB2) Turn 1
Claymore expends +1 effort from awareness to act in haste. Lord Simean stands his ground, but Claymore strikes with his mighty sword before Simean can prepare. Claymore expends +1 effort from fitness and receives +3 free effort from his field of expertise, for a total of +4 effort. Lord Simean cannot defend since Claymore acted in haste, so Claymore succeeds, inflicting 2inj. Lord Simean’s armor deflects 1inj, which means that he sustains 1inj. Lord Simean retaliates with a swing from his broadsword. Claymore prepared for this strike by saving some energy in order to defend. He raises his sword to parry Simean’s attack. Simean expends +2 effort from fitness and 1 point of luck. Combining his effort and luck with his field of expertise, Simean has a total of +6 effort. Claymore expends +2 effort from fitness (+1 was already used) and 2 points of luck. Combined with his field of expertise, Claymore has a total of +7 effort. The defense task comes first—it is a routine task, meaning that the amount of overkill is used to determine the difficulty for the attack task. In this case, Claymore’s overkill is 5 (7-2), so Simean’s attack difficulty is 5. Lord Simean has a total of 6 effort—he succeeds and inflicts 2inj. Claymore’s armor is no match for the sword, so he sustains 2inj and is knocked to the ground. Neither character expended more effort than their discipline ratings, so no fatigue is sustained. Turn 2
We find Claymore on the ground with Lord Simean standing over him. Lord Simean sees his chance to end the fight and expends +1 effort from awareness to act in haste. Claymore does the same, but must return to his feet if he is to survive. Simean expends +2 effort from fitness and all of his remaining luck (3 points). Combined with his field of expertise, he has a total of 8 effort. Claymore is simply trying to return to his feet as quickly as possible—the director instructs him to expend +1 effort from fitness to do so. Because both characters acted in haste, they move at the same pace. While Claymore stands, Lord Simean strikes with his sword. And because Claymore does not defend (Simean didn’t know that he wouldn’t though), Simean easily succeeds with his 6 points of overkill (8-2). The director decides to reward that much overkill with double the normal amount of damage, simulating a severe strike across Claymore’s chest and neck. Again, Claymore’s leathers are no match for a strong blade, and Claymore sustains 4inj. He expends his remaining 2 points of luck to reduce his damage to 2inj. Claymore has now sustained a total of four grades of injury. Although Claymore was able to return to his feet, he is horribly maimed, and forced back to the ground because he has sustained another 2inj. Turn 3
One final strike by Lord Simean and it is all over. Neither character bothers with haste. Lord Simean attempts to thrust his sword in Claymore’s chest, and Claymore tries to sneak his dagger into some part of Simean’s body in a last attempt to survive. Simean expends +2 effort from fitness, and combined with his field of expertise, he has +5 effort. Claymore expends +3 effort from fitness, for a total of +6 effort when combined with his field of expertise. Both characters succeed—Simean needed 2 effort, and Claymore also needed 2 because he is tolerant to pain. With a double-damage bonus due to his overkill of 4, Claymore’s knife penetrates Simean’s armor, inflicting 2inj, but Claymore’s leathers are still ineffective and he sustains a final 2inj, killing him. If still required to fight, Lord Simean would now be penalized on all tasks—they would receive +1DIFF due to his injuries.