Actions

Taking Action
''The characters in your games are going to do a lot. For most things they do, there’s no real need for rules. Characters can stand, walk, talk, and otherwise do normal things without needing to roll dice. They can even take actions that use their skills, like driving to work, without worrying about the dice. The dice only come out when there is an interesting challenge with meaningful consequences.''









There are several different kinds of actions in the game, but on a basic level, they all work pretty much the same way— when you roll the dice, if you match or exceed the difficulty, your character succeeds; if you don’t, your character fails . When the issue is simple, this may be all that’s necessary; but sometimes you also need to know how well a character did. Clearly, if a roll is three higher than the difficulty, that’s better than rolling only one higher.



The result of the roll is called the <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Bold","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">effort <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">. Each point of effort over the difficulty is a <span style="font-family: "AJensonPro-Bold","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Bold;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">shift <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Regular","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">. The number of shifts generated by a roll is referred to as the <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Bold","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Bold;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">effect <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family: "AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:-0.25in;line-height:normal;margin-left:72px;"> ·          <span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">If the effort is below the target difficulty, it’s a failure and it generates no shifts. There are no “negative” shifts.

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:-0.25in;line-height:normal;margin-left:72px;"> ·          <span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">If the effort matches the target difficulty, it’s a success—but it generates no shifts.

<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-indent:-0.25in;line-height:normal;margin-left:72px;"> ·          <span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <span style="font-family:"AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">If the effort beats the target difficulty by one, it generates one shift; if it beats it by two, it generates two shifts, and so on.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family: "AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family: "AJensonPro-Regular","serif";mso-bidi-font-family:AJensonPro-Regular">Actions that use dice in The Dresden Files RPG fall into two main categories: non-conflict actions and conflict actions. Use non-conflict actions when your character is involved in a situation that can easily be resolved or when the group doesn’t want to drag it out too far—the obstacles in your character’s way are not complex, there is little conflict of interest between characters, or there isn’t any real opposition for your character except for how well he performs the action. Use conflict actions when your character’s situation cannot easily be resolved or when the group wants to resolve a conflict in finer detail— usually when your character’s goals are diametrically opposed to the goals of another character.

Also see Recovering From Conflict.