Sometimes the Game Master may want to quickly sum up an encounter rather than track every action round by round. “Quick Encounters” resolve these kinds of situations with good collaborative storytelling, tension, and risk.
When to Use These Rules: Use Quick Encounters when you’re pressed for time, the group isn’t as interested in tactical fights, or they do something the GM isn’t prepared for, like infiltrating an enemy compound she hasn’t yet detailed.
The Basics: Characters make a skill roll based on the type of encounter and their goal and interpret the results narratively with the Game Master.
No Action Cards are dealt in a Quick Encounter. Instead, the GM describes the scene, and then the players agree on a general plan and what their character's will do to resolve the situation.
Once all the players state their intent, they pick the skill that best represents their actions during the encounter and roll. Here are some common examples:
Combat: Fighting, Shooting, arcane skill.
Crisis: Athletics, Persuasion (to calm bystanders), Repair.
Heist: Notice, Persuasion, Stealth, Thievery.
Mission: Battle, Boating, Fighting, Persuasion, Shooting, Stealth.
Trek: Common Knowledge, Notice, Survival.
Modifiers: The GM should assign modifiers based on the situation. If the heroes greatly outnumber their opposition, pursue much slower prey, have prior experience with the obstacles in their path, or special equipment to deal with hazards, the roll might be made at +1 to +4.
Very difficult encounters, such as powerful foes (relative to the party), faster prey, or extreme conditions inflict a -1 to -4 penalty.
Players can go in whatever order they want in a Quick Encounter. This might be important if some of their actions are dependent on someone else’s. In a heist, for example, the group might depend on a smooth-talker to gather information about the target’s security before the thief attempts to break in. Similarly, a battle commander might need to send a scout across enemy lines before sending in a team to sabotage the enemy’s war engine.
Resolve these kinds of actions in the order that makes sense, and allow those who come after to change their own plans as the situation changes.
If a critical task is failed, the GM must decide if it stops the encounter or simply complicates it (perhaps inflicting a penalty to everyone else’s roll). In the heist example above, for example, maybe the charmer gets the information but tips off someone who adds extra sentries, inflicting a -2 penalty to Stealth or Thievery rolls. Likewise, the scout might find the war engine’s location but the enemy moves the device shortly thereafter, adding the need for additional reconnaissance for the team of saboteurs.
These kinds of complications might also mean resolving the encounter in multiple stages instead of one roll as the heroes must react to the changing circumstances (see Staged Encounters, below).
Quick Encounters are typically a single die roll followed by some narration between the GM and the players. But some encounters might need additional rounds to better reflect the results or any new information or events that come to light.
If the heist to break into a wizard’s tower and steal a powerful occult artifact goes badly, for example, the next stage might become a crisis when the tower suddenly bursts into supernatural flames. That might then lead to a combat encounter as an artifact in the wizard’s study breaks and releases an angry djinn!
The beauty of staged encounters is their ability to handle complex problems when the constraints of time or larger narrative require a speedy resolution.
Once each player has determined her skill and any modifiers, she rolls the dice and works with the Game Master to narrate the details based on the total, the situation, and the other characters’ actions.
If a character fails his roll in a dangerous situation he takes a Wound (or d4 Wounds with a Critical Failure). If he’s the driver of a vehicle, it takes a Wound (or d4 with a Critical Failure). Wounds may be Soaked as usual.
Success means the hero emerges with only Bumps & Bruises, and a raise means he escapes unscathed.
If the encounter isn’t physically dangerous, failure means the hero doesn’t contribute to the party’s overall success somehow. Critical Failure means she suffers social stigma, loses or breaks a piece of vital equipment, is positively identified, or gets the wrong information. This likely means moving on to a second stage of the encounter as she deals with the fallout of her errors.
In general, narration and individual actions determine the success or failure of an encounter. If the smooth-talker can’t learn the habits of the sentries, for example, and the GM decides this fact shuts down the operation rather than complicating it, the encounter fails. In other words, let the story tell the tale.
In a more dynamic situation such as combat, assume the group “wins” if there are at least as many total successes (one for each success and raise) as there are player characters. They get the information, drive off their foes, complete the mission, or avert (or escape) the crisis. Support rolls don’t count as successes.
If there are fewer successes than player characters, they fail. Specifics are up to the Game Master, but this might mean the party has to fall back or retreat from their foes, their prey escapes, they don’t get the object or information they sought, they survive the crisis but can’t save most of the bystanders, and so on.
If they can try again, the GM should “reset” the encounter with the new narrative so the group has to come up with a new plan. And of course, their foes are likely on to them now!
Use the rules for Ammo & Power Points under Mass Battles for combat encounters if desired. Otherwise the player and GM can just decide what resources were consumed in the encounter.