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Opposed Actions

To resolve an Opposed action between two characters, each side rolls dice (4dF, d%, 3d6, 4d6, or whatever is your chosen dice technique) against the appropriate trait and announces the result. The traits rolled against are not necessarily the same: for example, a seduction attempt would be rolled against a Seduction skill for the active participant (or possibly Appearance attribute) and against Will for the resisting participant. There may be modifiers: someone with a vow of chastity might get a bonus of +2 to his Will, while someone with a Lecherous fault would have a penalty or not even try to resist.

The Gamemaster compares the rolled degrees to determine a relative degree. For example, Lisa is trying to flimflam Joe into thinking she’s from the FBI and rolls a Great result. This is not automatic success, however.

If Joe also rolls a Great result on his trait to avoid being flimflammed (Knowledge of Police Procedure, Learning, Intelligence, etc. whatever the GM decides is appropriate), then the relative degree is 0: the status quo is maintained. In this case, Joe remains unconvinced that Lisa is legitimate. If Joe rolled a Superb result, Lisa’s Great result would have actually earned her a relative degree of -1: Joe is not going to be fooled this encounter, and will probably even have a bad reaction to Lisa.

The Opposed action mechanism can be used to resolve almost any conflict between two characters.

  • Are two people both grabbing the same item at the same time? This is an Opposed action based on a Dexterity attribute the winner gets the item.
  • Is one character trying to shove another one down: Roll Strength vs. Strength (or Wrestling skill) to see who goes down.
  • Someone trying to hide from a search party: Perception attribute (or Find Hidden skill) vs. Hide skill (or Camouflage, Stealth, etc.).
  • Trying to out-drink a rival: Constitution vs. Constitution (or Drinking skill, Carousing, etc.).
  • And so on.

Some Opposed actions have a minimum level needed for success. For example, an attempt to control a person’s mind with a Telepathy skill might require at least a Fair result. If the telepath only gets a Mediocre result, it doesn’t matter if the intended victim rolls a Poor resistance: the attempt fails. Most Combat falls into this category.

For an example of Opposed actions involving more than two characters, see Multiple Combatants in Melee.

An Opposed action can also be handled as an Unopposed action. When a PC is opposing an NPC, have only the player roll, and simply let the NPC’s trait level be the Difficulty Level. This method assumes the NPC will always roll a 0. This emphasizes the PCs’ performance, and reduces the possibility of an NPC’s lucky roll deciding the game.

As a slight variation on the above, the GM rolls 1dF or 2dF when rolling for an NPC in an opposed action. This allows some variation in the NPC’s ability, but still puts the emphasis on the PCs’ actions.

For those without Fudge dice, the GM can simply roll 1d6 for an NPC. On a result of 2-5, the NPC gets the listed trait level as a result. On a result of 1, the NPC did worse than her trait level; on a result of 6 the NPC did better than her trait level. Those who want to know precisely how much better or worse should roll a second d6:

1,2,3 = +/-1 (as appropriate)

4,5 = +/-2

6 = +/-3