Danger #

Any given scene with Danger is going to involve a certain level of complication to be interesting. A way to do this is to nest challenges. This involves thinking of several things that need to happen to resolve a situation and thinking about how they fit together.

This can mix types of challenges: simple challenges, complex challenges, and goals.

NULL_SPACE #

A station had a full power outage in a storage sector, and they want a crew to investigate and deal with the problem.

This is first a simple challenge: diagnose the issue. This reveals that the storage sector has been vented, revealing two different challenges once completed: one is an abstract objective to plug the hull breach that caused this (which could be simple, complex, or a Goal depending on the player’s approach), while the other is a very direct objective of resetting the automatically-disabled life support system to bring air back to the storage sector.

Little do they know, this hides a few more challenges in the form of vacuum-resistanct bugs who snuck their way in during the breach. Their presence will become apparent as soon as the above sub-objectives are complete, because the crew and the bugs can’t hear each other while there’s no air in the sector.

Sometimes when thinking about Challenges, players have all the information they need to succeed. Sometimes, however, they’ll learn something new while halfway into Plan A, necessitating a change to Plan B.

This can be represented in a few ways. Simply presenting a new and unexpected challenge (or set of challenges) is one way to approach this. Within the context of a Goal or a Complex Challenge, however, this can be represented by things like secret Complications that are only revealed when they would come up naturally, Goals that have a higher Threshold than expected, Threats that do something unexpected at half Threshold or that complete their Outcome early, or conditions for Threats that weren’t apparent prior.

NULL_SPACE #

One of the bugs is a mutant of an unfamilar variety: it has a hidden Complication that its carapace is twice as thick, rendering it effectively bulletproof. This could come up as a player attempts to gun it down and finds their bullets less than effective: afterwards, they’d have to find a way to circumvent that carapace.

One aspect of depletion you can consider is having a resource compete with various tensions. You can also introduce exclusivity between resources, or make one resource applicable to multiple tensions: fuel, for example, could both fill a lantern and help start a vehicle, but carrying it could mean you exclude bringing extra rations.

You can also have resources compete with actions, abilities, or capabilities: carrying fewer resources along might give a character or set of characters more options, for instance. This makes players choose which outcomes they’re most alright with, intentionally or not.

NULL_SPACE #

Resources have strong competition: a clip works for every gun and a battery works for every tool. If two tools are out of power, which one do you recharge with your one remaining battery? Do you reload a shotgun or an assault rifle with your one clip? Do you give your last battery to an ally or use it for yourself?

Everything you bring along also has Bulk, representing how heavy it is to bring along. Most resources are 1 Bulk, while weapons and tools are 1-4 Bulk, and characters can carry about 6-12 Bulk worth. These compete with each other and with bulkier outfits that reduce carrying capacity in exchange for superior protection or other benefits.

Sometimes depletion isn’t a sudden thing: it’s something that happens with a thousand cuts. Maybe you’re always spending fuel as you drive a vehicle, or a dangerous environment is chipping away at your Endurance, or your torch burns a little bit lower every minute.

This is often used with metered resources: whenever it makes sense, reduce that resource by 1. Sometimes a character can have Resistance to a certain kind of Harm or depletion, in which case this is reduced to 0. Sometimes they’re Vulnerable, however, in which case it’s reduced by 2 every time. You can also use these with discrete resources that are used up: when you use a grenade, it either explodes or it’s a dud, and either way you’re not using it a second time.

NULL_SPACE #

Attributes are a prime example of this: you spend 1 and you’ve spent it and that’s that. A less active example is that hazardous environments (like high heat, extreme cold, chemicals being present, or radiation) are very dangerous for unprotected characters, who take 1 Hazard Harm repeatedly every time a certain amount of time has passed. However, a lot of outfits have Resist Hazard or Invulnerable to Hazard, which makes that a far less risky proposition.

All consumables, as you might guess by the name, are strictly consistent in their use: once used, they’re used for good. (Some might have random effects beyond that, of course, but this is about depletion, not strictly randomness on the whole.)

Depletion often makes sense to be uncertain. Sometimes the fact that it’s happening is certain, but it’s not clear how much is being depleted. Other times, though, it’s unclear if something will be depleted until a triggering event passes.

If checking for degree, as per standard procedure for Threats and Goals, you can use a die to check for amount: Low, Mid, or High as usual. If checking for whether or not depletion happens, however, you can use a Total or Effect trigger (Total is lower than X, Effect is lower than X, Inverse Effect is higher than X, etc). Both have their merits: constant but inconsistent depletion gives a character a better idea of how many uses of a given resource they have left, for instance, while inconsistently-applied depletion lets characters constantly be at risk but also lets them potentially skate by for a long time. In both cases, it reduces the “solvability” of a situation as a whole by introducing a variable outcome.

Sometimes you can also combine the two: for instance, have a player roll against a Threat, and if the Total is lower than the current Progress, the Threat’s Outcome happens immediately.

NULL_SPACE #

Air is a resource that depletes constantly but inconsistently: it’s a Threat that applies when in an oxygen-free environment, and progresses by Mid Die every time a character exerts themselves personally.

Tools and weapons, however, are either charged/loaded or not: they deplete inconsistently. When used, Mid Die of the roll is checked against Depletion. If the Effect is lower than or equal to that tool/weapon’s Depletion score, the tool or weapon is drained and can’t be used again until the character spends a battery/clip to restore it. Tools and weapons with lower Depletion are usually either larger, less versatile, or less powerful.

Sometimes, tension isn’t about immediate danger: it’s about setting up or fixing problems later. A major tension in a scene or set of scenes is simply understanding what this could mean for the narrative going forward. The danger isn’t existential yet, but it could be soon. So failures might not mean immediate catastrophic failure, but instead set up future tensions.

Sometimes this can be direct: a specific event happens as a result of failure or insufficient success at an objective. Sometimes, though, this can be indirect: this might advance a Threat or a similar situation with a particularly bad outcome. Some care is going to have to be taken to make sure this feels imminent: I would recommend smaller Threats, setting up different thresholds of a Threat, or rolling against the Threat value to see if something bad happens immediately over one big Threat unless you’re sure of what you’re doing.

NULL_SPACE #

Troubles exist in the form of Expenses, Debts, Favors, and Liabilities. They can accumulate over time, and cause more a problem the more of all of them exist. A major aspect of any given job is to reduce adding to those, and ideally you’d want to earn enough or do enough to reduce them. These are numeric, and every time you have downtime you roll against the accumulation of every Trouble you have: if the Total is lower, one of those Troubles comes to fruition immediately.