The Conflict Turn

What is a turn?

• Conflict happens in a flurry of blows, metaphorical or physical.
  
• One turn is defined as each participent within a given colfict having acted once.
• Turn order is arbitrary and so its up to the discression of the storyteller how loosely or rigidly they enforce a structure, the general approach is left to right around the table.
  
• Turns take as much time as the narrative indicates they should – two gunshots might happen in less than a second and end a fight, while a three-hour series of innuendos and courtesies might compose the first turn of an all-night seduction attempt. Thus, one roll does not necessarily represent one swing of a baseball bat, unless the Storyteller says it does.
  
• At the start of every turn of the conflict, each player declares their intent – what they are trying to achieve. This can be anything from trying to tackle the driver of an escaping motorcycle, to assisting in the seduction of a ghoul by distracting his domitor, to simply taking cover.
• After all players have made their intentions known the storyteller makes the same descision for all NPCs in the conflict

How do act in conflicts:

• Conflicts are still based on the idea of simple tests
• The storyteller tells the group which dice pools to build for the actions that they have chosen. The players then roll to attempt it.
• The dice pool used by each player to participate in conflict activities is known as their conflict pool.
• When characters act against each-other and their conflict pools are compatible enough in intent, their rolls will count as contested against eachother for example Leah engages in a Strength +Brawl vs Dexterity + Melee contest with the hook wielder.
• Some rolls may result in automatic success if they are not conflicted, for example taking cover when no one is attacking you.
• Some rolls may simply use difficulty values when they are not contested, for example Tracy rolls Composure + Firearms against Difficulty 2 (her target is in the open, coming right at her)

Consequences of conflicts:

• As with other basic contests, the side that scores the most successes wins their turn of that conflict.
• The winner subtracts the loser’s successes from their total conflict pool and applies the remainder as damage to one of the loser’s trackers; Willpower or Health (see Damage, p. 126).
• If the conflict is one-sided, such as when the defender is trying to avoid getting shot, only the attacker can inflict damage.
• If both participants are able to cause harm to their opponent, the conflict is two-sided, with both sides counting as attackers. In this case, the actions of both parties are merged into a single conflict roll.