Meta
- SRD Reference: Actions and Outcomes @ SRD
- Rules Reference: pg 129, Fate Core Book
Base Actions Overview
The Four Base Actions
- Overcome
- Create Advantage
- Attack
- Defend
Other Actions
- Full Defense
- Teamwork
Extra Stuff
- Suggest a scene aspect
- Compel another character
- Create a new scene detail
The Four Base Outcomes
Not So Good
- Fail – If you roll lower than your opposition, you fail:
- you don’t get what you want, or
- you get what you want at a serious cost, or you suffer some negative mechanical consequence. Sometimes, it means more than one of those. It’s the GM’s job to determine an appropriate cost. (See the box on this page.)
- Tie – If you roll the same as your opposition, you tie.
- get what you want, but at a minor cost, or you get a lesser version of what you wanted.
Good
- Succeed – If you roll higher than your opposition by 1 or 2 shifts, you succeed.
- This means you get what you want at no cost.
- Succeed with Style – If you roll higher than your opposition by 3 or more shifts, you succeed with style.
- This means that you get what you want, but you also get an added benefit on top of that.
Four Base Actions and Their Outcomes
| skill + net roll | <= -1 | +0 | +1-2 | >= +3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fail | Tie | Succeed | Succeed w/ Style | |
| Overcome | Fail or Succeed @ Serious Cost | Fail or Succeed @ Minor Cost | Succeed | Succeed + Boost * |
| (add new aspect) | Fail or Create Aspect and Enemy gets 1 free invocation of it. | Fail + Get a Boost | Create the aspect +1 free invocation | Create the aspect +2 free invocations |
| Create Advantage (invoke existing aspect) | Fail + enemy gets 1 free invocation | Fail + Get a Boost | +1 free invocation | +2 free invocations |
| Attack | Fail | Fail + Get a Boost | Hit for # of shifts | Hit for # of shifts (may trade 1 shift for a Boost) |
| Defend | Fail | Fail | Succeed | Succeed + Boost |
* if that overcome roll is going to end the scene, or you can’t think of a good boost for the PC to use later, then you may choose to offer a story detail as an extra benefit instead.
Boosts
What are boosts? Boosts are temporary, free-floating invocations that happen when you get a momentary benefit that isn’t lasting enough to be an aspect. You get a boost when you’re trying to create an advantage but don’t succeed well enough, or as an added benefit to succeeding especially well at an action (notably defending). You invoke boosts just like you would for an aspect, for the +2, reroll, or other effect that a free invoke can do. As with aspect invocations, you need to describe what’s happening that makes that boost relevant to your action.
Note: see link below for more information on Boosts.
The Four Base Actions Overview
Overcome (pg 134)
If that overcome roll is going to end the scene, or you can’t think of a good boost for the PC to use later, then you may choose to offer a story detail as an extra benefit instead.
See the above table above for the results of this action.
Create Advantage (pg 136)
Use the create an advantage action to make a situation aspect that gives you a benefit, or to claim a benefit from any aspect you have access to.
See the above table above the results of this action.
Attack (pg 140)
Use the attack action to harm someone physically or mentally in a conflict or take them out of a scene using their stress tracks like the Physical and Mental Stress tracks and their Consequences.
Area of Effect Damage: grenades
See the above table above the results of this action.
Defend (pg 142)
Author’s Note: The Defend Action is not really an action Action, because it does not require you to use your character’s Action in order to use it. Defend is used as a reaction to someone or something else’s action.
The defend action is there to prevent directly harmful effects like:
- taking stress
- taking Consequences
- negative situation aspects
Basically, it gives you an active way to protect yourself against all the negative mechanical penalties. Specifically, you may use the Defend Action to against someone:
- trying to Create an Advantage against you
- attacking you
See the above table above the results of this action.
Active Opposition
While not technically a part of the Defend (Re)action, I am adding Active Opposition here since it is thematically related – preventing opponents from doing something that may adversely affect you.
Active Opposition is there to help prevent things that maybe indirectly adverse to you – no direct mechanical negative affect. You may use Active Opposition to oppose the following if you are reasonably in the way of or may provide a reasonable opposition to:
- movement within and out of your zone
- overcome actions
The primary difference in resolution between Defend and Active Opposition is that, even though Active Opposition is resolved in the same way, it does NOT grant boosts to either side. The only Outcomes from Active Opposition are either:
- action or move was thwarted
- action or move was NOT thwarted
Opposed Checks
All actions may be passively or actively opposed.
- Attack and Overcome actions are typically opposed by a Defend (re)action. See the Defend Action above for more information.
- Create Advantage and Move are typically opposed by a general Active Opposition roll. See the Active Opposition subsection of the Defend Action above for more information.
| Passive Opposition | The GM sets a static difficulty: For example:+2 for the PC to roll against |
|---|---|
| Active Opposition | The GM rolls the dice for the NPC or other non-player entity and adds its skill modifier for the PC to roll against (standard opposed roll) |
See the above chart ‘The Four Actions and Their Outcomes’ chart for action outcomes.