This is a sample of what a turn generally looks like, using what the Blade Elves were up to when you first arrived at Fort Alfyr as an example. Of course, this may not be the exact format we use and things like dice rollers are still in the air, but this should give you an idea of what things are like. An actual turn would be more streamlined, but I am explaining it as I go.
| Stress | Economic 0/5 | Morale 0/6 | Property 0/4 | Military 0/6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fate Points | 2/2 Refresh | 0 Bonus |
The Blade elves have just settled down into the fort that was promised to them It's a bit run down, but the supplies they received are enough to at least make it habitable. They've lived in worse conditions.
As the Blade elves have reached their destination and used their provided treaty materials to settle the fort. This gives them their first settlement and territory for free. Huzzah! Let's take a look at Fort Álfyr.
Well, so far so good I guess/
Things are getting complicated, however. First off, they’ve got several hundred assorted elves squatting with them. They're doing their best to be good guests, but the shear stress of housing that many people in a decaying old fort is getting dangerous. In addition, the basic supplies they brought with them are starting to run out, and the Blade elves realize they have no idea how to farm or harvest any kind of food. If they want to make it more than a few months, they'll have to tackle those problems.
The Blade Elves’ problems result in two Events:
Duration: Ongoing
The hundreds of refugees with you are putting a severe strain on your resources. With the decrepit nature of the fort, you are forced to find creative ways to house people. Overcrowding and structural issues are combining, causing slow but steady damage to the fort.
Suffer 1 point of Stress damage to your property track every turn until the elves relocate.
Duration: 2 Turns
You have significant food stores, but at this rate they'll run out by summer. Currently this event causes no penalties but if you have not resolved this Event, it will become a severe famine.
So let's see how the Blade elves resolve this crisis with the four skill tracks they have available: Economic, Political, and Military.
Economic: The Blade elves don't have much in the Economic skills track, but they decide that this decrepit old fort needs help. They decide to use the Enrichment trapping of the Infrastructure skill to replace the Aspect “One fort, lightly used” with a more useful one, “Fort Álfyr.” They apply their various workers to reinforce and improve the fort, trying to make it safe to live in.
Unfortunately the Blade elves have a 0 in Infrastructure. This doesn't mean they can't give it a shot though! You get Skill + 1 ability dice to roll, so with a zero you still have one shiny ability die.
Rolling 1 ability die (d8), they get a little lucky and roll a 4. This gives them 2 successes, which is the most they could get. Nice!
Political: There's not much politically to do yet. The stress damage from the Houseguests event hasn't set in yet, and there really aren't any factions to spy on. With nothing they particularly impressive they wish to accomplish this turn, they decide to use the Cloak and Dagger trapping of the Spycraft skill.
This is a nice safe bet, as there's really not much to go wrong. Cloak and dagger is used defensively against spycraft from other nations. Basically, any successes or advantages you get are used against anyone who uses Espionage against you. If no one tries to spy on you that turn, you won't get any benefit but you won't make anything worse, barring any extreme situations.
Feeling uncomfortable in a new land and a vulnerable situation, the Blade Elves apply extra watch duties and instruct their soldiers to watch for interlopers.
Unfortunately they also have a 0 in Spycraft. Oh well.
Rolling 1 ability die (d8), they roll a 1. This gives them 0 successes. Oh well, no harm in trying.
Military: Now we're getting to the meat of it! Blade elves are awesome at military stuff! And what better way to handle a crisis than with your best skill? The blade elves decide they are going to use, oh let's say, the Drill trapping of the Military Science skill to resolve the Event Food Crisis.
Using a skill to resolve a crisis doesn't work like usual. Instead of separate rules for each skill, you instead explain how you are using that skill to address the challenge and the GM decides difficulty based on the skill used and method described.
After the GM gently but firmly asks how, exactly, the Blade elves intend to resolve a food shortage with a military skill, the blade elves explain they are declaring a “war on hunger.” They are attacking the problem with aggressive military efficiency, planning it as if it were a military operation. They are assigning squadrons, issuing orders, and implementing firm timetables for accomplishing goals.
Okay, sighs the GM, it's possible that could work.
Military Science is the Blade elves’ best skill. They have 3 ranks with an upgrade. They get Skill +1 ability dice, so 4. One of those is then upgraded to a Proficiency die, so they get a total of 3 ability dice and 1 proficiency die. On the ability dice they roll a 3, 5, and 7, and on the proficiency die they roll a 9.
Glancing at the handy dandy chart, this comes to 3 successes and 3 advantages. Yeah! Take that, hunger!
Mental: The Blade elves decide to use a Research trapping to try to plan out some of their intended improvements to the fort. Looking at their mental skills and realizing that they are all 0, the Blade elves begin to suspect they are overspecialized.
They decide to go with the Research trapping under Academics, as Academics seems the most in line with developing architectural plans for the Barracks they intend to build.
Rolling their single ability die (d8,) the blade elves roll a 7, which gives them 1 success and 1 advantage. Hey nice!
The Blade Elves decide they have no other actions to take. They decide against invoking any aspects to reroll a skill, and leave their division garrisoned.
Hoo boy, here we go.
First off, the Houseguests Event is ongoing and has not been resolved. The blade elves take one point of property stress.
Economic: The GM decides that what the Blade elves are trying to do to improve the fort is pretty reasonable. They're just trying to make it safe to live in, not do anything ambitious like turn it into a place. The GM decides that this is an Easy task.
Rolling 1 difficulty die for the Easy task of renovations gives us a result of an 8. This gives a result of 1 failure and 1 threat.
Combined with the 2 successes the blade elves rolled, this gives us one success but also one threat. The blade elves have succeeded at their task! The aspect “one fort lightly used” has been removed and replaced with:
Unfortunately, your building teams are exhausted and you have used up your current supply of stones. Any use of the Infrastructure skill next turn will be done with one setback die.
Satisfied with this, the Blade elves dutifully update their paperwork for the fort.
Political: The player does not always know what dice have been rolled against them. Especially in the case of espionage, revealing what dice were rolled against the player (or indeed if dice were rolled at all) would give the player more information than their people would reasonably know. Especially since they had no successes, the GM decides to keep any potential rolls hidden and just give a result.
You assign extra duty to your troops and maintain a watch at all hours. They remain vigilant for interlopers and saboteurs, but their daily reports mostly involve bored teenage troublemakers and squabbles caused by the tight living spaces. The large number of elves in the fort make it tough for them to keep track of everyone, but no one is found snooping where they shouldn't be and nothing important turns up missing.
Military: Here's where things get interesting.
First off, solving a food shortage crisis with military skills is a dicey prospect. Sure it's possible, but this isn't a skill that's well suited for this kind of issue. The base difficulty for solving the Event this way is Daunting (4.)
Further, the basic premise of the solution provided feels off base. A “war on hunger” sounds ill-advised, and it doesn't seem like a well thought out plan. Most importantly, the solution provided doesn't actually explain how the Blade elves would learn the basic skills that they lack which is actually the root of the issue. Because this solution is poorly suited to the Event at hand, a setback die will be applied. (The GM personally believes it's just a poorly thought out excuse for the blade elves to use their best skill to solve the problem, but we won't say that out loud. The blade elves’ player is kind of a powergamer and the GM knows it's best just to deal with it, he'll learn.)
More than any of that though this whole situation seems like it's a particularly bad solution for the blade elves in particular. An army from a different nation might have a few farmers or fishermen scattered in, but the blade elves have almost exclusively career soldiers. Because this plays into the blade elves’ weakness of having a limited military-focused outlook, the GM decides to Invoke the blade elves’ trouble concept.
Invoke for Challenge: All but the blade was taken from us.
This adds 1 Challenge die to the growing dice pile. It is now at 4 difficulty dice, 1 setback die, and 1 Challenge die.
The GM rolls and gets 4 failures, 2 threats, and 1 despair. Combined with the Blade elves’ roll of 3 success 3 advantage gives us a net result of:
1 failure, 1 advantage, 1 despair.
The “war on hunger” does not go well. Blade elves are seen tromping through farmland, marching to the coast, and dutifully planting potatoes in formation with rotating schedules. Unfortunately nature does not care for rigid military discipline. Potential farmland is trampled underfoot, precious seeds are wasted from overplanting, and fish are frightened off by the clanking of armor. The event is not resolved, and (due to the despair) you suffer one more point of property damage.
However, all is not lost - that one advantage can still be used. In this case, since this situation was such a miserable failure, your people are highly motivated to find another way. Any attempt to resolve the event next season that does not involve a military skill will get a bonus die.
In addition, even though they failed, the Blade elves received a Fate point for having an aspect challenged.
Mental The GM decides that learning how to build a barracks is hardly plumbing the depths of the arcane for the dark secrets of reality. It's even something the Blade elves might already know about. Call it an Easy (1) difficulty problem.
Rolling 1 difficulty die (d8) and get a 1, so zilch. Great news for the blade elves! Their 1 success and 1 advantage are untouched.
Asking around the fort for support personnel who've worked on such buildings before and putting your heads together to think up the best qualities of the dozens of barracks you've stayed in allows you to draw up a rough plan. Consulting a few engineers gives you an excellent idea of how much material and what skills it will take.
You learn that building a Barracks will be an Easy difficulty use of the Investment trapping of Infrastructure. In addition if you attempt it next turn, you will receive a bonus die.
The event Houseguests is still ongoing.
The event Food Crisis has only one turn remaining. If it is not resolved next turn, it will become a famine.
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