In a contest, the character opposing you rolls first, and their number of successes becomes the Difficulty you need to roll against. Once they’ve rolled, you roll to see if you can beat them.

When the actions you want to attempt are actively opposed by another, a skill test becomes a contest. In a contest, the opposing character first rolls to set the Difficulty. They gather a dice pool, rolling against their own target number as if they were attempting a skill test. The total number of successes they score becomes the Difficulty for your skill test.

At this point, you make your skill test as normal, rolling against that Difficulty.

If you succeed, then you achieve your desired goal, and can spend any Momentum you generate to improve that outcome as normal. If you fail, the opposing character generates 1 point of Momentum for each success fewer than the Difficulty which you scored—i.e., if the Difficulty was 4, and you scored two successes, the opposing character would get 2 points of Momentum—and they may spend this Momentum immediately, as if they had succeeded at a skill test.

After all this has been resolved, any complications suffered by either side are handled by the gamemaster.

Example: Given that Marcus is a highly skilled assassin, Kara cannot let him get close to the spice trader, who is chatting amiably nearby to another noble, utterly unaware of the danger he is in. She could try and physically confront Marcus but that may go poorly. However, she might be able to intimidate him into leaving, given that she knows his intentions and has a vested interest in keeping the spice trader alive.

Kara finds a quiet part of the ballroom to take Marcus aside. Luckily, he makes no attempt to avoid a confrontation as he wants to know what Kara is up to. Kara explains that she knows his plan and tells him that the spice trader is under her protection, as they have a deal. Assassinating him may start a new conflict between their Houses.

This is a Communicate test, with Kara using her Power drive with the statement ‘I get what I want’. As this challenge is very much in line with her drive statement, the gamemaster allows Kara’s player to spend Determination on the test.

The gamemaster rolls for Marcus first to set the stakes, as he is the defending party. The gamemaster spends some Threat and manages to get 4 successes. This means Kara needs to roll 4 successes to win the contest.

Kara must overcome the additional Difficulty of a hostile environment, as Marcus knows he has several allies to back him up. This raises the Difficulty to 5, but luckily Kara has bought off her complication so it doesn’t get any worse.

However, she needs to call upon all her resources. She gives the gamemaster enough Threat to buy 2 more dice and brings her handmaiden Anna in to support her with assistance. This gives her a dice pool of 4 with bonus successes if Anna rolls well with her single die.

The roll is not very good, yielding 2 successes, not nearly enough. As the stakes are high, Kara’s player opts to spend her Determination to re-roll some of the dice. Two of her dice offered a success each, and while she could re-roll those in the hope of getting a better result, she decides not to risk it. She re-rolls the two other dice, the ones that yielded no successes. Anna’s assistance roll was also a failure, but as it isn’t part of Kara’s dice pool it cannot be re-rolled with the Determination spend. 

Thankfully, the two re-rolled dice both come up a success, and one of them even rolls a 1. This adds another 3 successes to the existing 2, taking the total to the five successes required.

Marcus takes a moment to weigh up his options. He decides that the risk of a House on House conflict is not what his masters are interested in. He chooses to take Kara seriously and withdraws to confer with his superiors. With a small bow he smiles at Kara and tells her he looks forward to their next encounter, then leaves.

External Factors in Contests

The procedure for contests assumes that both sides are on roughly equal footing, and that neither side has any real advantages or hindrances beyond their own abilities. This isn’t always the case.

If the opposing character has any factors—such as traits—which would make things harder for them, each such factor reduces the Difficulty they set by 1, to a minimum of 0. In essence, fewer of their successes translate into Difficulty for their opponent.

If the active character has any factors which would affect the Difficulty of their action other than the opposing character, then adjust the final Difficulty up or down as normal.

In either case, characters in a contest may accept assistance from other characters on their side.

Example: In Kara and Marcus' contest the environment was working to Marcus' advantage. Had they been among Kara’s allies the circumstances would have been different. Had time been a factor for either party, that too could have made their position trickier.