In procedural scenes, characters pursue practical, external goals. These may allow them to petition for emotional rewards in subsequent scenes, but at the moment of success or failure are matters of practical effort.
Drama vs. Talking
Where any scene between a PC and either another PC or a recurring character is by definition dramatic, with emotional stakes at play, all dialogue interactions with minor characters are procedural, and resolved with the Talking ability. They can never grant meaningful dramatic concessions, because the PCs have no emotional investment in them. They can only grant—or refuse—practical favors. Drama tokens are never awarded or spent as the result of a Talking scene.
Procedural Resolution
Each player, and the GM, starts the first session with three procedural tokens: one green, one yellow, one red. When you spend a token, set it aside. The others remain unspent. When you’ve spent all three of them, they immediately refresh. All three of them return to your pile of unspent tokens, and become once again available for use.
Your pile of available tokens carries over to the next game session / episode of play. It does not refresh between sessions.
Playing Cards
For procedural resolutions, you’ll also require a deck of standard playing cards, from which the jokers are removed. The GM always shuffles the deck before launching into any new resolution.
Calling a Procedural Scene
To establish a procedural scene, the caller describes the basic situation. While adding as much evocative narration as possible, she specifies:
- The scene’s location
- Which characters are present
- What they’re trying to achieve, and how
To call a procedural scene your character is not in, spend a green token. (This requirement does not apply to the GM.)
Step One: The GM Spends for the Opposition
The GM secretly spends one of her available tokens, concealing it so that it can be revealed with a flourish at the conclusion of a scene: she might pull it from a purse, pocket, or move aside a piece of paper.
The color of the token reflects the strength of the obstacle standing between the players and success, whatever that may be. The better the token you spend, the more powerful the force arrayed against them.
| Opposing Force | GM's Token |
|---|
| Strong | Green |
| Middling | Yellow |
| Weak | Red |
Step Two: The Target Card
After shuffling the deck, you cut it and draw a card, which you show to the group. This is the target card.
Step Three: Players Spend and Draw
In turn, according to a freshly-determined precedence order, each player may now spend a procedural token and draw a corresponding number of cards. To succeed, at least one of the players must, when all cards have been played, have a card that matches the target. Depending on the strength of the opposing force—which the players do not yet know—they may need to match only its color, or perhaps its suit, or even its number.
So if the target card is a King of Clubs, they know that black cards are good, clubs are better, but kings of the other three suits are the best of all.
A player spending a green token draws two cards.
A player spending a yellow token draws one card.
A player spending a red token draws one card—after which the GM removes from play a single card held by any player. If none of the cards on the table match the target’s color, suit or value, the GM waits, instead knocking out the next card that does, as soon as a player draws it.
Players whose characters are present must spend a token and make the corresponding card draw.
Players whose characters are not present may alter the odds in the group’s favor by spending a yellow or green token. If they have neither of these tokens to spend, they can’t influence the outcome.
Knocking Out Cards
When a player spends a red token, the GM always removes from play the best available match, prioritizing as follows:
- cards with the same number
- cards of the same suit
- cards of the same color
If two or more cards are equally good matches, it doesn’t matter which of them the GM chooses. She does so based on what seems easiest to narrate.
Step Four: Final Result
When all of the players have acted or (if absent) passed on acting, the GM checks to see if any of their cards match the target card.
| Opposing Force | GM's Token | Match Needed |
|---|
| Great | Green | Same value as target |
| Middling | Yellow | Same suit as target |
| Puny | Red | Same color as target |
On a match, the characters prevail. Without one, they fail.
A card matching the target’s value always wins, no matter what token the GM spent.
Step Five: Personal Consequences
Players who drew face cards (even if they were later knocked out by the GM) may take on a personal consequence which matters in a future scene.
If you drew the face card when playing a green token, introduce an advantage your character can benefit from in an upcoming scene.
If you drew the face card when playing a red token, introduce an additional obstacle your character must resolve in an upcoming scene.
Face Cards Include the Ace
In DramaSystem, aces always count as face cards, along with the Jack, Queen and King.
Narrating the Ups and Downs
While performing the rules actions described above, the GM and the players describe the smaller advances and setbacks the participants undergo on their way to victory or defeat.
Here’s how it all fits together:
- The players kick off the scene by describing what their characters are trying to do.
- The GM describes whatever it is they’re trying to overcome. She may choose to accurately portray the strength of the opposing force, or set up the players for a surprise by making a tough obstacle seem initially easy, or a weak one strong.
- With each card drawn, the relevant player (encouraged as necessary by the GM) describes his character taking action. The extent of the match colors the description:
| Match | Describe the action as.... |
|---|
| Value | Seemingly decisive |
| Suit | Impressive |
| Color | Solid |
| None | Ineffectual |
When the GM knocks out a card, the player who spent the red token has suffered a reversal that erases a previous advantage.
Multiple Resolutions
Scenes never include more than one procedural resolution. Fold additional or side actions into the main narrative, or wait and call a new scene, making it a flashback where necessary.
Success By Narration
Often you can describe your characters, in concert with others or alone, as undertaking successful practical action, without submitting yourself to the vagaries of procedural resolution. You can do this at the top of a scene, while setting the scene, or as it unfolds. You needn’t be the caller to describe your character’s practical successes.
If no participant objects to your narration, what you describe becomes part of the narrative.
If any participant objects, you must play out a procedural to see if your pursuit of a practical goal succeeds. You aren’t obligated to start a procedural when an objection is raised. Instead you can delay the attempt, or give up on it entirely. In the second case, your character probably sees that the action is more difficult than it at first appeared. In the first, you’ll likely go on to bring other players in on your action—which is the best assurance of success under the simple procedural system.
When you call a procedural scene, and the GM doesn’t see any good story reason for you to face resistance, she’ll ask if anyone else objects to your success. If not, you describe your action as having succeeded, and then call a reframed scene arising from that.
Player vs. Player
Check the two contesting characters’ action types. If one primary is using a Strong ability and another a Weak ability, the Strong character automatically wins, no resolution system required.
Each player announces the ability his character is using and what he is trying to achieve.
Players may challenge stated goals on the grounds that they are implausible or move the story too far forward in a single action. In the event of a successful challenge, the GM suggests a modified goal that satisfies all c0ncerned.
Otherwise, each player spends a procedural token. The outcome is then decided through a series of card draws. The maximum number of cards the player draws depends on the token spent: 3 for green, 2 for yellow, 1 for red.
A player using a strong ability may draw an additional card if his opponent is using a middling ability.
The GM decides which of the characters seems to have started the contest, whatever it may be.
That player draws the first card.
The other player draws the second.
The first player may then draw an additional card, if he has one left.
Then the second player may do the same.
This continues until both players have either run out of card draws, or choose not to draw any more.
The player with the highest card overcomes the other, achieving his goal.
To resolve ties between cards of the same value, use the suit order (from best to worst): spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.
Players who at any time drew a face card and spent a green token introduce an advantage their characters can take advantage of in an upcoming scene.
Players who at any time drew a face card and spent a red token introduce an additional obstacle their characters must resolve in an upcoming scene.
Solo Actions
The standard procedural rules make it easier to succeed by bringing other players into your action attempt. Where it makes sense for a player to act on his own without undue risk of failure, the GM may decide to instead use the Player vs. Player rules, acting as the opposing supporting character or impersonal obstacles. The GM spends a procedural token, getting the usual 3 redraws for green, 2 for yellow, and 1 for red. If the supporting character has been established as being especially formidable in the action type used to oppose the PC, the GM gains an additional redraw.
Narrating
The player drawing the first card describes what his character is doing to win the contest.
From then on, players describe their characters either taking a step toward victory (when they draw a card better than their opponent’s) or suffering a setback (when they draw worse cards.)
When all cards have been drawn, the player with the best card describes his character achieving the agreed-upon goal.
Assisting in Player vs. Player Contests
Player vs. player contests may involve more than two main characters.
The assisting player announces which contestant his character is trying to help, how he’s doing that, and what ability he’s using. Players can intervene at any time, and don’t have to announce this at the top of a contest.
He spends a token, allowing the assisted character a number of redraws equivalent to the token spend: 3 for green, 2 for yellow, 1 for red. If he’s using a strong ability and everyone acting on the other side is using a weak ability, he adds an additional draw to that number.
The assisting player draws those extra cards, as necessary, and narrates what his character is doing to bring victory for his chosen side.
Even in what seems like a disorganized rumble between two sets of main characters, it’s always neatest to designate a primary contestant on each side. When it’s not clear who this might be, the GM chooses. Usually this will be obvious—the first character to act on one side, and the first character acted upon on the other.
Consequences are handed out by the winning original contestant, regardless of whose token paid for the final card drawn.
