Actions#

According to Johnn Four from roleplayingtips.com there are five basic action types:

• Avoid
• Explore
• Fight
• Parley
• Trick

Everything the players do falls into one of these classifications. My goal was to have actions in the game that reflect these types. And each type should be covered by actions from at least two attributes. Here’s how I assigned them:

Some of these attributions are obvious, some are to be taken from an abstract angle, some probably need explaining.

Chassis#

From the Chassis column Wreak, Affect, and Dance might make sense immediately. I had a hard time assigning Tolerate to the type Avoid. How can you physically avoid an action? It can be about ignoring how the environment or a hazard affects you. If an encounter is inflicting consequences on you, avoid is (at least partially) about ignoring them. From the present actions Tolerate does represent this the most. Dance might be an alternative. I cannot, however, answer (yet?) if there might by another Chassis action that would even better reflect Avoid. Explore stays empty because in my eyes that’s more a question of wits or education.

Psyche#

Jumping to Psyche Survey, Finesse and Trick might be the obvious choices. It seems funny that the action Trick does not fall into the type Trick. But that’s because I consider the type Trick an overall action not just the roleplaying / bargaining aspect. The action trick is:

When you Trick you deceive, confuse or manipulate someone.

You might turn an argument using sophistry or lie straight in someone’s face (but Affect or Hide might be better).

If I wanted to trick me through an encounter it will probably involve more levels. Trick might indeed be one, but only using the action Trick would lead to the encounter being approached by Parley. From the available actions Hide to me seems like the most important one when approaching a situation by Trick.

Culture#

The most difficult column was Culture. It’s action should reflect a character’s connection to the environment through their education and accumulated knowledge. Study is about applying this knowledge to given facts. Hunt would be about navigating the world (modern streets, space stations, the web). It might be right choice in a chase, for instance, which I’d subsume under Fight.

Operate and Craft… When tricking myself through an encounter, I probably need to create a distraction. That’s how crafting ended up there in the column. How can you avoid an encounter by the means of culture, society etc.? My ways would be to close myself from the conflict, to use the technical means provided by the environment to escape from a situation.

But …#

All that said I did not let these considerations determine the action descriptions. This check is mainly meant for obtaining a little base level of balancing, to achieve something like completeness. Actions should still be used as the players see them fit.