Editing Samsara:Contests (section)

==Something Always Happens==
This is a principle of design for SAMSARA.  Notice that there is no Contest Roll that results in zero checks being delivered.  Whenever an actor takes action in a contest, something happens.  Good or bad.  Minor or major.  But something always happens.  This might be considered the ultimate tactical choice: <i>action entails risk.</i>

This should probably be true in the narrative sense as well.  This issue is ultimately up to the GM and the players, but “whiffing” is usually a very dull result.  If an actor is failing in an attempt to do something (i.e. is delivering checks to himself), there should be some reason.  Yang the Brute doesn’t just miss—he’s a nasty, bad-ass character, so that when he fails to hurt Essence of Jade, it is because the wily old hermit is leaping and dodging and stuffing eating utensils into his nasal orifice.  Essence, the gong fu monk, is super-cool, so when he fails in his attack on Yang, it’s because he is forced to knock out one of Yang’s cronies or his staff breaks on Yang’s hard head.  Or something.