Technophobia/Consequences
What are Consequences
When you roll less than 10 on a skill check (or less than 20 on a RISKY skill check), you suffer the established consequences. Since NPCs don’t act on their own in narrative play, these complications and consequences are the main tools the GM has for responding to player action.
Before a roll is made, the GM must outline the consequences of failure. They can only inflict consequences that are clearly established this way. The nature of the consequences depends on the skill check and situation. For example, if you’re trying to take someone out with a sniper rifle at 200 meters and they have no way to see you or fire back, it’s unlikely that failing the roll will immediately result in you being shot. If you’re in a melee struggling over someone else’s gun, the possibility of getting shot is much higher.
Here are some examples of consequences or complications that might apply to a roll:
- HARM
Damage, injury, or bodily harm. If you try to take control of the gun someone’s pointing at you and fail, you’re probably going to get hurt. Most of the time, established harm results in 1-2 damage, but getting shot at close range could cause 3–4 damage and truly deadly harm might cause 6 damage or more.
- TIME
The action takes longer than usual. In a calm environment, you can hack any console – and this one is no exception – but under fire and half-dressed, it’s going to take a lot longer.
- RESOURCES
Something must be used up, lost, or temporarily exhausted. This could be something concrete like running out of ammunition, losing a map, or your gun jamming, or it might be a social resource – reputation, political power, favor, and so on – that you need to spend in the process of completing your objective.
- COLLATERAL
Someone or something other than yourself or your intended target takes harm or injury, or is put in danger. This could be an innocent bystander, an ally, the whole building, or an organization you belong to.
- POSITION
Your actions put you in a worse position: right in the line of fire, clinging to the edge of a cliff, in the bad graces of the baron, or under a spotlight.
- EFFECT
Your action is less effective than intended. If you’re trying to kill someone, you merely injure them. If you’re trying to sneak away undetected, you make a lot more noise than you hoped. If you’re fixing a broken door, it only opens for a few people at a time.