Age Of Dragons: Conflict Resolution

Age Of Dragons: Main Page -> Conflict Resolution

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Overview: Narrative based conflict

A Conflict occurs when one or more characters is placed in opposition to each other. The Age of Dragons game treats conflicts with a high degree of abstraction, in order to make the system as flexible as possible and to allow breadth of narrative possibilities. Almost any opposed action can be defined as a conflict.

For example, all of the following can be treated as Conflicts:

• A brutal sky melee where dragons and wyverns are trying to defeat each other in battle.
• A clash of vast armies, commanded by talented and opposed generals.
• A legal battle between advocates that speak to condemn or exonerate a defendant.
• A formal debate between politicians in the symposium.
• An attempt by a seductress to woo a recalcitrant victim.
• A struggle between two merchant companies to dominate the tea-trade routes.
• A contest of dance and song, where aerobatic and talented dragonbards compare their art.

The list is not exhaustive, of course, and exploring the options for interesting and novel conflicts is part of the joy of playing the game.

Energy Pools

A key concept in conflicts is Energy Pool. A conflict deals with one of the three energy pools: Physical Energy, Mental Energy or Soul Energy.

This energy pool is key, as it is used to power your actions, and to measure how far you are from being defeated and to determine who gets to act next.

By default, at the start of a conflict your Energy Pool is equal to your sphere rating (Soma for Physical Energy, Sophia for Mental Energy and Pneuma for Soul Energy).

Generally, a single Conflict will only track a single Energy pool, the choice of which depends on the conflict type. For example, a melee combat would track Physical Energy.

Technique

Technique measures how effective you are at conducting yourself in a conflict, whether it be in attack or defence.

The base amount for your Technique is a Sphere rating (i.e. Pneuma, Soma or Sophis), with a Skill bonus equal to your Arete in a relevant lifepath if you have an appropriate Skill Edge.

Technique level needs to be determined for both the acting character and the targeted character.

For example, in a physical conflict a Dragon that makes a furious assault of biting and clawing might calculate his Technique for the attack as follows:

• Soma (55) + Warmaster Arete from Combat Training skill (45) = Total Technique (100).

Whereas his target might calculate his defensive Technique as follows:

• Soma (50) + Skydancer Arete from Aerobatics skill (20) = Total Technique (70).

Different actions in a single Conflict may be based on different Spheres and use different skills, and this have different Technique ratings.

Resolving Conflicts

The overview for this process is as follows:

• 1. Determine Conflict Type
• 2. Set Defeat Conditions
• 3. Determine Initiative
• 4. Select Action Type
• 5. Determine Technique
• 6. Roll the Dice
• 7. Resolve Effect (if successful)
• 8. Resolve Energy Cost
• 9. End or continue conflict