RUNNING THE GAME
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?
One of the greatest questions you have at your disposal as a GM is “What is your goal?” Oftentimes players have an intended goal but have difficulty expressing how they’re using their Paths and Skills to get what they want. If you’re ever unsure of what the player is after, simply ask them “What is your goal?” Such a direct question often helps them mentally refocus and find what they’re after. With a clearly stated goal you can help assist them finding the best method of achieving that goal.
MANIPULATING IMPOSITION
Turning the Screws
A character’s ability to use Aptitude to lower Imposition is their greatest power. Which makes it their greatest pain point. As the GM there will be moments in the narrative where it will be appropriate to put the screws to the players, to lay on the difficulty. Nothing does this better than by manipulating their Aptitude.
You have two methods at your disposal; Constant and Irresistible Imposition. With these two tools in your shed you have the power to ratchet up the tension.
Constant Imposition
This particular type of Imposition is best used for situations were the narrative calls for an on going effect. Typically when a constant force is fighting against the player such as a headache or burdened by a lot of weight while attempting other tasks. A GM may find it necessary to impose one or more levels of Constant Imposition, depending on the narrative situation. This type of Imposition is applied before the player’s Aptitude is applied.
Irresistible Imposition
For when the task is reaching beyond the capacity of nature itself or pushing beyond the character’s capability a GM should reach for Irresistible Imposition. Aptitude has no power here. Irresistible Imposition quickly lets a player know just how far they're stretching their capabilities. Being completely denied access to one's Aptitude can feel oppressive. Which is why Irresistible Imposition should be left for narrative moments that need an appropriate punch. Resist the urge to apply this type of Imposition often. Using it too much diminishes its impact.
Like Constant Imposition, you may find it makes sense to apply only a few levels rather than denying a player's Aptitude altogether. You may tell the player that a task has two levels of Irresistible Imposition. This lets them know that they’ll need at least three points of Aptitude in order to lower the Imposition by one die level.
It can stack with Constant Imposition.
The best way to overcome Irresistible Imposition is for the player to spend Stress (see Stress).
All the same?
It may feel as if Constant and Irresistible Imposition are effectively the same thing. While they are similar there is a distinct difference between the two. Generally speaking, when a character is under Constant Imposition it is a force or entity that they can work to overcome to remove the encumbrance. Where as Irresistible Imposition will remain regardless of who is attempting the task or how many times it is tried. It represents an immutable truth that must be dealt with.
PREPPING
It is highly encouraged that you do not overly prep for a game using the Imposition Dice System. The results of the dice can wildly change a scene and quickly move past your pre-written story. Like Apocalypse World says, “play to find out.” This is as much true for the players as the GM. Your job is to set obstacles in front of them and for everyone involved to play and see how they overcome those obstacles, how those obstacles may change over time, and how the characters change because of the outcomes.
Keeping “play to find out” in mind, our suggestion for prepping a game is to focus on what NPCs want and what they’ll do to get what they want. Your starting point is to pretend the PCs never arrive to interrupt an NPCs plan. What would happen?Then as the PCs interrupt those plans you only need to decide how the NPC will react. How will they adjust their plans? The players will then react to the new plan, forcing the NPC to once against adjust and react.
Do not attempt to preplan the NPC plan adjustments and reactions. This causes issues where your preplanned idea doesn’t match the current narrative being built by you and the players. The NPC’s reactions should logically follow the rude interruption of the PCs. Play to find out what the players are going to do and simply follow the next logical step.
This works on a per scene and per campaign scale. A bandit wants to capture the PCs in a net trap. When the PCs spot that trap, how does the bandit react? A mega-corporation wants to switch out an ingredient for a lesser one that’s known to cause a disease. When the PCs discover this secret, how does the mega-corporation react to being discovered?
SEVERITY OF OUTCOME
Not only does the Imposition Die inform everyone on how difficult a task will be but it also gives an indication of how severe failure can be, how much a complication should set one back, or how amazing the success can be. Consider a failure for the following example. Should the ID be low (a d4 or d6), that tells us the consequences would be a minor inconvenience. On the other hand, if it's a d12 your consequence may end up being major damage to you or a massive change to the landscape of the scene.
This is true for partial and full successes as well. For a partial success, the player should expect the severity of their consequence to depend on the level of the ID. The lower the ID, the less severe. Whereas a high ID may put the player at a major disadvantage on their next action or even for the remainder of the scene, despite the success.
For a full success, the ID will give an indication on just how spectacular the achievement is. On a low ID, they will have achieved exactly what they'd set out to do, but when a player succeeds beyond all odds against a high ID, then their success will be the stuff of legend.
In terms of partial successes, it is important to remember that regardless of how low or high the ID is, the complication should never undo that success, but add to the momentum of the narrative.
Major Wins & Losses
If you’d like, you can also include the chance for Major Wins and Losses. Should the Level and Path Die both be max value and the ID a minimum, this is a Major Win. The player’s outcome is extraordinary! However, if the opposite is true where the ID is max and the Level and Path are minimum then the player has rolled a Major Loss. This failure can bring catastrophic consequences. If you decide to include this, the player should receive 2 XP for a Major Loss.
Advantage & Disadvantage
Some games include an Advantage and Disadvantage system. For this type of mechanic the player rolls with Advantage should their Aptitude lower the ID below a d4. In this circumstance have them roll 2d4 and take the lower outcome. For Disadvantage do the opposite. Should Constant Imposition drive the ID above a d12, have the player roll 2d12 and take the higher outcome.
It has been my experience that Disadvantage isn’t necessary. a d12 ID is often enough to be a challenge on its own.
NARRATIVE CONFRONTATION
At its base the Imposition Dice System does not use the term combat. While scenes can turn violent, it is preferential to use the term confrontation. This is helpful in breaking the mindset that all confrontation must be solved with violence. While some characters may result to that, others may have abilities geared toward a non-violent resolution within the same scene and should feel encouraged to pursue those options.
There is also no initiative in the base system. Where your typical RPG breaks out into a separate form of play by splitting time into rounds and the players and GM roll dice to determine who acts in what order, here we use Popcorn Initiative. Simply follow the confrontational flow, the narrative, to determine who acts when.
There should be no meaningful separation between when the players are roleplaying, where characters are talking with NPCs or perhaps investigating a mystery, and when things turn physically confrontational.
That isn't to say even these less combative scenes can't lead to harm (see Health And Damage). Certainly, there are all types of harm, both physical and mental, that can happen in any situation.
WHAT IS A SCENE
Much like any movie, tv show, or book a scene generally takes place in a single location and focuses on a specific goal or set of actions performed by the player characters. It could encompass just a few minutes of in game time or several hours. Scenes are moments of roleplaying between PCs or between PCs and NPCs that push the story forward. Haggling with a shop owner to get a better deal on some equipment would be a scene. Exploring an abandoned City Hall or rooting our rats from a tavern’s basement is another scene that may have its own moments of roleplaying. Scenes flow with a natural beginning, middle, and end.
CONFRONTATIONAL FLOW
A confrontational scene should feel as much like any other scene. Or perhaps it should be said that a scene blurs the lines between exploring, roleplaying, and confrontation. There should be an attempt to maintain a seamless narrative between all three within the same scene. Everything flows out from the narrative. When does a player act? When do the NPCs act? Whenever the group and GM feels it makes most sense and supports the narrative.
During a confrontational scene where there is violence or great tension, each player should have a moment to describe their action and attempt a roll to see if it takes effect. What order they take those actions in is up to the group. Always bear in mind the phrase, "everything flows out from the narrative." This mindset should start a conversation between the players and the Game Master.
What exactly does it mean to flow out from the narrative? Simply put, it means that character actions should make sense within the context of the scene and in reaction to the dice outcomes.
Everyone at the table is building a story with highs and lows, reacting to how the dice shift the story. The flow is finding the rhythm in the scene and the specific confrontation. Draw inspiration from your favorite novels, television shows, or movies. In most scenes, each character gets their moment to help push the narrative forward with their actions. There is a gentle give and take between each player and Game Master that lets everyone shine and that builds a Confrontational Flow.
ACTING OUT OF TURN
A part of failure and success with consequences is that the NPCs act or react "out of turn." Essentially, the Severity of Outcome will often determine when this is the case. It may be that your attack is blocked followed by a counter attack, inflicting a level or levels of harm based on the initial ID. Your attempt at persuasion may have brought up bad memories in the NPC, making them angrier.
This method of controlling NPCs helps in violent confrontations to solve the issue of the characters ganging up on one main antagonist to overwhelm them without any danger to themselves.
HEALTH AND DAMAGE
For health we take inspiration from Blades in the Dark. The character has six health boxes. Three Minor wounds, two Medium, and one Major. Whenever they take some form of physical harm the player will write the specific type of harm they received in a box that the Game Master asks for. For instance the character could have received a laceration on their forearm after a bad roll on a climb check. Depending on on the ID of the climb check, the Game Master could give them a level or levels of harm ranging from Minor to Major. The player would then write lacerated forearm in the box(s). This is necessary for any future actions that may require that arm. Say the character is hanging from a ledge. Maybe normally there would be no issue at all, but with the injured arm it now has become an interesting question. Can the player maintain their grip with the injured arm? Or if the entire party is climbing across a perilous rope bridge, the check for that player may be higher than the others.
The damage boxes are set into three columns. Whenever all boxes of a column are filled in the character suffers a reduction in Aptitude. That reduction is a -1 for all Minor, -2 for all Medium, and a -3 for a Major wound.
Alternative
Health
You could opt for a more traditional health pool. How you determine a character’s health can be determined in a number of ways. It could be the value of their Level Die, meaning a d6 character would have 6 hit points, or perhaps a Path could handle character hit points by being the value of the Path Die.
You could also either multiply the value or die step by an amount that fits your setting. So a Path Die of a d4, multiplied by 2 would be either 8 hit points or 2, respectively. The choice is going to be whatever helps support the themes and goals of your game.
Damage
Enemy damage would work much the same way as health. An opponent would deal an amount of damage either equal to the value of their Level Die or equal the die’s step. This would mean that a d8 opponent could either deal 8 points of damage or 3 respectively. The choice will largely depend on how you’ve determined character hit points. I would suggest keeping them the same method for consistency and to make it easier to judge just how dangerous an opponent is to the PCs.
ENEMY DESIGN
All NPCs are broken down to their Level Die, Threat Die, and then any special abilities and lore information they may have. Don’t feel the need to do this for every potential NPC the characters may encounter. Only for those that pose a significant threat. For everyone else you only need to know their Level Die. Knowing this die level is all you’ll need for when a character attempts any action that may have fun or interesting consequences.
LEVEL DIE
Knowing an NPC’s Level Die tells you everything you need to know about them. How much damage they’ll inflict in a violent confrontation (see both Severity of Outcome and Health AND Damage), how many hits they can take before being taken out, how hard they are to persuade, or even what it may take to keep them from doing something to you!
Hits can mean many different things in a scene. For instance, an opponent with a d6 Level Die will fall after taking 6 hits, which narratively speaking may mean physical hits, persuading them, stopping their villainous activities, etc. You may raise or lower this number depending on how weak or tough you want the NPC to be.
The NPC may also have key specialties that could be higher than their own Level Die. A master spy may only be a d6 overall, but a d10 when it comes to infiltration or lying.
THREAT DIE
NPCs may also tap into their ability to threaten a PC or NPCs directly. The Threat Die allows them to add more Imposition against a PC, effectively adding Constant Imposition. This could be two chess masters, where the opponent (the NPC) is focusing their Threat (onto the PC).
This die isn’t rolled, but rather shows how many “steps” the opponent can increase the Imposition. Meaning an NPC with a d4 Threat Die can increase the Imposition against one PC by an additional Die Level. If the NPC has a d6 Threat Die, they could either increase the Imposition by two levels against one PC or by one level against two, and so on.
NPC FORMAT
Level Die: Ranging from a d4 to a d12, this is the starting Imposition Level that the PC must overcome in order to affect them with anything.
Threat Die: This die represents the general threat they can assert over the PCs. An NPC can lower their Threat Die in order to raise a PC's ID. This is a Constant Imposition.
Lore: This is all the known information about the NPC. It is up to the GM to determine if all, some, or none of this is true. Expand or alter this information to best fit with your game's needs.
Special Ability [Name]: These are generally one-time powers or skills that give them an edge in a conflict. They may affect multiple opponents, deal above average affects, have an increased ID over what the NPC's normal Level Die is, or perform some other feat that is beyond what a PC can do.
Motivation: This section briefly goes over what may motivate this NPC on a day-to-day basis. Use this as a springboard for its actions and how they may fit into your story.
GM Notes: This is any relevant, non-lore information. You'll find their strengths and weaknesses and suggestions on how to use the NPC. Remember, these are suggestions and a way to show the original intent behind the NPC but change what you need to make it fit your game.
Finally, NPCs do not have damage boxes as they do not have Aptitude.