For a long time now, we've allowed arbitrary uses of skills that weren't strictly codified by the system, such as a fairy's ability to fly across a chasm or a ranger's ability to track. The simple reason that these abilities were never codified was because they were too fluid. They almost always require plot feedback and they don't fit into a combat system easily. This made them unwieldy for integrating with the action system.
With the introduction of contexts, however, all of that is now changing. Contexts are a way of describing the type of play in which a certain action can be used. We've always had them; they've just been implicit rather than explicit. Combat actions, for example, are the bread and butter abilities folks have been using in combat all along. Downtime actions include most of the item creation and enchantment rituals, which were always done in downtime for logistical reasons anyway.
With the introduction of the story context, we're opening up the door to all of the fluid abilities that we couldn't before. Rogues are now able to find and disarm traps. Rangers are now able to track. Warlocks can now talk to corpses. Here's how it all works:
- Story actions can only be used as part of a story. They can't be used in combat or arbitrarily, and will only generally be useful during an adventure or as part of a storyline. The litmus test is whether there's a plot member present who's running something that you're involved in. If there is, you can try to use a story action.
- Story actions take a minute to perform. After a lot of consideration, we came to the conclusion that rituals with longer performance times were basically worthless because they were never used. To maintain game flow, prevent story actions from being abused, and give plot members a chance to think up responses on the fly, they take a straight minute to use every time. Other than that, they don't need to be prepared like combat actions, and there are no restrictions on how often you can use them.
- Story actions are situationally useful. How a story action may be used and how effective it is, if at all, is at the discretion of the plot member on call, and can change based on the situation. A story action that's useful now may not be useful for a different plot member or adventure, etc.
- Story actions may fail. Plot now has a way to quickly and randomly determine success or failure. A plot member may indicate a difficulty to you (Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, or Very Hard). You must then pick a number between 1 and 10, which the plot member uses to determine your success based on secret numbers he or she chose beforehand. Of course, the plot member may also dictate that something succeeds or fails without a test, or may arbitrarily choose the outcome in spite of what the numbers indicate. Think of it like rolling behind a DM screen.
We're very excited to finally have a way to add these abilities into play in a way that enhances the game without introducing confusion. We hope you guys will be, too. There's still a lot of work to do, of course, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them in the comments.