Forget Anatomy. How Do You Do It?

In many traditional tabletop games, your character is defined by a rigid list of physical and mental limits. If you have high Strength, you push things. If you have high Charisma, you talk your way out of trouble. But Contingency RPG flips the script. We don't care about what your muscles look like; we care about your character's intent and approach.

When a massive boulder blocks your path, the Game Moderator (GM) isn't going to ask, "Is your character strong enough to lift this?" Instead, they'll ask, "How are you tackling this problem?"

• Are you trying to smash your way through using raw, forceful Dominion?
• Or are you patiently looking for a leverage point using clever Revelation?

Because the game focuses on how you do things, you can roll almost any attribute for any situation, as long as your description matches the vibe.

💡 The Guard Test

Let's say you want to intimidate a corrupt city guard. In an old-school system, you're usually forced to roll a static Charisma stat. If your character is a terrifying, silent warrior with a low social score, the rules penalize you.

In Contingency RPG, you choose the flavor of your threat:

• Dominion: You step up into his personal space, casting a massive shadow, and crack your knuckles.
• Conviction: You look him dead in the eye and calmly state an unyielding, terrifying truth about what happens if he doesn't step aside.
• Grace: You smile warmly while smoothly sliding a razor-sharp dagger onto the table with elegant, terrifying precision.

Same goal, three completely different rolls. Tell us your story first, and the dice will follow!

The Six Ways to Tackle a Problem

Your character is defined by six Core Attributes. Each represents a distinct mindset and method for interacting with the world. Your attributes don't measure how heavy your pack is or how many books you've memorized. Instead, they represent your character's natural instincts; the styles of action they turn to when the pressure is on. When a challenge arises, you will gather a number of eight-sided dice (d8s) equal to the value of the attribute that matches your description.

Here is how you use them at the table:

🔥 Dominion (DOM)

Brute force, aggression, and refusing to back down. You use Dominion when you want to look a problem in the eye and make it blink first. It's perfect for kicking down heavy doors, intimidating a rival gang, or physically overwhelming a threat.

• In Action: Ferne is in a heated argument with a rival party. Instead of arguing semantics, she harnesses her building rage to put on a terrifying, spine-chilling display of raw intimidation.

✨ Grace (GRA)

Elegance, precision, agility, and subtlety. Grace is for the smooth operators. It's not just about moving quickly; it's about moving beautifully. You use Grace to pick a pocket without a sound, slide a hidden dagger into your hand undetected, or dance your way through a crowded room.

• In Action: Instead of lifting a heavy iron gate by force, Corin waits for the perfect micro-second while the gears turn, using Grace to flawlessly slip through the closing gap without making a sound or scraping their armor.

⏳ Persistence (PER)

Endurance, stubbornness, and refusing to give up. Persistence is your character's ability to grind through adversity by sheer force of will or stamina. You use it when a task requires long hours, exhausting effort, or simply outlasting whatever is standing in your way.

• In Action: Instead of trying to pick a massive, rusted vault lock with precision, Jax decides to sit down with a heavy crowbar and manually wear away the hinges. The GM asks for a roll, and Jax uses Persistence to stay at it for three exhausting hours until the metal finally snaps.

🛡️ Conviction (CON)

Unshakable perseverance, faith, and standing your ground. Conviction is your mental and spiritual armor. You roll Conviction when you are staring down absolute adversity and refusing to break, or when you need to passionately convince someone of an undeniable truth.

• In Action: Mary gets cornered by the Town Guard and accused of a theft she didn't commit. Instead of panicking or fleeing, she stands her ground, looks them dead in the eye, and rolls Conviction to ensure the truth prevails.

💡 Ingenuity (ING)

Cleverness, deduction, logic, and uncovering secrets. Ingenuity is for the thinkers, tinkerers, and problem-solvers. When you need to understand how the world works—whether deciphering an ancient language, figuring out a magical anomaly, or disabling a complex machine, then you use Ingenuity.

• In Action: Tiao is trapped in a room with a collapsing ceiling! Instead of trying to hold it up, he spots a complex mechanism on the wall. He rolls Ingenuity to instantly deduce its inner workings and disarm the trap before everyone gets buried alive.

🤝 Harmony (HAR)

Composure, balance, and blending into your surroundings. Harmony is about finding the rhythm of a situation and flowing with it, rather than fighting against it. You use it to stay calm under intense pressure, blend seamlessly into a high-society crowd, or calm a panicked animal.

• In Action: Jeremy finds himself at a high-stakes masquerade ball and asks a noble lady to dance. He's incredibly nervous, but by rolling Harmony, he lets go of his anxiety, locks into the rhythm of the music, and floats effortlessly across the ballroom floor.

Putting it Together: Confronting the Guard

To see how these approaches differ in practice, imagine your party needs to get past a suspicious town guard blocking a restricted archway. Depending on your character's personality and goals, you might describe your approach using entirely different attributes. The goal remains exactly the same, "bypass the archway", but the fiction dictates the mechanic:

• The Dominion Approach: You step aggressively into the guard's personal space, putting a heavy hand on your weapon hilt or flatly stating what will happen to them if they don't step aside. You are using raw presence and threat to override their authority. The GM calls for a Dominion roll.

• The Grace Approach: You don't try to talk at all. You wait for the guard to turn their head to spit, then utilize fluid, silent physical coordination to slip from the shadow of a pillar, under their blind spot, and through the archway without making a sound. The GM calls for a Grace roll.

• The Persistence Approach: You refuse to be turned away easily. You stand near the gatehouse for hours, checking in with the guard over and over, meticulously wearing down their resolve with tireless routine, or carefully studying their minor physical habits over a prolonged period until you find the exact window to wear down their vigilance. The GM calls for a Persistence roll.

• The Ingenuity Approach: You spot a specific crest on the guard's uniform and cleverly deduce a gap in local gate bureaucracy, or perhaps you quickly flash a fabricated logistical order. You explain the complex shifting guard rotations to them, utilizing sharp problem-solving to confuse them into stepping aside. The GM calls for an Ingenuity roll.

• The Conviction Approach: You look the guard dead in the eye and stand your ground. You passionately state that an innocent life is in danger inside, refusing to back down or be intimidated by their posture. You project an unyielding, objective truth that appeals to their sense of duty. The GM calls for a Conviction roll.

• The Harmony Approach: You smile warmly, step forward with relaxed posture, and empathize with how exhausting it must be to stand watch in the midday heat. You strike up a genuinely pleasant conversation, de-escalating their natural suspicion until they casually wave you through. The GM calls for a Harmony roll.

It All Starts with a Conversation

At its core, playing Contingency RPG is just a conversation between you, your friends, and the Game Moderator (GM). You don't play by clicking buttons or moving mechanical pieces across a strict board; you play by speaking.

The game moves in a continuous, collaborative loop that generally looks like this:

1. The GM paints the picture. They describe the environment, the people around you, and the immediate situation. They set the scene and present an obstacle, opportunity, or threat.
2. You decide how to act. You look at the situation and describe exactly what your character tries to do and, crucially, how they are approaching it.
3. The Fiction Updates. If your action is straightforward, the GM simply describes what happens next, and the loop starts over. But if your action is risky, dramatic, or has uncertain consequences, the conversation pauses for an Action Roll. The dice are rolled, an outcome tier is determined, and the result instantly alters the direction of the story.

Fiction First: The Golden Rule

In Contingency, we follow a concept called Fiction First. This means that mechanics never drive your choices. Your choices drive the mechanics.

You should never look at your character sheet and say, "I want to make a Dominion roll on that gate." Instead, describe your character's actual physical actions: "I want to sprint forward, slam my shoulder into the rusted iron gate, and try to break the latch using raw force." By describing your intent and method first, you naturally signal to everyone at the table which attribute is being tested. The story always comes first; the numbers follow its lead.

Sidebar: The Unspoken Contract

Because this game is a conversation, honesty and collaboration are your best tools. The GM isn't playing against you; they are framing a dangerous world for your characters to interact with. Your job as a player is to push the boundaries of the story, accept the consequences when the dice roll poorly, and celebrate when your chosen approach pays off beautifully.

When Do the Dice Hit the Table?

You don't need to roll dice to walk down a safe street, open an unlocked door, or buy a standard drink at a tavern. In fact, over-rolling slows down the cinematic pace of the game.

The GM will only call for an Action Roll when a task meets two specific criteria:

• There is an Obstacle or Threat: Success isn't guaranteed (e.g., the door is securely locked, or a guard is actively watching you).
• There are Meaningful Stakes: Failure or a partial success actively changes the situation or introduces drama. If failing a roll means you simply try again with zero consequences, a roll shouldn't happen.

If there is no risk, your character succeeds automatically based on their background and description, and the narrative conversation keeps moving seamlessly forward.

Reading the Dice

When the conversation pauses and the stakes demand a roll, you don't look for a target number to beat. There are no static difficulty modifiers to add or subtract. Instead, your roll places your character into one of five distinct narrative realities.

You form your pool by grabbing a number of eight-sided dice (d8s) equal to your chosen Attribute. You roll them all, but you only care about the highest single die result.

Here is what that highest number means for your story:

Overwhelming Triumph (Multiple 8s)

• The Result: Your highest die is an 8, and at least one other core die in your pool also landed on an 8.
• What Happens: You didn't just succeed; you dominated the moment. You achieve exactly what you set out to do, and your flawless execution creates a spectacular ripple effect. The GM will award you an additional mechanical or narrative boon; such as a Greater or Potent Effect, a Secondary Benefit, or a perfect tactical opening that sets up an ally for their next move.

A Clean Break (Exactly one 8)

• The Result: The highest number facing up in your pool is an 8, and it's the only one.
• What Happens: Perfect execution. Your intent maps onto reality flawlessly, without any lingering strings or messy fallout. You pick the lock silently, your blade strikes true, or the guard steps aside with a nod. You get exactly what you wanted, completely complication-free.

Succeeding at a Cost (Highest die is a 6 or 7)

• The Result: Your highest die is a 6 or a 7.
• What Happens: This is the most common result in a dangerous world. You get what you came for, but the universe demands a tax. You break down the door, but you throw your shoulder out. You convince the merchant to give you the information, but they grow suspicious of your motives. Mechanically, the Game Moderator will usually introduce a minor consequence or accumulate a Tension Token to use against the party later.

Caught in a Tight Spot (Highest die is between 2 and 5)

• The Result: Your highest die lands anywhere from a 2 to a 5.
• What Happens: The initiative slips through your fingers. Either your character fails to achieve their goal entirely, or they manage to scrape by at an absolutely devastating narrative cost. The situation has actively deteriorated, your position is compromised, and the GM will likely introduce a new environmental hazard, hand you a Condition, add additional Pressure Die to the scene or accumulate multiple Tension Tokens to use against the party later.

Complete Catastrophe (All dice land on 1)

• The Result: Every single d8 in your pool lands face-up on a 1.
• What Happens: The worst-case scenario. Total, unmitigated disaster where the situation spirals entirely out of your control. Not only do you fail, but the environment fractures around you. Hidden traps detonate, weapons break, alarms scream, or an enemy gains an immediate, crushing advantage.

Sidebar: The Solo Die Safeguard

What happens if your character only has a score of 1 in an Attribute, meaning you are rolling a solitary d8? Since you only have one die, it is mathematically impossible for you to roll "Multiple 8s" and achieve an Overwhelming Triumph on your own. Don't panic. This is your cue to rely on your team. By looking to a companion for Assistance or by choosing to push your own limits and Take a Mark, you can dynamically insert an extra d8 into your pool, restoring your mathematical ceiling and putting a legendary success back on the table.

The Elements Working Against You

In a perfect world, your success would depend entirely on your own focus and talent. But the worlds you explore in Contingency are rarely perfect. The floor beneath you is slick with mud, a strong wind threatens to throw off your aim, or the corrupt city guard you are trying to outsmart is hyper-alert because an alarm was tripped five minutes ago.

When a task is inherently dangerous, chaotic, or physically demanding, the environment pushes back. To represent this, the Game Moderator won't ask you to do math or change your target numbers. Instead, they will hand you one or more six-sided Pressure Dice (d6s) to add to your pool.

Rolling Under Stress

When you make an action roll under these conditions, you shake up your core d8 Attribute dice and your d6 Pressure dice together and cast them onto the table at the exact same time.

• The Danger Number: You read your core d8 dice normally to find your baseline success tier, but you must keep a sharp eye on the d6s. If any Pressure Die lands on a 1, chaos catches up with you.
• The Price of Pressure: Every single Pressure Die that lands on a 1 actively disrupts your performance, dragging your final resolution outcome down by one full tier. Because Pressure Dice can actively dismantle a good roll, a highly skilled character rolling three or four d8s can still have their perfect plan ruined if the environmental pressure forces a downgrade:

[ Overwhelming Triumph ] ───( Pressure 1 )───> [ A Clean Break ]
[ A Clean Break ]        ───( Pressure 1 )───> [ Succeeding at a Cost ]
[ Succeeding at a Cost ] ───( Pressure 1 )───> [ Caught in a Tight Spot ]
[ Caught in a Tight Spot ]───( Pressure 1 )───> [ Complete Catastrophe ]

Finding the Floor

What happens if you are already having a terrible night, your core dice land on a Complete Catastrophe (all 1s), and your Pressure Die also lands on a 1?

A situation cannot get worse than a Complete Catastrophe. Pressure Dice can never reduce your outcome tier below this absolute floor. Instead, when the mechanical gravity has nowhere left to drop, that excess environmental weight overflows directly into the Game Moderator's toolbox.

If a Pressure Die rolls a 1 but your outcome tier cannot be dragged down any lower, the reduction fails, and the GM instantly gains one Tension Token added to the Scene pool. The environment fractures, the stakes rise, and the GM now has extra meta-currency to trigger hazards, activate adversaries, or complicate your life later in the scene.

Sidebar: Spotting the Difference

Don't get your dice mixed up! Because your Attribute pool uses eight-sided dice (d8s) and Pressure uses six-sided dice (d6s), they are physically easy to distinguish at a glance. It's highly recommended to use a completely distinct color for your Pressure dice so that when a 1 shows up, everyone at the table instantly spots the complication.

Weathering the Storm

Characters in Contingency RPG are resilient, but they aren't invincible. When you navigate a treacherous crumbling ledge, take a glancing blow from an adversary's blade, or push yourself past your limits to cast a spell, you don't instantly drop dead. Instead, you take a Mark.

A Mark represents light damage, minor fatigue, or a temporary narrative hindrance bound to a specific approach.

• If a collapsing ceiling clips your shoulder, the GM might give you a Mark on Grace, representing a painful bruise that throws off your balance.
• If you spend hours arguing with a stubborn city official, you might take a Mark on Conviction, representing mental exhaustion.

The Mechanical Friction of a Mark

Marks don't just sit on your sheet as passive flavor text; they actively inject chaos back into your dice pool.

Whenever you make an action roll using an Attribute that currently has a Mark, you must add a six-sided Pressure Die (+1d6) to your pool.

Because Marks introduce Pressure Dice, acting while injured drastically raises the chances of your success being downgraded by rolling a 1. It creates a beautiful cinematic friction: the more bruised and battered your specific approach is, the heavier the environmental pressure feels when you rely on it.

Shaking it Off

The good news? Pushing through the pain is exactly how you clear the air. Any time you achieve an Overwhelming Triumph (Multiple 8s) on an action roll you get to clear a mark from any Attribute on your character sheet.

By relying on that approach and braving the extra environmental pressure, your character finds their footing, shakes off the shock, and steel themselves for what's next. Additionally, any lingering Marks you haven't cleared through action rolls are automatically wiped clean at the start of a brand-new scene.

Finding Your Absolute Limits

You can only push an approach so far before something structurally breaks. An individual Attribute can hold a maximum of two Marks.

If a narrative hazard, enemy attack, or mechanical cost forces you to take a Mark on an Attribute that already has two Marks ticked off, the threshold shatters. You take Harm instead, forcing you to roll on your Endurance or Morale pools to see if your character can even stay standing.

Pushing Your Limits: Voluntary Marks

Marks aren't just a passive consequence handed down by the GM when things go wrong; they are also a resource you can actively spend to seize control of the narrative. If you have an empty slot available on an Attribute (meaning it has fewer than two Marks), you can choose to Take a Mark in order to push your character past their normal limits.

You can volunteer to take a personal Mark in two distinct ways:

• Pushing Yourself (+1d8): When failure is not an option, you can intentionally overexert your body or mind. By taking a Mark on thr Attribute you are about to roll, you dig deep and add an extra +1d8 to your own action pool.
• Providing Assistance (+1d8 to an Ally): Tabletop games are a team effort. Before an ally makes a dice roll, you can step into the fray to help them handle a threat. By stating how your character is intervening and taking a Mark on a relevant Attribute, you lend your strength to their effort, allowing your ally to add an extra +1d8 to their action pool.

Be warned, though: looking out for your friends means you also share in their fate. If you step in to provide assistance, you bind your destiny to theirs for that moment, sharing in any narrative consequences or sudden dangers that result from your ally's final dice roll.

Managing Your Reserves

While Marks handle the superficial scrapes, bumps, and momentary exhaustion of an altercation, your character relies on two deep, vital defense mechanisms to absorb real, structural damage: Endurance and Morale.

Think of these two pools as your Burnable Shields. They are the spiritual and physical armor that protects your character from being permanently broken or forced off the adventuring stage.

• Endurance: Your physical stamina, grit, and structural integrity. It’s what keeps your bones intact when a heavy mace swings your way.
• Morale: Your psychological resolve, mental fortitude, and willpower. It’s what keeps you from panicking when an otherworldly horror screams into your mind.

Unlike your six static Attributes, these Burnable Shields are dynamic, represented by a row of actual eight-sided dice sitting on your character sheet which we refer to as Resource Pools.

Burning Your Shields

When a narrative consequence, a hard failure, or an adversary’s attack inflicts raw Harm upon you (or when you overflow past your two-Mark limit on an Attribute), your outer defenses are breached. The damage is breaking through, and your shields have to ignite to absorb the shock before it hits your core.

To see how well your armor holds, perform a Harm roll:

1. Choose your shield: Look at the nature of the threat and choose whether to test your Endurance or your Morale pool.
2. Roll the reserves: Grab all the d8 dice currently remaining in that specific pool and roll them.
3. Burn the high numbers: Examine the results and immediately discard any dice that land on a 6, 7, or 8.

This is where the shield "burns." Those high-rolling dice sacrifice themselves, burning out of your pool permanently for the rest of the scene to safely deflect the incoming trauma. The lower numbers (1 through 5) represent your armor successfully absorbing the impact without breaking, remaining on your sheet to fight another day.

⚠️ Note: No Pressure Under Fire

Because you are fighting for your absolute survival when a shield ignites, outside environmental friction fades away. Pressure Dice never apply to your Endurance or Morale harm rolls. You are testing a pure, unadulterated internal reserve.

Downed, But Not Out

As your dice melt away from repeated impacts, your shields will inevitably spark and die. The exact moment either your Endurance or Morale pool is completely burned down to zero dice, your character is Downed.

When your shields are completely dark, your options become incredibly desperate. You no longer have a buffer against the world. You can no longer act freely; if you want to push your broken body to perform an action roll while Downed, you must purposefully Take a Mark somewhere on your sheet to muster the painful adrenaline needed to move, or rely entirely on an ally to step in and Provide Assistance to drag you through it.

The Brink of Retirement

If your Burnable Shields are totally offline, and you take Harm again, there is nothing left to absorb the blow. You are standing on the absolute precipice.

Instead of rolling a pool, you must immediately roll 2d8 and take the lower of the two values.

• On a 6, 7, or 8: By some absolute miracle, you dig deep into your soul and find a second wind, refusing to cross the threshold. Your character barely deflects the blow and survives the moment.
• On a 1 through 5: Without a shield to burn, the impact is fatal or psychologically shattering. Your hero has reached the definitive end of the line and must immediately trigger a Character Retirement option. The action stops, the table catches its breath, and you must immediately select one of the core Character Retirement options (such as Exiting the Scene or going out in a Blaze of Glory) to dictate exactly how your hero’s story ends.

Shaking Off the Fatigue

Thankfully, your character can find a brief moment to catch their breath between altercations. At the start of every brand-new Scene, you automatically regain one Endurance die and one Morale die back into your pools. If your party manages to secure a significant narrative period of safety and downtime (stretching over days or weeks), your reserves fully replenish back to maximum capacity.

The End of the Road

When your character bottoms out on an empty Endurance or Morale pool and fate turns its back on you, your adventuring career with this hero comes to an end. Whether they meet a tragic demise or simply realize they aren't cut out for this brutal life, you don't just erase your sheet and move on.

This is your moment to dictate the final chapter of their story. You must choose one of the following three Retirement options to define how your character bows out of the narrative:

Exit the Scene

Live to fight another day, but at a heavy cost.

How it works: Your character is completely overwhelmed or broken and can no longer continue. They exit the current scene entirely and cannot return until the start of the next major narrative Act.

The Price: When they eventually return, they are permanently altered by the ordeal. You must permanently cross off and sacrifice one Endurance die slot and one Morale die slot from your character sheet. On the bright side, their return cleanly wipes all existing Marks and fully refills their remaining resource pools back to their new, permanently lowered maximums.

Blaze of Glory

Going out on your own terms, in the most spectacular way possible.

How it works: You muster every single remaining ounce of strength for one final, unforgettable action. You describe your hero throwing caution to the wind to save their friends or stop an adversary.

The Benefit: For this final action roll, your success is completely guaranteed. Not only do you succeed automatically, but you also dictate the narrative outcome as if you rolled a Critical Success. Once the action is resolved, write down your character's final moments. Stories will be told at the tavern about this day. Although your action is a guaranteed to succeed, it still needs to be grounded within the fiction of the scene.

Leave It To Fate

A desperate, blind gamble for survival.

How it works: You refuse to give up. The moment you select this option, grab 3d8 and roll them. Crucially, you must immediately cover the dice (with an empty cup or your hands) so that neither you, the GM, nor anyone else at the table can see the result.

The Twist: Your character is no longer considered Downed. You instantly recover one Endurance die, one Morale die, and you even gain a +1d8 bonus to your very next action roll within the scene. You are operating on pure, borrowed adrenaline.

The Reveal: You play out the rest of the altercation in suspense. If you are forced to face retirement a second time before the scene ends, the gamble fails and your character dies or retires immediately. Otherwise, at the exact conclusion of the altercation, you lift the cup to reveal your hidden roll:

• Overwhelming Triumph (Multiple 8s): A miracle. You clear a Mark from every single Attribute on your sheet and live on to fight another day.
• A Clean Break (Exactly one 8) or Succeeding at a Cost (Highest die is a 6 or 7): The fates were kind. Your character survives the ordeal and stays in the game.
• Caught in a Tight Spot (Highest die is between 2 and 5): The toll was too high. Your character is peacefully but definitively retired at the conclusion of the scene with no further complications.
• Complete Catastrophe (All dice land on 1): The toll is exacted immediately. Your character is retired on the spot, right then and there, whether the scene has ended or not. The adrenaline fails, and your hero drops or bows out mid-action.

Extended Play Example

Let's put it all together and see what this looks like at an actual table.

Our players are Sarah (playing a brute-force Fighter named Vance) and Tom (playing a quick-witted Wizard named Ignis). They are trapped in a collapsing subterranean vault. A massive iron portcullis is grinding shut, and a mechanical brass warden is charging down the hall toward them. Marcus is the Game Moderator (GM).

GM (Marcus):
The ceiling is shuddering, shedding plaster like snow. That heavy iron portcullis is about three-quarters of the way down. If it seals, you’re trapped in here with that clockwork warden. It’s clicking over to active combat mode. What are you doing?

Sarah (Vance):
I’m not getting locked in a tin can. I sprint toward the gate, slide underneath it, and plant my hands under the bottom bar. I’m going to hoist this thing up with sheer muscle and hold it open so Ignis can slide through.

GM (Marcus):
Dynamic and risky, definitely an action roll! Since you are using brute, dominating strength to overpower a mechanical obstacle, you're rolling with Dominion. What’s your score?

Sarah (Vance):
My Dominion is 2, so I start with 2d8.

GM (Marcus):
Perfect. Before you grab those dice, don't forget the toll. Grab one Tension Token and place it squarely on Vance's character sheet. You’re stepping right into the danger zone.

Sarah (Vance):
Done. 2d8 in hand.

Tom (Ignis):
Wait, a static 2d8 is tight for an iron gate, and I don't want Vance getting crushed. I’m going to Provide Assistance. Ignis runs up, jams his heavy brass arcane staff under the gate like a lever, and leans all his weight into it. I’m going to Take a Mark on Grace to represent Ignis completely throwing off his balance and straining his wrists to buy you leverage.

Sarah (Vance):
Awesome! That gives me an extra +1d8 to my pool. I'm up to 3d8.

GM (Marcus):
Love the team effort. But the environment is actively working against you. The structural shaking is intense, and debris is pelting your armor. I’m throwing a six-sided Pressure Die (d6) into your hand, Sarah. Roll 'em!

Sarah (Vance):
Rolling! (The dice clatter). Okay, my d8s landed on a 7, 6, and 4. But... oh no, the d6 Pressure Die landed on a 1!

GM (Marcus):
Oof, the friction gets you. Your highest d8 is a 7, which would normally mean you were *Succeeding at a Cost *. But because that Pressure Die hit a 1, it actively drags your final result down by one full tier. Meaning that you're now Caught in a Tight Spot.

Sarah (Vance):
Shoot. What happens?

GM (Marcus):
You completely fail your main intention: you can't get the gate to budge. Vance, you strain until your vision goes dark, but the gear mechanism grinds your hands back down. Because you failed, a narrative hazard strikes the scene. The brass warden lunges forward and drives its heavy steam-piston fist directly into Vance's chest. You’re taking raw Harm. And Tom, because you assisted, you share the consequence. The staff snaps under the pressure, splintering and sending Ignis flying hard into the stone wall. You also take raw Harm!

Sarah (Vance):
My physical defense is threatened, so I’m going to roll my Endurance pool. I currently have 4d8 sitting in my pool. (Rolls 4d8). I got an 8, 7, 3, and 2.

GM (Marcus):
The shield ignites! Discard that 8 and 7. They burn out of your pool to absorb the kinetic shock of the piston. Vance is knocked flat on his back, winded and bruised, with only 2d8 left in his Endurance pool for later. Tom, how does Ignis handle the wall?

Tom (Ignis):
Ignis is fragile physically, but mentally unyielding. I’m going to roll my Morale instead, bracing myself psychologically so I don't panic. My Morale pool is 3d8. (Rolls 3d8). I got a 5, 4, and 1.

GM (Marcus):
No 6s, 7s, or 8s! Your shield absorbs the shock perfectly without burning a single die. Ignis hits the wall, slides down, but cracks his jaw, spits some blood, and glares right back at the monster. Your Morale pool stays at full capacity.

Tom (Ignis):
My turn in the spotlight. I scramble to my feet. Vance is down on the floor, the warden is standing over him, and the gate is seconds from sealing. I raise my hands, speak a word of power, and try to blast the warden back with a spell. I’m rolling Revelation to precisely target its weak gear joints.

GM (Marcus):
Go for it! Take your action roll Tension Token and place it on your sheet. Now, Ignis has 1 token, and Vance has 1 token, you've shared the enemy's focus perfectly so far. What's your Revelation score?

Tom (Ignis):
My Revelation is 3, so I grab 3d8. But remember, I took a Mark on Grace earlier to help Vance. Since I'm currently rolling on a marked attribute... wait, no, I'm rolling Revelation, not Grace! So the Mark doesn't add a Pressure die here. It just sits on my sheet safely until the scene ends or I roll Grace.

GM (Marcus):
Exactly. However, the warden is looming right over your friend. The situation is incredibly tense. I'm adding a Pressure Die (d6) due to the immediate danger. Roll 'em.

Tom (Ignis):
Let's do this. (Rolls 3d8 and 1d6). Wow! My d8s landed on a 1, 1, and 1. Absolute rock bottom. A Complete Catastrophe.

Sarah (Vance):
Oh no. What did the d6 Pressure Die land on?

Tom (Ignis):
It also landed on a 1.

GM (Marcus):
Finding the Floor! Your roll is already at the absolute mechanical bottom of a Complete Catastrophe. That Pressure Die landing on a 1 can't drag you any lower than that. Instead, the bad luck overflows. The tier doesn't drop, but I instantly take that excess misfortune and add one Tension Token to the Scene Pool.

Tom (Ignis):
I shudder to think what you're going to use that for. What's the disaster?

GM (Marcus):
Your spell sparks weakly off the warden's armored chassis. Your window of opportunity slams shut. With a deafening SLAM, the iron portcullis drops completely into the stone floor and locks into place. The exit is gone. You are officially trapped in the dark vault, the air is thick with dust, and the brass warden turns its glowing red eyes slowly toward Ignis...