Author Topic: Duel of Wills  (Read 1588 times)

Offline ways and means

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Duel of Wills
« on: October 19, 2011, 01:05:01 AM »
I was looking through Your Story to see how it would run a duel of wills and couldn't find an appropriate page, so I am now looking ideas on the board and was wondering if anyone had runs such a conflict and how they did it? 
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Offline Selrach

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Re: Duel of Wills
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2011, 01:09:37 AM »
By a duel of wills do you mean like a staring contest or something similar. Or say two contestants dueling under the Accords to mentally push a piece of enchanted Mordite at each other?

By RAW, I would say its a Discipline vs Discipline contest where you could use other skills for declarations or maneuvers, like Intimidation to place a "Cowed" aspect or Deceit for a "Not expecting this" aspect. 

*Edit: And the brain kicked in, yea this is a bit of head-scratcher. I think how the Duel of Wills is initiated will dictate how it proceeds. A staring contest could be a single exchange of Discpline  rolls, but something more complex, it could be well anything.*
« Last Edit: October 19, 2011, 01:12:48 AM by Selrach »
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Offline ways and means

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Re: Duel of Wills
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2011, 01:14:53 AM »
I meant the mordite pushing kind, wasn't sure if it was discipline or conviction or if it should be a extended contested or race or just run like mental combat with discipline as a attacking skill.
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Offline Selrach

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Re: Duel of Wills
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2011, 01:26:10 AM »
Well for a Mordite type duel I would run it as such:
The two contestants would be placed a number of zones apart (For this ecample lets say 5 zones apart).
Every exchange the contestants would have a basic action for maneuvers to bolster their resolve or lower their opponents (So basically social or mental declarations/maneuvers) 
Then they would there would be a discipline vs discipline roll and and any excess shifts would shift it towards the loser
 (For example Larry and Botega are dueling. Botega drops some Fate Points and gets a good starting roll of a 7. Larry is unprepared for the unslaught and only manages a 5. 7-5=2 So the Mordite would move 2 zones toward Larry)

As for the Mordite, I have no real idea how to stat the damage. It would be at least a Weapon:6 or so. Yes Mordite is solidified anti-life but there are examples of people merely being maimed instead of killed.
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Offline VVolf

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Re: Duel of Wills
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2011, 02:43:44 PM »
I would say it depends on how you intend for the Duel to proceed...

I'd run it as a Cat and Mouse style conflict YS194.
The benefit of doing this is you don't end up playing for hours and hours when the death stone keeps moving back and forth, instead you set a limit on the number of rolls and have a running total determine the winner.

I'd also say that I think raw force of will would best be implemented by Conviction, per the Acts of Faith trapping: "Roll Conviction whenever you're called upon to test the strength of your beliefs."
Discipline is more used for concentration and mental defense...

I can totally see this contest done as a series of Conviction vs. Discipline rolls with each taking turns to push with conviction and hold it off with discipline. The stronger will might have the bigger push, but the more focused mind can prevent the death pebble from being moved.

The advantage to having the contest as a zone-pushing is that it better allows for interference only when one side is about to lose, the disadvantage is it could potentially go on forever.
The advantage to having the contest as a cat and mouse style encounter is that the time it would take is limited. Others could interfere just as the contest is ending, though if the contest is fairly even at the end it could fog who was losing toward the end if someone was to interfere.

Ultimately it's up to you how you want to run it.