The Universal Conflict Resolution Trick

Exalted has complex rules that formalize in-game conflicts - fights to the death, sorcerous cataclysms, thrilling chase scenes and bone-wearying feats of endurance and craft - in to mechanical minigames. These minigames are of varying quality and fun, but they all take time to set up and play that a MUSH game can't afford.  We often have less time to play in, as we're dependent on moments when schedules serendipitously overlap, and when we do play it often goes at a slower pace.

The Universal Conflict Resolution Trick, or UCRT, is a simple, optional minigame designed to wrap up fast, be easy to balance, and have a fun set-up. This is so that people can get the most fun out of their play time, and be confident that their in-game actions are 'by the rules'. That way, their roleplay can affect the state of game world even without the presence of a staffer.

The goal of the UCRT is to boil a conflict down to the least number of die rolls as possible, and have each die roll matter as much as possible. This minimizes the time required, and maximizes the tension and excitement. It functions based on conflict resolution, not task resolution.

Generally, when you try and change the world with your powers, it's going to come down to using the UCRT, so it's important to know how it works!

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: 

You will never be required to use the UCRT system.  It is a strictly optional resolution mechanism designed to streamline otherwise long or boring conflicts, but if you feel the situation is better handled by trying to stick to the WW mechanics, that's your option (although STs might be slightly peeved if you demand to roll out tick-by-tick combat with 10,000 beastmen).  You will never be required to agree to any given stakes, but STs rule that certain objectives can't be accomplished without that risk, so you'll have to decide how much you really want it.

How it works

In the first phase, break down the scene or action in to discrete conflicts, where the players have a specific goal to achieve, but something can go wrong in an interesting way. Don't over-plan this, just make sure the first conflict works for everyone. After all, the first conflict might change the scene and what sort of conflicts might follow.

In the second phase, you decide on the stakes of the conflict.

• If this is a conflict between two player characters, or between a player character and a statted NPC, the players on both sides of the conflict declare what they're seeking here - what they want to get out of it if they win. Conversely, they declare what they want the consequences to be for each other if they fail.  Then, they negotiate on these until everyone's clear on the consequences of one or the other winning, and okay with these consequences. In exchange for reduced reward for success and increased penalty for failure, they can ask for a handicap in the form of more dice or bonus successes.  In general, the consequences for each player's success, as well as the odds of success, are on the table.

• If this is a conflict between a player character and an unstatted storyteller obstacle, such as a tall mountain, a snarling behemoth with cilia of gold, or a shockingly rude guest at your party, the UCRT becomes a game of risk/reward management - increasing risk for more reward, or vice versa.  The player begins by declaring his goal in the conflict - what he wants to happen if he succeeds, and how (with what die pool) he intends to attempt to achieve the thing. The storyteller responds by declaring the difficulty of the task and the consequences for failure.  The magnitude of both of these should be proportional to the reward that the player wants for success.  Following this, the player and storyteller negotiate the terms.  Either one can offer to raise the difficulty in exchange for increasing the rewards of success and the dangers of failure, or reduce the difficulty in exchange for decreasing the rewards and dangers, or change the die pool in exchange for either.  It is important that rewards and dangers rise and fall together!  Otherwise, you wind up with the strange situation of someone rolling against a difficulty of 1, with the consequence of failure being death to him and his entire extended family and the revival of the Great Contagion, and the reward for success being a shiny new Imperial Crown. (As amusing as such a system would be, eventually someone would fail the roll and we'd all die, so we'll refrain.)

Once everyone is precisely clear and in agreement upon the difficulty of the roll, the die pool or pools to be used, and the precise consequences of success or failure, they roll. There's no excuse for fudging dice, since the consequences are negotiated ahead of time, so no dice will be fudged.

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO DO <X>?

When you're attempting to do something to a non-PC, the difficulty of your UCRT roll with be determined by the scope and magnitude of the changes you are attempting to make.  BY DEFAULT no action taken by a UCRT will persist for more than 1-3 weeks of IC time, though some things can change that.

Common default difficulties:

• Difficulty 1: Anyone can do this.
  • Convincing a greeding politician not to cut taxes (Manipulation+Presence).  Failure results in the politician ignoring you.
• Difficulty 3: A heroic mortal won't have much trouble with this, 3 dice each in an attribute and an ability give an even shot at this.
  • Reaffirming a Realm-loyal town's dislike of the Anathema (Charisma+Socialize).  Failure undercuts faith in the Order to a minor degree.
  • Convincing a band of highwaymen that you're worth more to them as a friend than as another victim (Manipulation or Charisma+Performance).  Failure results in being robbed.
• Difficulty 5: A specialized heroic mortal can do this, but might fail.  5s in both attribute an ability give an even chance of success, specialties or artifact/hearthstones add to the chance.
  • Leading a dispirited army to victory over a group of barbarian tribesmen led by a shaman or a heroic mortal (Intelligence or Charisma+War).  Failure will lead to the loss of the army, and also to a poor reputation among other military types.
  • Diagnosing a mundane, but previously unseen disease (Perception or Intelligence+Medicine).  Failure could lead to misdiagnosis and an incorrect treatment, making further Medicine rolls useless.
• Difficulty 8: A determined heroic mortal channeling a virtue could do this, a competent exalt should have middling difficulty.  A fully-specialized mortal (Attribute 5, Ability 5, Specialty 3) who channeled a strong virtue would have a decent shot at success.  An exalt who could complete a difficulty 5 task without excellencies should be able to do this easily.
  • Tracking a single man (not hiding his trail) through the bordermarches of the Eastern Wyld fast enough to overtake him (Perception+Survival).  Failure could lead to getting lured off-track by deceptive Fae.
  • Demonstrating your kung-fu with such skill and grace that a mortal TMA dojo agrees to make you its new master (Dexterity or Charisma+Martial Arts).  Failure will result in loss of face and a widespread repuation for recklessness in the martial arts community.
• Difficulty 12: A specialized exalt can do this with reasonable confidence, but carries some risk.  A fully specialized exalt channelling a strong virtue should have 24-26 dice before artifacts/hearthstones, giving them a 50% chance of success with no tools.
  • Rallying the army of a foreign nation to invade a neighboring country without orders (Manipulation or Charisma+Performance).  Failure will likely expose your true adgenda and result in arrest or hunt by two nations.
  • Stealing the Perfect of Paragon's silverware during a formal dinner without being noticed until after you excuse yourself to go to the bathroom (Manipulation or Dexterity+Larceny).  Failure risks being brainwashed.
• Difficulty 15: Epic difficulty for an exalt.  A fully specialized solar channeling a 5-dot virtue will have slightly less than a 50% chance of succeeding at this, which can reach 50% or higher with proper gear.
  • Leading an army of peasants against a Lunar-led horde of beastmen and driving them back (Charisma or Intelligence+War).  Failure probably gives the opposing general a delightful new wine-mug.
  • Resisting the temptations of the Lover Clad in Raiment of Tears while spending a week in her palace (Wits+Integrity).  Failure is pretty self-explanatory.
  • Giving a speech before the Realm Deliberative that contains a hidden meaning only understandable by a single senator, whom you have never met (Intelligence or Manipulation+Linguistics).  Failure is certain to result in arrest and inquisition by the Immaculate Order, the All-Seeing Eye and the Magistrates.
• More: Universal Conflict Resolution Trick Examples

You may notice in this list that no examples involve winning a fight against someone (or some group of people).  This is not because the UCRT is not suited for resolving combat - indeed, if you want to face down 100 barbarians in single combat you'd have to be insane to do that in ticks.  Rather, combat is one of the areas of Exalted (notable other areas include Crafting and some varieties of social-fu) that have inflated dice pools.  Even assuming relatively equal experience put into both areas, an Exalt's combat pool will almost always be higher than his, say, linguistics pool, thanks to the prevalence of artifacts and abilities that benefit combat.  Because of this, combat, crafting, some kinds of social-fu and a few other areas should have similarly inflated pools.  Something that seems like a difficulty 3 combat challenge should probably be set at difficulty 5, and so on.

Finally, you may notice that all of these tasks are really about single events.  None of them involve changing the long-term policy of a nation, winning an entire war, or curing a plague.  This is where support charms come in.  The tasks listed above are examples of what a character can hope to accomplish with no charms but dice-pool boosters.  Having additional charms means that a given result can be expanded to last longer, or have a more widespread effect.  For example: A solar might make a difficulty 12 check to start a week-long anti-Realm pogrom in a 100K nation, but it will normally fade after a short time, and people will largely return to normal.  Should that same solar have Taboo-Inflicting Diatribe, he might be able to instead, at the same difficulty, instill a long-lasting dislike of DBs into the same nation - something a character without that charm couldn't do at all, not even with 20 successes.

In general, when you lay out your goals with your ST, give them a list of all charms that you have that pertain to the situation.  Those charms should provide an idea of what sort of results you can get above and beyond the ordinary.

CAN I STUNT?

Yes.  May I swallow my own tail if I ever undermine the value of stunting.

CAN I USE CHARMS?

Yes, you can use Excellencies and other die adders.  Charms that aren't excellencies are generally only useful for improving your negotiating position regarding the consequences of success and failure.  This is an intentional devaluation; I hope to encourage new players to jump right in to the game by making a large pool and an Excellency all that's needed to be competitive.

I GOT THIRTY EXTRA SUCCESSES! WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

Nothing.  If you want a reward for rolling high, you have to raise the difficulty - and the risks.

I BET MY LIFE AND LOST - I DIED! NOW WHAT?

The story of your character is at an end.  Time to roll up a new one with half the experience of your current one.

BUT I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

You should have thought of that before you bet your life, man!