Stress and Conditions

Stress

During a conflict, when an attack action exceeds the target's defense action, the difference between the two rolls is the amount of stress dealt. Stress can be absorbed using a number of 1-point stress boxes. All player characters have four 1-point stress boxes by default. You gain additional stress boxes by investing in armor stunts. The number of additional stress boxes you gain depends on the armor stunts you choose to take. Refer to the chart below.

Conditions

There are times when something might happen to your character that will trigger a special set of rules that will either enhance or place limitations on what she can do or the way she can do it. We call these "conditions." Often, a condition will be triggered through actions your character takes, or through spells that target you.

Unless otherwise noted, once a condition is marked, it comes with a single free invoke that the character who placed the condition can use. If the action that placed the condition on the character succeeded with style, the character gets two free invokes.

Stress can also be absorbed by marking conditions. The severity of a condition is measured in the number of shifts it can absorb. There are three types of conditions:

• Fleeting [2]: These conditions will usually clear in between scenes, so long as the GM determines there is enough recovery time between scenes.
• Sticky [4]: A sticky condition will hang around until you take some purposeful action to clear it. The specific action should be stated in the condition's description.
• Lasting [6]: A lasting condition is like a sticky one except that, in order for it to be cleared, time has to pass. This might be a session or, possibly, two, in addition to whatever action the GM requires to begin recovery.

Each character begins play with two conditions by default: Dazed, a 2-point fleeting condition, and Hurt, a 4-point sticky condition. Your character will also have at least one unique condition based on the Role you choose to take.

Example conditions that might be placed on a character throughout a campaign might include: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, stunned, poisoned.