# [[Chain Reaction 2023]] / [[Ironsworn]] / [[Blades in the Dark]] : Initial Thoughts: Resolution Comparison tags: #game/rpg/ironsworn , #game/wargame/chain-reaction , #game/rpg/fights-in-the-dark , #game/rpg/starforged , #articles #thoughts/game-design Since, somehow, I got lured into editing the [[Two-Hour Wargames]]' latest edition of the core mechanics that they usually give away for free, [[Chain Reaction 2023]], I've had it on my mind. It's a solo game as well as co-op and head-to-head – which immediately put me in the mind of the other games that I'm really enjoying tinkering with lately, [[Ironsworn - Starforged|Ironsworn: Starforged]] and [[Blades in the Dark]] (generalized to the [[Blades in the Dark|Forged in the Dark]] general system architecture, which I really need to get more comfortable with referring to it as). There have been a lot of interesting developments in those game systems and I wondered if I could modify CR to be more like the systems which don't have oppositional die rolls but instead all of the initiation are done by players invoking Moves. I'm not sure I can get all the way there but there's definitely room to explore. But let's start with one of the things that made me think of these things together – the resolution mechanics. ## Trifurcation CR was one of the first systems that I really encountered that gave a very clear split in outcomes rather than a binary output of succeed/fail or the graduated output of a dice pool system in which you get more successes the more dice you get. It takes elements of the latter but strips them down to the bare metal. Let's take them one at a time with an example. ### Chain Reaction Most of the time in CR the element which is testing the action has a Reputation which ranges from 2 to 5 and acts as the governing target for pretty much every die test. Logically, 2 is extremely bad and 5 is as good as it gets (most of the time). A basic Test is roll 2D6 and compare each dyad to the Rep of the character; equal or below counts as a pass (or success in pretty much any other system ever written), with passing 2D6 counting is a full success, passing one D6 usually being a partial success, and zero D6 being failure. Most things are resolved on a table which gives more specific outcomes but they are straightforward. For instance, this is the Melee table: ![[Pasted image 20231006122812.png]] There are some character Attributes which can modify the results and having a proper melee weapon gives you access to rerolling one die – but things are relatively straightforward. #### Example A Rep 4 Hunter with a spear is hunting a Rep 3 boar. The hunter has no particular Attributes of note but the boar has Rage which means that his Rep will count as being Rep 4. For the sake of fictional positioning and setting us up in the way CR would itself, we are going to assume that we are on the tabletop map and that the PEF (Potential Enemy Force) representing the boar is generally ahead of him in the open. We need to hit the Action table as we move through the brush to spot the boar. Both sides roll 2D6 versus their Rep. Hunter: 3, 6 Boar: 3, 5 Both of them pass 1 and those passing dice are both 3. So – simultaneous action! They spot each other at the same time and rush to clash! (This is made significantly easier because neither one of them has a ranged weapon.) So – over to the Melee table. Both combatants roll 2D6 versus their Rep: *Hunter:* 2, 5 *Boar:* 3, 5 Since they both rolled one pass versus their Rep, they should have to fight another round – but wait! The spear! That gives our hunter a reroll, and that 5 looks like a prime choice. It becomes a 3, giving him two passing dice and letting him take the boar Out Of the Fight (which means pretty much what it says). If the reroll had remained higher than his Rep, say a 6, both he and the Boar would have lost one point of Rep for the moment and fought another round at the adjusted Rep of 3, increasing the chance that one would pass 2 and take the other OTF. ### [[Ironsworn]] Interestingly, Ironsworn has a very similar die rolling mechanic but flips certain parts. The basic resolution test is 2D10 versus a stat plus a D6 (referred to as the action die). You also might get a modifier (add) from whatever move or asset you have attached to your character. The action die plus your stat plus adds is your "action score" which is capped at 10. To determine the results of a move you compare your action score to each of the challenge dice individually and have the result must be greater than the number showing. By implication, you can never perfectly succeed because there's always the chance that even with an action score of 10 you can roll two 10s. If your action score beats both of the challenge dice you have scored a strong hit and pretty much straight up succeed. If you only beat one of them, you succeed but there is probably a lesser effect or a complication. If your action score doesn't beat either the challenge dice you miss and failed – or will need to take some serious repercussions. If you miss you will probably be prompted by your move to Pay the Price which is typically really, really bad. Damage is common. No matter what, a miss leads to something happening; things get more complicated, more dramatic, or more dangerous. Bad shit, Mikey; bad shit. This is complicated by the possibility that the challenge dice will come up matching; if they do so things just got much more complicated. You can think of this is a critical in most other game systems, except in this case things get twisted here no matter whether it's in your favor or not. It's also worth noting that your stats range from 1 to 3, which is surprisingly easily mapped to the CR Rep 2 to 5, especially if you take assets into account. Again, you have a set of mechanics which have multiple potential outcomes. #### Example ##### Setup It's a little bit more challenging to come up with an example for Ironsworn because characters are a bit more complicated. There are a number of stats, plus health as a stat. Plus assets. But we should be able to throw something together relatively quickly. Let's put our starting hunter together real quick. Stat|Value ---:|:--- Edge|1 Heart|2 Iron|3 Shadow|1 Wits|2 Our hunter is not a man who makes use of a bow or anything to engage the boar before he gets on top of it. No, he just goes straight ahead. As such he doesn't have much in the way of Edge. Instead he's all about physical strength, endurance, aggressiveness and close combat (Iron). Not very sneaky, either (Shadow). He is courageous as anyone who hunted boar with just a spear would have to be (Heart). Stat|Value --:|:-- Health|5 Spirit|5 Supply|5 Since we are just starting out, he just gets the standard set of values here. While we probably won't use the Momentum mechanic, it starts at +2. We get to pick 3 assets so let's do that. There are a ton of them so I'll pick something relatively sensible and quick. ![[Pasted image 20231006131911.png]] Seems like an obvious choice since we are popping around with a spear. Note only the first bit is marked so that's the only one we have active. If we were playing for longer we could invest experience into opening the other two pieces. ![[Pasted image 20231006132635.png]] This is a guy who is out in the woods by himself a lot so it's probably a good idea to be able to come up with a quick plan and in the future maybe throw something together. Doesn't matter right now? No. This has absolutely no bearing on hunting a boar. At least not as far as I can see at the moment. ![[Pasted image 20231006132511.png]] All right, maybe he's not out here all by himself completely. He does have a faithful hound ("Killer") who has his back. We get to pick which bit is active so we're going to go with Ferocious because I think were going to need it. Our hunter is the typical Ironsworn inhabitant with nothing of particular note to his name except some padded armor, a nice spear which has seen better days, and a knife made of iron for when things go seriously south. We don't need to set up a vow so – let's figure out what the boar has for stats. Fighting a boar alone is not generally a good idea but this one isn't particularly outstanding. We are going to give it the rank of Dangerous which makes it deadly but not mighty, so it's able to resist Progress is at 2 per harm and it inflicts 2 harm. It gets a standard progress track of 10 boxes which get marked off, as previously noted, at 2 boxes for every harm the hunter inflicts. `OO OO OO OO OO` Amusingly there is a stat block for boars right here in the book. ![[Pasted image 20231006133601.png]] I personally love the fact that their tactics are "I kill you! I kill you more!" But this gives us enough information ("finally", I'm sure you're saying) to put this little combat together. ##### Play This being Ironsworn, we need to set things up in the fiction by describing what's going on. Unlike CR, it's not essentially a short form tabletop wargame/RPG hybrid and mechanically it focuses very much on creating an experience detailed enough to keep a single player engaged. So – hunting. It's a rough winter and supplies are low in our village; low enough that there are only a few people left, only two of them hunters, to look for meat. It's a bad situation. We, as players, know there is a boar out there because we want there to be one. Let's see if we can put ourselves in a good position to get the drop on it. Sadly our hound isn't particularly good at tracking quarry so he's not going to be much help. Luckily, there is an Adventure Move, Gather Information. We roll +wits and see what we turn up. (2, 7) vs 6+2(wits) = 8 That's a strong hit without question. That gives the hunter the trail, plus +2 momentum, bringing it to +4. *Having found the beast, it's probably a good idea to get in position to take it by surprise. Unfortunately, our hunter is no great shakes for sneaking up on the beast. This might explain why the village is close to starving if he is considered one of their best hunters. But even when you can't sneak, you can charge! And that's what he does, running out of the wood line screaming, spear grasped hard!* How do you think that turns out? Let's ask the Adventure Move, Face Danger. We are definitely doing something risky with aggressive actions so it's going to be a +iron test. (3, 8) vs 6+3(iron) = 9 Our Hunter continues to be ridiculously lucky. His action score beats both of the challenge dice, giving him another strong hit. The boar is startled, caught completely off guard… And that gives the hunter another +1 momentum, bringing it to +5. There's nothing for it now, combat is joined! Which brings us over to the Combat Moves – in particular, Enter The Fray. The hunter is in control of the situation and has initiative, thanks to Face Danger, which is a good place to be. But now it's time to be stout of heart. Literally. (3, 5) vs 6+2(heart) = 8 The hunter gets another strong hit, which gives him +2 more momentum bringing it to +7 and continuing to have the initiative. The boar freezes, eyes huge, reflecting the icy landscape as the hunter bares down on him. *The hunter is in control and wants to hurt the boar, really, really bad. It's for the best, after all. Killer streaks in from the side, all teeth and barks, knowing he'll have his share at the end.* Time for the Combat Move Strike. (2, 7) vs 2+3(iron) = 5 Well – that's not great. It's only a weak hit, even with Killer's help. That's not terrible but it's not a good situation to be in. We could burn momentum to keep the initiative – but maybe it's a better idea to roll with the situation, as it were. *At the last moment, the boar turns directly into the spear and the point creases its scalp, spraying blood bright across the white snow. Killer harries the beast, keeping it from goring either of you but it's only a matter of time.* We are using a spear which is a deadly weapon and Killer can give us an extra +1 harm which we will take for a total of +3, filling in 6 boxes on the boar's progression track. `XX XX XX OO OO` We could try to end the fight right here, but 60% isn't as good as I would like. But the hunter has given up initiative and is on the back foot so we have to change to a Clash to see if we can maintain our health or re-gain the upper hand. (8, 9) vs 2+3(iron) = 5 That is… That is very bad. Right out of the pocket that would be a miss. But we do have something that might save our lives: momentum. Or rather it would if it was higher than either of the challenge dice. That's a bit of a problem because it's not higher than either. *The bore thrashes its head, shoving the spear aside and throwing Killer away from it before it rushes forward with dirty, ugly tusks, and blood in its eye both from the wound and its intent to kill the hunter.* Pay the Price is a Fate Move. Typically you just make the most obvious negative outcome happen. In this case, the most obvious negative outcome is that we have to Endure Harm, which is a Suffer Move. Right up front the hunter takes 2 health damage because of the boar's rank. That brings him down to health 3, which is at least not deadly yet. But then we have to find out what the results are. That requires a test versus health or iron, whichever is higher but they are equal at the moment at 3. (2, 8) vs 2+3(iron) = 5 That gives us a weak hit which isn't really bad. It just means that we continue on without any effect. But the hunter has definitely lost the initiative. *The boar gets in close and rips a gash in the hunter's thigh with his tusks. Killer is still gathering his wits after the toss but the boar is far too close for comfort. This is the moment being a skilled spearman comes into play. The beast can be pushed back with leverage and aggressive strikes.* It's back to Face Danger for the hunter, but with the intent of getting the boar off of him, putting it into a less advantageous position and perhaps giving the dog some time to get itself together. (2, 7) vs 6+3(iron) = 9 That's a strong hit, no matter how you read it. No momentum necessary. In fact, it pushes the current momentum up to +6 which is fantastic. Not only that but the hunters Skirmisher Path means that we can transition directly into a Strike because we now have the initiative and that attack gets a +1. *The hunter strikes the boar in the side of the head with the butt of the spear, opening the wound in its forehead wider and stunning him, just long enough to bring the spear around and go for a thrust to the side of the body, even as Killer lunges for the throat.* (5, 8) vs 4+3(iron)+1 = 8 Disgusting. Or rather "disappointing." So close to being a strong hit and yet – not quite. Only a weak hit though that is enough to completely fill the challenge track, but because the hunter does not have initiative he can't go for the killing strike just yet. *Killer rips a massive tear in the side of the beast's throat but not deeply enough to release its life's blood. Likewise, the spear sinks into its side and perhaps tickles its heart but a swing of the tusks pushes the hunter back once more. It's close to death but it has the edge.* Time to go for a Clash again. (5, 7) vs 6+3(iron) = 9 Brutal! A strong hit which retakes initiative. *The boar makes a short charge but fails to connect, albeit is extremely close. Killer is hanging on to the side of the big pig's throat, being shaken like an old rag but teeth sunk deep into the meat. It breaks free of the spear seeking its heart, eyes rolling back in its head from the pain, unsure where to turn to destroy its tormentors.* The hunter has the initiative once again but can't go to End The Fight without a strong hit on a Strike. Killer gives us a +1 momentum, taking it to +7… Which could come in very handy here shortly. Time to go for that Strike. (6, 8) vs 2+3(iron) = 5 Oh no! That's a complete miss which takes us back to Endure Harm as the boar turns the tables horrifically. *Killer is thrown into the hunter bodily, barely missing the spear before crashing into his chest. Both of them tumble backwards and the hunter retains control of the spear purely by luck. Prey turns predator, turning almost hungrily on the human. While it is sure to die it seems almost supernaturally possessed to take vengeance before that happens.* (4, 9) vs 2+3(iron) = 5 Another weak hit on Endure Harm after we lose 2 more health bringing us to 1. Another hit and it's the beginning of the end for the hunter. *Winded and almost in as much pain as the boar, the hunter uses the spear to drag himself to his feet while the great beast comes around for another attack. Killer is even slower to take his feet, thrashing in the snow a moment trying to find footing.* Things are definitely not good here. The hunter needs to retake initiative, to pull himself together and maybe get a bit more momentum. It's back to Secure an Advantage. *The hunter struggles to pull himself up and barely makes it even as blood runs from his thigh and from the wound in his side. Painfully he raises the spear over his head in a gesture of challenge with a snarl on his face even more dire than the pig's. Behind him, Killer hunches forward, hackles raised, growling nearly as loudly.* (5, 8) vs 1+2(heart) = 3 This would probably be a good time to use our momentum, burning it back to +2 but canceling out the 5, giving us a weak hit instead of a miss. That keeps the hunter at positive health and on his feet, but at enormous cost. Things are looking particularly bad. We do have a +1 to momentum thanks to the hit, however, making it +3. *The boar seems to flinch back, momentarily intimidated by the hunter's show of bravado, but it couldn't last forever. With its last moments trickling onto the icy ground, blood mingling with that of the man who intends to kill it, there is only one possible outcome. Charge!* And into the next Clash. (2, 9) vs 3+3(iron) = 6 A weak hit where harm is inflicted and Killer gives us +1 momentum (since the challenge track is already full), bringing it to +4 – but we have to Pay the Price, which is obviously Endure Harm in this case. It doesn't have to be. We could certainly choose to Endure Harm to Killer, for example, or lose our spear, or some other significant complication or danger. In a full story you probably would choose to do some other complication or danger, at least this early. But in this case… Health finally goes down to -1, which means that it stops at 0 and momentum drops back to +2, then we have to make an iron check. (0, 7) vs 4+3(iron) = 7 Another weak hit, which is insane. Still holding on in the face of what is clearly a brutal and difficult foe. Screw it, it's time to turn the tide, to risk it all! Which is a literal move, letting us steal initiative from the boar and give a +1 to the move. Since it gives us initiative, we're going straight into a Strike. *Rather than step aside, the hunter leans forward into the spear, dropped to be level with the creature's eye, letting it throw its mass forward into the waiting point. No more bravado, no more grim resolve, it's time to end all this. Killer seems almost to howl with joy, slithering forward through the snow as if to come up beneath a waiting throat.* (1, 3) vs 3+3(iron) = 6 Finally! A lucky break! Low roles on the challenge dice and a decent action score! It doesn't matter how much harm we do, the challenge track is full – so it's time to End the Fight. Finally. (4, 9) vs 10(progress) There's no question that is a strong hit. *With complete abandon, the boar throws itself onto the point of the spear, feeling it sink deep, deep within its skull right into the base of the brain, and as it falls Killer howls in complete triumph. The hunter falls to his knees, exhausted, head dropping forward and blood slowly draining from his body. He has won – but does he have the strength to butcher the pig and drag home the taking or will he die out in the cold leaving his village to starve?* Did I actually have to run this entire combat? No. You probably had the mechanics down within the first exchange. Did I actually have to run this entire combat? Without a doubt. How could you get started with that and not want to see how it ended? Obviously Ironsworn is a lot more detailed on the moment to moment combat than Chain Reaction, but it's designed to to different specifications. CR is intended to have you running entire groups of characters with relatively straightforward and quick resolution because you're intended to have multiple engagements during a single session and probably multiple battles during a single session. Ironsworn is much more zoomed in and focused, though you can run an entire fight as a single Battle test and be done with a single roll. ### Blades in the Dark Blades in the Dark is really the initiator of an entire family of games which are based on the [[Blades in the Dark|Forged in the Dark]] SRD. There's an entire pile of games which descend from that lineage (including one of my favourite, [[Wicked Ones]], where you play the cruel scions of an ancient dungeon or the [[Wicked Ones#Undead Awakening|Undead Awakening]] expansion where you are a truly horrific nightmare and play it so), all with a similar game engine. We are going to be using Blades as the example for this even though it does not have a solo play option. It's assumed to be a GM'd experience, with all that implies. For our purposes here that's not a big deal, but keep it in mind. #### Setup We'll be needing a hunter, of course. The built-in setting of Blades has you putting together a crew of underhanded criminals and making your way in a corrupt city. Not really useful for our goal here but we can put something together. The Cutter is good at winning fights with violence and intimidation. Our rough and ready Hunter will be just fine as a Cutter, so we pick up that playbook. We are going to need a heritage and a background in order to help place our action dots so let's set those up. Heritage is obvious; we should be from Severos which is a backwards, while the area inhabited by nomadic horse tribes, perfect for someone who is hunting boar. We'll go with "wandering hunter far from his home village" as our detail. For background, which is normally what you did before joining the criminal crew, we will go with Labor and the detail "hunter of game." Now we assign our action dots, of which three are already placed thanks to our playbook. We get to add 4 more up to a total of 7, with one of them reflecting our heritage and one that goes into something from the background, with the other two going anywhere but with a max rating of 2. The Cutter playbook starts with 2 dots in Skirmish and one in Command. We'll put 2 in Hunt to reflect our background and heritage, and put one in Prowl and one in Survey. The hunter is very good at stabbing things up close, intimidating, very good at hunting and tracking, and is decent at sneaking quietly and figuring out the dangers of a situation. We get to pick a special ability from the Cutter playbook which in this case is going to be Battleborn to represent the extra layer of wolf pelts we are wearing as armor. ![[Pasted image 20231008143056.png]] Normally we would pick a close friend and a rival, plus a vice, an alias, and a look – but we're not going to do any of that. The playbook gives us a fine one-handed weapon, which in this case is going to be a nice dagger, a fine heavy weapon, which in this case is going to be a solid hunting spear, a scary weapon or tool – for which we are going to go with the skull of a wolf worked into the armor of one shoulder, purely for intimidation purposes. Some standard leather armor under the padded hides because we'll probably need it. Finally, there is a rage essence vial, which might come in handy. ![[Pasted image 20231008143515.png]] Our loadout isn't particularly lightweight so it's obvious that we're going to get into some trouble but – who cares? We're not in the city, anyway. Attribute|Action|Value ---:|---|:--- Insight||2 -|Hunt|2 -|Study| -|Survey|1 -|Tinker| Prowess||2 -|Finesse| -|Prowl|1 -|Skirmish|2 -|Wreck| Resolve||1 -|Attune| -|Command|1 -|Consort -|Sway We work out our attribute values from the action readings that we have and it falls out like this. Mainly attributes are used to resist effects. Needless to say a starting character doesn't have a whole lot of resistance. We have 8 stress slots and 4 trauma: OOOO OOOO Cold Haunted Obsessed Paranoid Reckless Soft Unstable Vicious Harm|Injury|Injury|Impact ---:|:---:|:--:|-: 3| | x | Need Help 2|||-1d 1|||Less Effect Plus an Armor box and a Special Armor box. Armor|Special Armor :---:|:---: o|o #### Play Not even full character creation and it's still taken a while. But we are ready! While we don't have a GM we do have a brain and we've already established a context for what we're going to do. So step one – plan the score. In this case it is an Assault – doing violence to a target. In particular, hunting down a boar so that we can potentially feed our starving village. We are armed and armored up, we know where we're going (out into the snowy trackless waste) so the first thing we need to do is an engagement role. In the context of Blades, that's a fortune role modified by any major advantages or disadvantages that apply. Tracking the big pig through the snow? Not the most challenging process inherently but they are known for coming. It's a wash; we'll go with 1D total. 4. Blades uses straightforward D6 outcomes to adjudicate results with 1 through 3 being a bad result, 4/5 being a mixed result, and 6 being a good result. You've probably already noticed the similarity to the outcome tree of Ironsworn. In this case, we get right into the meat of the matter by being in a risky position. Rather than coming on the boar from the blind side, it's coming nearly directly at the hunter and on the verge of spotting. But that's fine because we can invoke a flashback. That's right, by taking on stress we can flashback to preparing to deal with the situation before it ever happened. And in this case, it's probably a good idea to get in a Hunt roll to make sure that we are well concealed along the path of advance and incidentally reduce the position from risky to controlled. We will cost it at 1 stress because it's an unlikely opportunity but – as a skilled hunter it makes sense we would be able to stake out a position along frequently traveled game trails. Everyone loves finding spoor, after all. Now we figure out the position and the effect level. Positionally it's not particularly stressful and it's a train hunter, so it makes sense for it to be controlled. In terms of effect, standard makes sense. It's hunting. It doesn't look like there needs to be any bonus dice taken here, definitely no assistance (sadly, no dog) and no real need to push ourselves yet. So just the 2D from the Hunt action. 2, 3. Well – that's garbage! Luckily it's a controlled situation because that was seriously faltering. *The hunter found a tree to wait in for passing prey but the hours he waited were fatiguing. When the boar began to amble along the trail, his fingers slipped on the icy branch and he nearly fell into the middle of the track. The boar heard the noise and now is on alert.* That explains why things might've been a little bit spicy going in, for sure. Do we feel ballsy enough to try and pull ourselves up on a slippery branch and salvage the situation at the risk of falling in a bad position? Life is hard. It's harder if you're a coward. *The hunter tries not to scrabble at the frozen bark with his gloved fingers, gritting his teeth in an effort to pull himself up as quietly as possible without alerting the beast.* 5, 5. He manages it but there's a complication. I'm not feeling like going straight into being in a desperate situation this early so we'll take it and simply accept a complication that could be meaningful later. *The hunter manages to drag himself back up onto the limb but his knife falls silently through the air to embed itself in the snow at the foot of the tree. He's too experienced to curse aloud, but that was his backup weapon. If he loses his spear, this is going to be a very challenging hunt indeed!* We are still successful, however! The boar was alerted briefly but because we ultimately had a success, the initial engagement with it is going to be controlled rather than risky. That makes a big difference. Flashbacks are useful! *The animal continues its way down the track, sniffing and snuffling. The hunter has done well; it will pass directly beneath his position in the tree. Minutes pass as it roots around in the snow looking for roots or plants which have not yet died. And then – it's time! The hunter drops from the branch, spear pointed directly at the spine of the boar, intending to at least cripple it if not kill it outright.* Okay, we know what we want to do and we've stated it out loud. It's going to be a Hunt move, so that's pretty straightforward. We already know it's controlled because the boar is not expecting the attack and doesn't see us. Let's give the boar a 4 section clock representing how tough it is. Again, this is like Ironsworn before. Dropping straight out of a tree with a spear in hand should give us a pretty great effect level, which would advance the clock by 3 ticks. However, that 2D roll earlier didn't fill me with excitement so I'm going to push to get a another die in exchange for 2 stress. We've got a long track so I'm not too worried about it right now. Boar: OOOO 4, 6, 6 Well, that I'm not going to object to! Not only was it successful it was a critical success! That gives us an even greater effect – and the result of that should probably be obvious. *The hunter drops straight out of the tree, making barely a grunt, spear point to down over the boar's back. He expected more resistance. Instead, the point slipped between the vertebrae and left the great beast flailing in confused agony as it lost the ability to control its body below its thick neck. The hunter waited for a moment, making sure that he was safe, before pulling the spear clear and putting it through the beating heart to stop it quick. Then it was just a matter of finding his knife and beginning the slow work of taking the thing apart, packing it up, and carrying it home.* Well, that turned out better than expected. Without the critical success there would have definitely been another round of combat, very likely at least risky. It could have become very bad very quickly. If we had made the boar a 6 segment clock instead of 4, again, the combat would have gone longer and there would have been a lot of chances for things to go very badly. ## Thoughts That was literally a very long way to go to compare the mechanics of 3 architectures which share one significant thing in common: they allow for at least three types of outcome (and often five if you count critical results as well). Strong successes, weak successes, and failure. This is very different from the traditional TTRPG resolution mechanic which is extremely binary with rare criticals. (Compare to the D&D D20 mechanisms where you only see a critical on a roll of 20 or 1, which is 10% of the time theoretically taken together – but feels much less common and without the flexibility of an intermediate type of success.) What can we tell for sure after having looked at such a deep dive on the comparison of how these things work? Firstly, it's clear that you don't require opposed mechanical rolls to get increasing levels of refinement in the resulting experience. CR is not shy about making use of tables to give multiple outcomes but almost all of them are scaled to simply be pass two, pass one, or pass zero, representing rolling under or equal to Rep on 2D6. Secondly, it's interesting to look at the assumed skill/ability level in terms of probability of success of these three architectures, and just that probably deserves an article of its own. The short version, however, is that Chain Reaction 2023 assumes that your character is going to be Reputation 5, which makes him extremely competent within the context of the experience – but the other characters that are assumed to be around and with him very much may not be, so most threats are going to be pointed at the tools with which the player accomplishes things within the context of the game rather than the player's pawn itself. Compare this to Ironsworn and Blades, where the tools being targeted by the mechanics are often explicitly literal tools and there are no great assumptions about other characters under the control of the player though there are frequent and common references to other characters under the control of other players (in the case of Blades it's assumed it's played in a very traditional players + GM structure and Ironsworn allows for play with multiple players running multiple characters (referred to is your allies) with a handful of NPCs). Clearly it's possible to make all of these things work together effectively, and I'm going to spend some time deconstructing whether it might be better to simply transplant one set of mechanics onto the resolutions of another game – that is something like taking the [[Ironsworn - Starforged|Ironsworn: Starforged]] architectural mechanics and putting in some of the 5150 resolution systems and [[Oracles]], which should be possible. But the first experiments have been made. Hypotheses have been tested. Theories are underway. Let's do science to it.