Hard Decisions

Storyteller Creator's Guide

Hard Decisions are the resolution mechanics in Storyteller games. Players complete a type of task with three levels of completion and are split into 3 potential outcomes: Success, Partial Success and Failure. This is one of our favorite mechanics, and we ask that you keep in mind the three styles of tasks to complete Hard Decisions: Physical, Skill, and Knowledge.

Physical Tasks are those that use our body’s strength and endurance. Completing a certain amount of push-ups, completing a handstand, performing a race (between the player and the antagonist for instance).
Skill Tasks are those that require reactions or some other skillful action. Such as playing rock-paper-scissors, catching three objects rapidly, flipping a long object quickly and catching it by the right side, or flipping a bottle to land on its top.
Knowledge Tasks are things such as identifying three types of plants around you, knowing or tying a certain number of knots, or answering trivia or study questions.

Success

The task occurs successfully, as intended, without negative consequences.

Partial Success

The task occurs successfully, but a consequence or minor setback.

Failure

The task is failed and there are negative or dire consequences.

Group Hard Decisions

For really tense scenes, use a series of Hard Decisions. Have the Players in the scene perform three or more tasks to determine the ultimate fate of the scene - the more difficult the scene, the more tasks you assign. Narrate the minutiae that happens after each task completes. If there are more successes than failures, the scene ends positively and vice versa. Partial successes are neutral and don’t count towards a positive or negative count. A tie between successes and failures is a minor setback.

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