Page 109 - Chronicles of Darkness

room, in which case you focus in on the sweat on people’s scene-capping aspects can be a great springboard into the
brows, the sound of heavy breathing, the glare of the lights, next scene. Also, never fear using phrases like ”meanwhile,
the subtle scent of fear-tinged sweat, and so on. across town in the central banking tower...” or ”unbeknownst
In Medias Res: This is a classic fiction technique where to the characters, trouble was coming in the form of...” A
the scene starts in the middle of the action. good scene, framed well on the front and back end, makes
You enter the room, the musky smell of pot and sex fill- every scene strong and helps your chronicle feel complete
ing your nose, and you know this is the right place by the and constantly in motion.
strangely-familiar occult symbol on the wall. Suddenly, the
door behind you slams open and someone in black body Pulled Muscles
armor shouts, “Hands in the air, this is the police!”
Afterwards, you can pan back, examining how characters When you pull a muscle, it hurts like hell, but when it
got to that exact moment. You can also observe the scene for heals the muscle is stronger. When you fail a roll, it can suck
clues and missed nuances, as you would a still from a movie. like hell, but it sets a character up to be stronger.
Then, let the characters react. Here’s the math: players using a dice pool of three will
Similarly, you can cut a scene off in a way that seems roll one success for their character most of the time in a
premature, only to resolve it in a new, calmer scene. straightforward roll. Rolls are very rarely straightforward, and
“Over my dead mother’s rotting corpse!” your enemy failure happens. Characters, player characters, and Storyteller
shouts, as he and his thugs pull out Uzis … and scene. It’s characters will fail, even must fail, in order to progress a story
three hours later now, which one of you is injured, which forward. That’s as true in a Chronicles of Darkness game as
one of you is fine, and who among you killed a guy? Would it is in fiction. In many ways, players should celebrate failure,
you like to argue in character, unpacking the scene that was as it brings them one step closer to even greater success.
just skipped?
Connective Tissue: To complete a solid framework, you Why Should Characters Fail?
can cap off a scene in the same way you framed where it began. For strictly mechanical reasons, characters need to fail
Check in with characters who either never came onstage or because failure is tied into the Conditions and Beat systems.
left early, ask players where exactly their character is going It is therefore necessary for characters to fail to advance sys-
next, or describe the details they missed in the scene or an temically. Conditions have a built-in buy in as many of them
action from a Storyteller character that foreshadows trouble are resolved by players choosing to fail a roll before rolling
yet to come. Because this is connective tissue, any one of these it in order to end the Condition and take a Beat. That’s key

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