Hello,

My group is going to start up a full PtA season soon and I just want to clear up some minor confusions about how conflicts between protagonists are handled.  The way I see it there are three cases.

1) The Simple Case.  Amy (a PC) is trying to catch the falling vase and Bob (a PC) is trying to shoot Amy.  No Problem.  Resolution as usual vs. The Producer.  Four possible out comes.  Amy catches the vase and gets shot.  Amy catches the vase and doesn't get shot.  Amy doesn't catch the vase and gets shot.  Amy doesn't catch the vase and doesn't get shot.  Whether or not Amy catches the vase is determined by comparing Amy's cards with the Producer's  cardsand whether or not Amy gets shot is determined by comparing Bob's cards with the Producer's cards.  All good.

2) The More Subtle But In The Book Case.  This is the "Romantic Rival" situation on page. 100.  Amy wants goal X and Bob wants goal X but they both can't have goal X.  Three possible outcomes.  Amy gets X.  Bob gets X.  Neither gets X.  I understand why the producer is still involved in this because it's the only way you can get the neither result.  So:

Amy < Bob < Producer or Bob < Amy < Producer = Neither gets X.
Amy < Producer < Bob or Producer < Amy < Bob = Bob gets X.
Bob < Producer < Amy or Producer < Bob < Amy = Amy gets X.

3) The Case I'm Not Clear On.  This is the situation where all that's happening is one character is directly opposing another character.  Amy wants Bob to confess where he hid the burried treasure.  There are only two possible outcomes, either Bob confesses or he doesn't.  I see two ways to handle this.

A) Amy draws cards against the Producer.  If Amy wins Bob confesses.  If the Producer wins then Bob doesn't confess.

B) Amy draws cards against Bob and the Producer doesn't participate at all.  If Amy wins Bob confesses.  If Bob wins then he doesn't confess.

Until recently I was unaware of case 2 above (I somehow missed it on first reading).  So I've currently (at conventions) been handling all case 3 conflicts using method A.  But given the extra conditions in case 2, I'm not so sure.  So, clearification on this would be greatly appreciated.  Please remember that in all three cases Amy and Bob are PCs.

Thanks.

Jesse

The trick to #3 is flavoring it with the protagonists' issues. Why is Bob keeping secrets from Amy? What's their history? Maybe Bob's issue is grief over the loss of a loved one, and he's mad at Amy for not being there for him. So his goal in the conflict is less about keeping the information from Amy than it is about finding an opportunity to make Amy feel bad.

Now both protagonists can win their stakes.