Circumstances:
Circumstances are constantly shifting scene conditions specific to each player character. Circumstances are great improv tools for framing scenes, often restrict players mechanically, and really add a horrific tone to the game. There are 4 Circumstances:

- Alone: no other player characters may be included in the scene
- In Trouble: everything that can go wrong right now for your character... does!
- Lost: where ever you want your character to be, you aren't and there is an obstacle keeping your character from his or her destination.
- Unprepared: your character looses access too all of their belongings

At start of play, one Circumstance is true for each character guided by their selected background. Fallout can make Circumstances true or false. And you may have multiple Circumstances true at the same time. You may also change a Circumstance by making it a part of the stakes of a conflict.

To start play, 2 players chose Alone, 1 Unprepared, and 1 Lost. Alone and Lost were very easy to incorporate at start. Unprepared gave me a bit of trouble. Mainly because I wanted to make sure that the player was involved in a conflict where being unprepared mattered. But it didn't quite fit with the specific character and how the game started. I probably spent too much time trying to come up with a situation that didn't naturally fit. It may have been better to simply leave the Circumstance true and let things evolve naturally. Circumstances were great for framing scenes and creating mood but I wasn't sure how much they should drive scenes. If a player gains the Unprepared Circumstance, should the very next scene be all about being Unprepared? Or should the scenes flow as normal with being Unprepared coming in as needed?

We had one scene where a player character was Alone, Unprepared, and In Trouble.

She died!

More about lethality later!

Arenas:
The Arenas are Research, Social, Athletic, Fighting, and Murder.

You may escalate into any Arena (escalating the entire conflict) in any order. For example, from Social to Murder or Murder to Social. This is also the case in Dogs but an aspect of the game often misunderstood.

There were situations in play where a player would escalate from Social to Athletic by putting a hand on someone's shoulder to access additional dice. I've also seen this several times at convention games. In some cases such a gesture can be a powerful form of communication and persuasion. But I've witnessed it used in an underwhelming fashion in play. I can't remember where I read the rule, I believe in Dogs, that it is important that a player's Raise or Challenge is something that is hard for the opponent to ignore. As a GM I tend to enforce this rule a lot. It feels integral to the spirit of escalation and interacting with the various Arenas in play.

Escalating:
This is my favorite part! You may now escalate the Arena (conflict) instead of answering (seeing) someone's challenge (raise). You simply escalate and the dice from the outstanding challenge are lost and you make an immediate challenge yourself!

Actual Play and one of my favorite RPG moments ever. It starts simple but wait...

- Conflict: taking
- Stakes: tell us where X victim is
- 2 players: a vampire LARPer (wannabe investigator) and corrupt priest (victim is his wife)
- 1 NPC: hospital administrator
- Circumstances: both players were Unprepared
- Location: basement of hospital
- Background: the players were looking for the priest's wife. The wife committed a vile crime. She wanted to give herself over to the police. Her husband, the priest (player 2), wanted to shut her up as he was on his way to climbing the church's political ladder and didn't need the bad publicity. He made a deal with the above NPC (hospital administrator) to drug his wife and admit her into the hospital for a few weeks while he figured out what to do next. Problem was, he wanted to contact his wife but no one at the hospital knew where she was. The players searched for her but found nothing... except a single mauled finger... a ring finger, wedding band still intact!

- Scene details: The players freaked out! They were convinced the hospital administrator knew something. They were riding a small elevator with her and abruptly hit the emergency stop button between floors. They started talking (screaming), escalated to athletics (holding her down), and finally escalated to fighting (slapping her around). She cried, begged, screamed, plead, shivered, pissed herself, tried to get out... all in a small, sweaty, claustrophobic space... never answering their questions. It was sick and uncomfortable to play. The players were ashamed at what they had done in rage. But then they saw that the hospital administrator had no dice to answer their challenge with their remaining two dice... an 8 and a 6... so at least they would have answers.

I said nothing for 3 long minutes staring at their dice.

"I escalate to murder"

I said in a quiet and deadpan voice.... still looking at their dice!

I threw their dice aside and in that tiny little elevator, with both players' unprepared, stopped between floors, in the basement of a hospital... the hospital administrator transformed into the very thing responsible for every sickening thing that had happened up until that point. And then the players knew why I didn't want them to get into a conflict with the hospital administrator and why I worked so hard to keep her from telling the truth. The adventure climaxed early... but oh what a climax it was!!!

Back to rules, when your opponent escalates instead of answering a challenge, the entire conflict is escalated. The opponent also gets dice for that Arena. But they may not intern escalate into the same Arena instead of answering a challenge. Although they may escalate into a different Arena.

In Dogs I've noticed seasoned players engage in extended talking conflicts, purposely taking the blow to take lots of safe fallout. These new escalation rules change everything. It now matters who escalates first! So although extended talking conflicts still happen, there is a great deal of tension build up at the thought that anyone can escalate at any time and drastically swing the momentum of the conflict. It keeps things unpredictable, dangerous, and exciting!

Escalation is also now an opportunity for others to join in the conflict! Although newcomers may not roll dice for stats already used in the conflict. My players LOVED this! The inability to jump into an extended conflict was something many of my players have complained about in Dogs. And this solved everything perfectly. But don't forget, NPCs on the GM side may also join an existing conflict once it has escalated.

Escalating is now also a scene pacing mechanic! If there are two or more concurrent scenes, you cut between them the moment a conflict escalates! This worked well for us when there were 2 concurrent scenes with 2 conflicts. It worked ok when there were more than 2 scenes as long as there were not more than 2 conflicts. Running more than 2 conflicts at a time was exhausting. And I just didn't have the table space for all the required dice! In certain situations, I would have players not involved directly in a scene run NPCs for me.

John - This is an excellent introduction to the game!

Bookmarked so that next time i say "you wanna play Afraid this week?" i can find all the pieces in one place! Thanks. ^^

Posted By: SempiternityJohn - This is an excellent introduction to the game!

Bookmarked so that next time i say "you wanna play Afraid this week?" i can find all the pieces in one place! Thanks. ^^

Posted By: Jason MorningstarJohn, thanks for putting all that together. Your character sheet is great!

Rock!!!

Posted By: Jason MorningstarYour character sheet is great!

I wish I could take credit! But it was designed by Mark Woodhouse:
http://tigerbunny-db.livejournal.com/6268.html

In the middle of the campaign, Vincent posted an optional rule for Injury Fallout. Instead of dieing, you can place your character into seclusion and make a new character. I believe either the other players receive Reflections Fallout except for you or that no one receives Reflection Fallout. I need to verify. Once your new character dies or is placed into seclusion, you may continue playing your old character.

It occurs to me that it might be a nice addition, in a game where PCs are going into sequester, to use a long term variant of the "We Owe" list idea from In a Wicked Age...

Your newly made veteren may have fled (or gone temporarily insane) thanks to that last monster, but this time...

Yep. Glad people are getting use out of them.

I also did a sheet for Ben's Bliss Stage, but I don't know as it's seen as much circulation. It's kind of a side hobby.

Jason,

Yeah - that really threw me, as well. (For one thing, I kept trying to use popular monsters...)

The trick, i think, is to go all totally hardcore with the progression - it isn't *really* a habit that it starts with, it is an obsession. Monsters aren't really monsters, not at first, they're *hurt* people whose little bit of brokenness has turned the world around them into a nightmare, one which grants them power as it grows worse and spreads to infect new victims.

What makes your voodoo witch a monster isn't that she sews creepy dolls that twist the lives of the people they represent, it is *why* she sews them, why she won't stop hurting people, why doing harm helps her, what void it fills. Her logic-defying reason, her obsession. The magic is almost incidental...

At least, that's the path my monster building has been taking. (Also, i've always liked making monsters a touch sympathetic...)

Excellent posts, John. These really make me want to play Afraid right now.