GOAL CLOCKS IN A CONFLICT SCENE

Example: In the depths of a magitech laboratory, the warrior monk Silida is busy keeping a rampaging stone golem away from her allies — the mage Ricard and the arcane fencer Nethis.

Seeing how Silida is having trouble withstanding the golem's powerful attacks, Nethis decides to work on a new goal for this conflict: there are a variety of magical crystals surrounding them, and she wants to channel their power into the golem and overload its core, shutting down most of its functions.

Since Nethis can wield magic, the Game Master is okay with the plan and establishes a six-section Clock: once completed, the golem's core will be properly fried — the Game Master says she will handle this by permanently decreasing all of the golem's Attribute dice by one size.

When you use Objective to intervene on a Clock, it is extremely important to describe what your character does — the Game Master has final say on which actions can influence the Clock.

Back to the previous example: The kind of effect Nethis wants to accomplish is definitely magical — but does this mean Silida, being unable to cast spells, cannot influence the Clock?

Absolutely not!

For instance, she might use Objective and strike at the golem's frontal plate, which houses its core, to expose it and increase the flow of magical energy. Maybe she won't fill as many sections (the Golem is pretty good at opposing physical Checks, and this isn't exactly an optimal strategy), but it will still help.

GOAL CLOCKS IN A CONFLICT SCENE

As the Game Master, you are responsible for assigning Clocks to goals and determining how many sections they should have — use the table below as a guideline.

For detailed examples of conflict goals and Clocks, see page 78.