Summary
Resistance Rolls allow a player to reduce or avoid a consequence after it has been established. The player chooses whether to resist, makes a roll to determine the cost, and usually pays that cost through a pressure resource such as Stress.
Design Purpose
Resistance Rolls give players authority over which consequences become defining facts about their characters while preserving uncertainty about what avoiding those consequences will cost.
Problems Solved
- Prevents a single roll from imposing an unwanted defining consequence.
- Gives players agency after an action has gone wrong.
- Converts consequences into resource-management decisions.
- Supports severe facilitator consequences without making them automatically final.
- Connects momentary danger to longer-term pressure and character change.
Core Loop
A resolution result produces a consequence. The player decides whether to accept it or resist it. If they resist, an appropriate character attribute determines the dice pool, and the roll determines how much of a resource the resistance costs. The consequence is reduced, altered, or avoided according to the game's rules, and the fiction continues with the revised result.
Player Decision
Is this consequence worth accepting, or should I spend uncertain resources to change it?
Narrative Effect
Resistance Rolls create resilient protagonists who can survive severe reversals by pushing themselves beyond safe limits. They shift tension away from whether resistance works and toward how much it costs and how long the character can continue paying.
Strengths
- Provides strong player agency over consequences.
- Makes resource expenditure emotionally significant.
- Encourages facilitators to introduce bold, concrete consequences.
- Allows characters to appear capable under pressure.
- Links short-term survival to long-term attrition.
Weaknesses
- Players may feel compelled to resist every serious consequence.
- The distinction between reducing and negating a consequence can be unclear.
- Frequent resistance can slow the resolution sequence.
- Resource-rich characters may make consequences feel temporary.
- Unexpectedly high costs can produce rapid resource depletion.
Variations
- Resistance that always reduces a consequence by one severity level.
- Resistance that can negate a consequence entirely when fictionally appropriate.
- Fixed resistance costs instead of a roll.
- Resistance using armor, items, or special abilities.
- Group resistance in which several characters share the cost.
- Consequences that cannot be resisted but can be redirected or transformed.
Related Patterns
- Stress
- Partial Success
- Position and Effect
- Consequence Mitigation
- Player Veto
- Resource Attrition
Examples
Pattern Definition
A Resistance Roll is a post-resolution mechanic that allows a player to reduce, avoid, or transform a consequence while accepting an uncertain resource cost.