Acting

The key part of a character’s turn involves deciding upon an influence, a type of action, exerting any will necessary for the action, and if necessary rolling to determine the Fate of the action.

Exerting Will

A character can exert will, moving will from the source to the influence, by [I exert Number to Influence.]. Multiple “count to influences” can be chained in a single sentence, with optional comma and/or “and”, should this be needed.

The word “flow” can also be substituted as a synonym of “exert”.

[I exert 2 to poise.]

Starting an action

The choices to be made in setting up an action:

  • The influence in question
  • Contested versus uncontested — This is represented by the verb choice: “contest” or “challenge” versus “act”
  • Heroic versus mundane — The words “hero”, “heroic”, or “heroically” can be used as an adverb to signal a heroic action, whereas mundane is the default
  • For a contested action a character needs to be chosen to be challenged
  • Whether an action qualifies as a professional action — An “under clause” can be appended to choose a profession: [...under profession Number.] or [...under my Cardinal number profession.]

Thus the four major forms of the action command:

[I act with Influence.]
[I heroically act with Influence.]
[I challenge Character name with Influence.]
[I challenge Character name heroically with Influence.]

An example:

[I heroically contest The Bear with charm under my first profession.]

Based upon this information, and will exerted, the Bee will determine if a roll needs to be made and if so will report the roll’s success.

Losing ego

Sometimes fate conspires to cause character’s to lose ego. [I lose count ego.] If Bee remembers the last roll it will helpfully double-check your math here.

[I lose 2 ego.]

Recovering spent ego and will

Given a skein defined system for healing or resting, a character can recover spent ego and will with [I recover count ego.]. “Will” can be substituted for ego. If neither “will” nor “ego” is provided, the Bee will try first recovering will and then recovering ego. Additionally, the count and the type can both be omitted and the Bee will recover the default flow amount from first will and then ego.

[I recover 3 ego.]
[I recover 2 will.]
[I recover 4.]
[I recover.]

Moving

The Bee keeps track of a basic notion of a character’s position using an integer (x, y) coordinate system. The absolute position can be set with the “at” verb: [I am at X, Y.] where X and Y are integers. Whereas relative position changes can be commanded by “move”: [I move Character to Count spots Direction.] The object of the move can be omitted, as with the action verbs above. Relative movement is compared by the Bee (as best as it can) to a remembered roll.

Directions accepted are the abbreviations for everyone’s favorite compass directions (one of N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, or SW). Generally the Bee assumes a hex map and the coordinate system should reflect that, for instance N and S counts should be multiples of 2.

Synonyms for “spots” includes “spaces” and “paces”. The word can also be elided entirely.

Todo

This will obviously be an under-powered support until actual maps can be presented... when it will probably warrant a section all to itself.

Example for a Character’s Turn

Given that Bee has announced that a character has “ticked” to the ready spot, the character can start a new turn and then proceed to exert will and then announce an action.

[I ready. I exert 1 to poise. I act with poise.]

Upon reading this command sequence the Bee should report the results of a dice roll if it is necessary. In this case, the Bee should report a guaranteed success of the mundane action, with an expected effect less than or equal to 3 and timing less than or equal to 1. The player can freely role play what the action was, in non-bracketed text.

I rushed towards that vending machine...

Following all that warm roleplaying, let Bee know the effects of the action, finishing with timing effect on the character itself.

...I can’t wait to get that nice, cold Root Beer of Righteous Benevolence. [I move 1 spot NW. I reset to 2.] I do hope I have enough change.

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