PvE & PvP

Many games include some degree of conflict, and One Last Fire is no different. Whether between players and non-player characters, players and the environment or between players as groups or as individuals, it is likely that you will want something that someone else doesn't, and that you won't be able to negotiate a solution. In this case, you'll engage in Player versus Environment (PvE) or Player versus Player (PvP) activity.

When adjudicating how these work - who wins? at what cost? - we will take into account a wide range of factors. Mechanics and rules - Qualities, Quirks, and Skills - factor into our determinations, but a good plan can also be useful to use your abilities effectively or deploy them in innovative ways.

If you use your Skills, abilities and advantages in particularly devious ways, you might be able to defeat a more powerful opponent; if you don't have much of a plan, or weren't planning for a particular challenge, this might mean that your abilities are less effective.

No matter what happens, a key principle that we will abide by for writing turnsheets is that both winning and losing should be fun. What does this mean?

• That winning should be fun is obvious. You get the satisfaction of seeing your plan work perfectly, advantages over your rivals or see your personal goals and agenda advanced. At the same time, we don't want to give you simple 'you succeed at doing this thing!' outcomes; instead, successes will typically raise interesting new problems or opportunities for you, or give you information that you may wish to share with people in session.

• At the same time, we also want losing to be fun, if not more so. We will endeavour to write turnsheets so that losses raise fun issues to deal with in game. Defeated characters may gain new insights into how the setting works or the strategies of a foe; they may incur strange and exotic injuries that you may enjoy roleplaying in session or force them to grow; they will at least get a fun or entertaining writeup. Our pledge to you is that we won't write turnsheets that just say 'you fail to achieve your goal' - there will always be interesting things to deal with. In turn, we hope that this will encourage players to not be afraid to fail, or to make their characters vulnerable - that's how the best stories are made.

Because One Last Fire is intended to be a collaborative, problem-solving game, both the setting and mechanics emphasise and encourage PvE over PvP. At its heart, the Library and the creatures within it is an environment which can act against as well as for the benefit of player characters. Player characters certainly can try to trick and manipulate other player characters, but duels of words and matching of wits are much more likely than physical combat. Save combat-related skills for the nipping dust bunnies and ornery book ladders rather than other PCs.

However, character injury and death remains a possibility. The Library is a dangerous environment for any residents and visitors. Searching certain zones of the Library or interacting with more cantankerous NPCs may result in severe injury or death. The pursuit of preserving knowledge is not without its risks!

Please see the Injury page for more details.