Taking Actions

Actions are the core of WSSWNN’s gameplay. An action is something risky or uncertain your character does, represented by a die roll. 

Your character has four action dice: one each for Attack, Brace, Compel, and Maneuver. The Gameplay Basics section covered how these four action types work. Most actions specify which die to roll. Movement actions—running and climbing—are an exception. These actions let heroes choose which die to roll. 

The table below summarizes all the basic actions. Each action is explained in more detail on the Movement, Attacks, Braces, Compels, and Maneuvers pages. 

Along with the four action dice, there are a few other ways to categorize actions. 

Challenge actions pit characters against circumstances or their environment. Run, Climb, Survive, and Return are basic challenge actions. By default, these actions have easy thresholds: ⓧ 2 | ⬖ 4. But the Guide can increase their difficulty if circumstances warrant—like attempting to Climb a shear wall with no handholds. 

Opposed actions pit characters against other characters. The thresholds for opposed actions depend on the target character’s attributes and defenses. Any character—heroes or NPCs—can make opposed actions. 

Other actions are exceptions to the success/struggle/failure outcome structure. Instead, they represent degrees of effort. Standing fast and Evading are examples of such actions, and any character can take them.

When you take an action, you roll a die. The number you roll, the result, tells you if you succeed, struggle, or fail, Actions follow these rules:

• Actions don’t meet; they beat. For example, an attack roll of 3 against a foe with Agility 3, Guard 5 is a failure, since the attack needs to beat Agility 3 to get a struggle outcome. 

• Success supersedes failure. Sometimes the struggle threshold can be reduced below the failure threshold. In the example above, heroes might stagger the foe with repeated attacks and knock its Guard down to 2. In that case,  an attack roll of 3 would succeed, even though it fails to beat the foe’s Agility. If an action roll beats a character's defense, it succeeds—end of story.

Advantage and Disadvantage

Some abilities or effects grant advantage on an action. When you have advantage, you roll a second die—the advantage die—along with your action die, and use the higher result. 

You don’t roll the same die twice. Instead, your advantage die depends on the ability or effect. For example, the Champion’s ✪Mighty Blow ability grants brace advantage to an attack, meaning you roll your Brace die along with your Attack die and use the higher result. Similarly, attacking while hidden or on high grants maneuver advantage on the attack roll. 

Disadvantage works the same way as advantage, but you take the lower of the two results. 

Multiple sources of advantage and disadvantage stack. If you have one advantage die and one disadvantage die, roll them both along with your normal action die and use the middle result. If you have two advantage dice and one disadvantage die, roll four dice and use the second-highest result. 

Invoking Ideals

Invoking an ideal grants you a special advantage die called an ideal die. Take -1 spirit to invoke an ideal. Your invocation must be tied to a particular action. You can invoke an ideal after an action is rolled, potentially turning a failure into a success. To invoke an ideal: 

1. Explain what your character says or does in the situation and take -1 spirit. 

2. The Guide awards you an ideal die. The size of the die ranges from a d4 to a d20, based on how fitting and dramatic the Guide thinks your invocation is. 

3. Roll this ideal die alongside your normal action die, and use the higher result for the action. 

An ideal invocation can turn the tables, but it does carry risks. Regaining spirit takes time, and losing it leaves you vulnerable to compelling foes.

During combat and other tense situations, each character takes one action on their turn. A round passes when all the heroes or foes take their turns.

Turn Order

Combat shifts back and forth between a hero round and a foe round. During the hero round, heroes can act in any order. During the foe round, the Guide-controlled characters act in any order. The exception to this back-and-forth is the first round, when only certain heroes can act before foes. 

When players enter combat or another tense situation, follow this sequence:

1. First round: The heroes with successful Initiative rolls take turns, in any order. 

2. Foe round: The foes all take turns, in any order. 

3. Hero round: The heroes all take turns, in any order. 

4. Repeat steps 2–3 until the conflict ends.

Initiative is a Maneuver action, described in that section. 

Free Actions

Many actions trigger free actions. These actions resolve in between turn actions, immediately after their triggering effect. Examples of free actions include:

• A free action after you Run to a new location

• A free melee attack after you Outflank a foe

• A free Grapple brace after you Take hold of a foe

• A free Shove if you block a foe’s melee attack while you Stand fast

Some free actions are triggered by your own actions. Others, called reactions and counters, are triggered by foes’ actions against you. A reaction resolves before the triggering action. A counter resolves after it. 

Countering counters. A free action can trigger additional free actions. For example, the ✪Riposte ability lets a swordfighter make a free counterattack after blocking or dodging a melee attack. If two swordfighters with this ability face each other, they may counterattack back and forth many times, with each counterattack triggering the next. 

One at a time. If something triggers multiple free actions at once, you must choose which one to take. For example, if a swordfighter Stands Fast and then blocks a melee attack, two potential free actions are triggered simultaneously: the swordfighter can make a free Shove brace and push the attacker back (from Stand Fast), or they can make a free counterattack with their sword (from ✪Riposte). However, the swordfighter must choose one or the other. They can't take both free actions. 

Likewise, if something prompts multiple reactions, you can only take one of them.

Things to Do Before Acting

At the start of your turn, your hero can do a few simple things before they act. They include:

• Take a stowed armament to wield

• Stow an armament you’re wielding

• Move a short distance

• Open or close a door

Some interactions don’t rise to the level of actions, but leave you in a slightly vulnerable position. You can take -1 guard or -1 awareness to: 

• Pick up an armament from the ground to wield

• Bar or unbar a door.

Finally, some magic and other effects can be maintained over multiple turns. Doing so usually requires expending a magical resource at the start of each subsequent turn. 

You can only do these things before your action, not after. The Guide has final say on whether such an interaction requires taking -1 guard or awareness—or if it’s risky enough to rise to the level of an action. 

Foregoing Your Action

On your turn, you can forego your action to regain 1 guard or awareness (your choice).