Once the Challenger has bought the adversity for this challenge, it's time to play through it. It's important to keep in mind that each challenge is part of a particular domain. The initiatives, resources, and damage boxes used in the conflict all have to be of that domain. Traits of that domain are most effective; however, you can use traits of the other two domains at half their rating (rounded up).

Players take turns taking actions, and assuming neither side gives during the challenge, the player who first inflicts incapacitating or fatal damage on the other side wins the challenge.

Initiative

The initiative of the domain of the conflict determines who goes first. This fixed rating depends on the character of the Hunter and the adversity bought by the Challenger. Hunters can permanently raise their character's initiative with reward points. In case of a tie, the Hunter decides who goes first. After that, players take turns.

C: Alright, so you're facing a group of three bandits that are planning to cut you to pieces.
H: I've got an initiative of P3.
C: Their initiative is P0, so you go first.

Actions

Each player has one action during her or his turn (unless very unusual conditions apply). The possible actions are:

• Activate Trait
• Reassign Traits
• Offensive Maneuver
• Strike
• Deny Resource
• Recover Resource
• Achievement
• Aid Hunter (Multiplayer)
• Switch Target (Multiplayer)
• Transfer Advantage (Multiplayer)

Maneuvers influence the advantage that one character has over another. Strikes trade that advantage for damage. Traits are used to gain bonuses on maneuver rolls. Resources add or subtract from damage during Strikes only and can be temporarily denied by the opposition.

It's a good idea to use tokens of some sort to keep track of advantage points. Otherwise, use notepaper and pencils.

Activate Trait

A player can use an action to activate a trait that a character possesses. Only one trait can be activated per action. Imagine that your character needs a moment to focus to remember her "Pupil of the Sage +3" knowledge. Now, the need to activate the trait puts the character at a momentary disadvantage, but the next roll using that bonus will obviously be more efficient.

The player needs to decide at the moment of activation whether to assign the trait to offense or defense. This determines whether the trait will give bonuses to offensive actions or to defensive ones. Only three traits can be active for offense and three for defense (for a total of 6 active traits at any time).

Traits of the same domain as the conflict give their full rating as bonus to the appropriate actions. Players also can activate traits from the other two domains; however, those only grant half their rating (rounded up) as a bonus. The mixture of traits does not change the limit of 3 traits assigned each to offense and defense.

Hunters can preactivate a trait during Phase Two of a challenge negotiation. Powers granted by Beast Hunter tattoos or possessed by magical creatures, however, are always active and do not need to be activated, even if they give bonuses to the same types of actions as traits.

Reassign Traits

A player can take this action to change the assignments of her traits. Any active traits' assignment can be changed from offense to defense or vice versa, in any combination. This does not activate any new traits, however. It allows players to make their characters' stance more aggressive or more defensive during conflicts.

H: As my action in the first round, I'm going to activate "I Will Make My Mother Proud" as an offensive trait. It's rated P+4. [writes "O" for offensive after the trait]
C: So what does that mean in the fiction?
H: Oh right. Well, as the bandits advance toward Yaqhara, her eyes narrow and she draws her blade, very slowly and deliberately. She eyes them up and judges them worth her while; defeating three enemies at once will surely be worth some glory in her mother's eyes, even if they're only men.
C: Hah, very nice. Alright, my turn. The bandits activate "Flanking P+2" as a defensive trait. They fan out a little so that you can't keep them all at the center of your vision at the same time, and they'll try to surround you. That ends the round, your turn again. [writes "D" for defensive after the trait]

H: For my next action, I'm going to activate "Keen Insight". It's a social trait, so I'm only benefiting from half of its rating of +3, but that's still +2. I'll put it on offensive as well. As Yaqhara sees that they are spreading out, her keen insight allows her to understand the dynamic between the bandits. She knows how they work together, and she identifies the guy who's the leader among them. That'll help her defeath them. [writes "O" for offensive after the trait]
C: Cool. I'm going to activate another trait for the bandits as well. It's "Desperate and Hungry" at +4, which will be offensive. They're obviously not going to back down; they are eyeing your nice-looking axe and shield, which should bring them some money for food. [writes "O" after the trait for offensive]
H: They'll never need food again when Yaqhara is done with them.

Offensive Maneuver

A character can make offensive maneuvers to try and gain advantage over the opposition. There are two steps to making an offensive maneuver: proposal and execution.

First, the Hunter proposes a maneuver that improves the character's situation. In combat, that could be charging with a flurry of hits, or it could be pushing the enemy into the wall, or taking one enemy into a lock and using him as a shield against the others. In social conflicts, this could be social maneuvering, calling in favors, proposing alliances against the other side, making a charming statement, or decrying the opposition's blasphemous activities. In any case, the Hunter describes what the character is trying to do--both in terms of the action and the character's intent.

The Challenger now offers the Hunter a number of advantage points for that move, depending on how well the Challenger thinks the move would work (and how cool it is). The minimum offer is two advantage points. The Hunter can accept the points and conclude the action, or roll to execute it with dice instead. Choosing the dice is riskier and can lead to no advantage points at all, but it can also garner more points than the Challenger was willing to offer.

If the Hunter rejects the offer, he executes the action by rolling two ten-sided dice (2D10) and adding all offensive bonuses from active traits (remember that only traits in the domain of the conflict give full bonuses, while others give half). For example, in a physical conflict, a Hunter with the social trait "Hunters Lineage +2" and the physical trait "My Spear Is My Life +3" both activated and assigned to offense, rolls the dice for a sum between 2 and 20, and adds 4 points (1/2*2 + 3) for a total range of 6 to 24.

The opposing player makes a defensive roll, using 2D10 and adding all active traits assigned to defense (again with full bonuses from traits of the conflict domain and half bonuses from others). In this example, the Hunter's opponent, a brigand with only one active physical defense trait, "Coward +1", rolls 2D10 and only adds one point for a total range of 3 to 21.

If the player on the offensive achieves a higher result than the defender, he gains advantage points in the amount of the difference between the two outcomes against this enemy. For example, if the Hunter's roll of 2D10+4 resulted in a sum of 16 and the defender's roll of 2D10+1 only resulted in a 5, the Hunter would gain 11 advantage points against the brigand.

The Challenger always rolls for her advantage points when she's performing an Offensive Maneuver (but should still try to come up with captivating actions of the opposition to represent those rolls).

Keep in mind that the Challenger always has the option to give (to determine that the Hunter instantly wins the whole challenge), which should only be exercised if the Hunter's described action blows the Challenger's mind and seems both doable and overwhelmingly effective, and in that case, the Challenger definitely should give. Other very cool but not overwhelming actions can just be rewarded with high offers. 15 guaranteed advantage points are worth a lot, for example.

Note: Resources are not used in maneuvers; only traits are used.

Free Strike

If a player, through proposal or rolling the dice, gains twelve or more advantage points with a single offensive maneuver, the player immediately has the opportunity to take a free Strike action before concluding the turn. This does not use up the player's next action, and the player cannot save it for later. Instead of a Strike, the player can also work toward a Goal.

C: So what's Yaqhara's next move?
H: Okay, let's see. I'll do a maneuver. Yaqhara approaches them slowly as they come at her, but suddenly she jumps forward, ducking under the slash of one of the guys. She grabs him by the throat, kicks him in the back of the knee, then throws him against the second guy to keep them both busy while she whirls and swings at the third one with her axe.
C: That's a pretty cool move! Let's see, you've got +4 from "I Will Make My Mother Proud", and the social trait "Keen Insight", which is +3, counts as half, which is rounded up to +2, so your total offensive bonus is +6. They have +2 defense, so you're up 4 there. Let's add 6 because I liked your description, so that I'm going to offer you a total of 10 advantage points for the maneuver. Do you take it or do you want to risk a roll?
H: Hmm. I could get a lot more points in a roll, but I could also get none, and this is a good step above average. I'll take it. [writes down 10 advantage points on the character sheet--this means the Hunter and Challenger won't have to roll dice for this maneuver]
C: The two you pushed fall to the ground. The one you lunge at tries to bring up his weapon, but you give him a nice gash on the shoulder. [the description of the maneuver effect ends the action]

C: Alright, they do a maneuver as well. They have +4 from the active trait for offense, but you don't have any on defense. So, the two you push together fall to the ground. However, they get up while you trade blows with the third one and one of them tries to bullrush you from behind. [grabs 2D10--the Challenger never gets offered advantage points and always rolls dice instead]
H: Let him try. [grabs 2D10]
C: [rolls 2D10 for a total of 12, +4 makes 16]
H: [rolls 2D10 for a total of 11]
C: 16 minus 11 makes 5. [writes down 5 advantage points for the bandits against Yaqhara]
H: Eh, that's not too great. The guy manages to ram into me and momentarily gets me off balance, but he also takes me out of the range of the leader's sword. [the description of the maneuver effect ends the action]

Strike

A player can use the character's action to perform a strike using the accumulated advantage points. This is the only way that a character can deal damage to another character. That means you could have two characters facing off, maneuvering for a while without ever attacking, until finally one of them lunges forward to use the weakness he spotted. Or the two characters could be locked in heated battle, exchanging blows and pushing each other back and forth, until one character finally strikes at an opening. Similarly, in a social challenge, a character could make alliances but not have them be exposed until the most opportune moment. In a mental duel of willpower, one character could deliver powerful statements that sow internal doubt or even shatter the other character's resolve.

Players buy a certain level of potential damage by expending some or all of their advantage points and then rolling the appropriate dice. The cost is 4 advantage points per six-sided die (D6) of damage. The table below shows that progression:

As you can see from the table, the more advantage points you expend, the higher the potential damage that you will cause. This is always a risk; even when you have a large advantage, you might only roll a 4: combat is chaotic like that, and never certain. Plus, it motivates you to wow the other side with each move in order to win the conflict without having to use your advantage points.

Striking someone causes damage unless there's a resource in the way, such as armor (see below). There are five levels of damage: light, medium, heavy, incapacitating and fatal. Characters have a certain number of damage boxes for each level. Once a level is filled up, additional damage of that type moves up one level. Inflicting light damage on someone who has three light damage boxes and has taken light damage three times already causes medium damage instead. Notice that characters have separate boxes for each domain: every character has three sets of damage level boxes (for physical, mental, and social damage). However, as a challenge is always only in one domain, only one type of damage will be dealt during the challenge.

Once you roll the damage dice you have bought with your advantage points, consult the following table to determine what type of damage you have inflicted:

The result can be modified through resources that a character possesses. Offensive resources grant bonuses to damage, while defensive resources subtract from the amount that an enemy rolls against you. In the physical domain, weapons and armor are just that. Social resources are contacts in the right places that help you damage the social standing of an opponent and a great reputation that make it harder for others to damage you socially. The same goes for mental resources: you can have a memory, relationship, or belief that steels your will.

You can only use one resource at a time. However, resources do not need to be activated. They are always active unless they are denied in a challenge by the Deny Resource action. That's where your backup resources of the same category come into play.

Characters who take incapacitating damage are defeated and lose the challenge. They continue the adventure and can participate in future challenges, but they risk fatal injury, as the next incapacitated result will move up one level. If the character has more than one box for incapacitating damage, the effect only comes about when all of the incapacitating boxes are checked off. If the Hunter loses a challenge this way, the Challenger does not regain the expenditure of adversity points for this challenge. However, if the challenge is the very last one in a non-Beast Hunt adventure or the encounter with the beast at the conclusion of a Beast Hunt, incapacitating damage has no effect on either side.

Beast Hunter characters who take fatal damage have two choices: a) the character loses the adventure as a whole, but gets away with his life, or b) the character automatically wins the challenge as well as the adventure, but is forever removed from play. If the character has more than one box for fatal damage, the effect only comes about when all of the fatal boxes are checked off.

A Hunter who accepts the fatal damage to win the adventure narrates how the character dies or permanently retires. In the case of fatal physical damage, the character is mortally wounded and dies after the adventure concludes in his favor. Fatal social damage leads to the character forever leaving society behind, maybe to live in the wilderness on his own or to take his life. Fatal mental damage burns out the character's mind or will in a way that makes him unplayable.

All damage remains until the end of the adventure, unless the character has special powers, such as the hazuma tattoo. Between adventures, however, all wound boxes as well as preactivations of traits are cleared. This is called a Refresh.

Note: Traits are not used in Strikes; only resources are used.

H: I've got 10 advantage points now... so I'll just use them for a strike.
C: Alright, how many are you spending?
H: It's 4 points for each D6, so I'll spend 8 points and get to roll 2D6 for my strike. [grabs 2D6, changes advantage points from 10 to 2]
C: Sounds good. They have "Leather Armor PD+2" as a resource.
H: I've got "Mother's Old Axe PO+4". Let's roll! [rolls 2D6 for a total of 9]
C: 9 plus 4 for your resource minus 2 for theirs makes 11.
H: Awesome! That's a heavy wound.
C: It is indeed. They only have one heavy wound box, so the next heavy wound will be kicked up to incapacitated and win you the fight. Why don't you go ahead and tell me how you kill one of them. [marks the heavy wound box]
H: Sweet! Yaqhara was just bullrushed, so she stumbles backwards with the guy trying to wrestle her down. They're heading right for a tree. Yaqhara kicks up her legs, bounces off the tree with her feet and sumersaults over the bandit's head. He slams into the tree face first as she lands in a crouch facing the other two. She quickly gets up and, without ever taking her eyes off the other two, stabs the spike at the hilt of her axe deep into the back of the bandit's neck. Then she pulls it out, looking at the two remaining bandits, as the dead one behind her collapses down the side of the tree. [the description of the strike ends the action]

C: Wow. Well, now it's their turn to strike. They've got 5 advantage points, so they can only buy 1D6. [grabs 1D6, changes advantages points from 5 to 1]
H: I've got Maiqhar's Shield at PD+2.
C: And they've got "Rusty Swords PO+2", so that balances each other out. They also have "Hunting Knives PO+2", but those would only come in if you deny their swords. [rolls 1D6 for a result of 5]
H: Close one! That's just a light wound. [marks a light physical wound box]
C: Yep. So after you kill one of their friends, they charge straight at you, and they manage to hurt you a little. How does that happen?
H: Let's say the one guy distracts me with a feint, but then the leader steps in and manages to stab me in the thigh. Blood is running down Yaqhara's leg, but it only serves to make her more fierce. [the description of the strike ends the action]
C: Well, I know these guys won't take you out, but you'll have this wound until the end of the adventure. So that's something.

Deny Resource

Resources in physical conflicts include weapons and armor. In social conflicts, they can include local connections and NPCs. In mental challenges, they include sources of concentration and focus. A player can try to temporarily deny the other player the use of a resource. This is done via a simple offensive versus defensive roll. If the attacker beats the defender, the defender cannot use that resource anymore until it is recovered through a Recover Resource action or after the challenge is concluded.

For example, a beast jumps at the Beast Hunter's spear and tries to wrestle it from him. The beast makes an offensive roll (2D10 plus all active offense traits, with non-physical traits only giving half their bonus) and the Hunter a defensive roll (2D10 plus all active defense traits, with the same caveat). The beast beats the Hunter by 8 points, and the spear goes flying. The Hunter has to fight without it; hopefully he has another weapon he can use. He will get it back after the fight is over, or if he successfully uses a Recover Resource action.

The Challenger can, but does not have to, offer the Hunter a success of a certain level when the Hunter describes how he denies the opposition's resource. For example, if the Hunter wanted to overcome the beast's defensive resource and described convincingly how he could slide his dagger through the cracks between the beast's scales, the Challenger could offer a 5-point success, which means that she would have to use a Recover Resource action with at least 5 points of success to get the beast's resource back.

C: The bandits want to get rid of your axe. They're trying a deny resource action. They have their +4 bonus from "Desperate and Hungry". The leader, in his desperation, tries to taunt you into attacking him when he's in front of a tree, so that your axe will get stuck in it. Let's roll. [rolls 2D10 for a total of 14, plus 4 from the trait for a sum of 18]
H: Oh. I still don't have any defensive traits activated. [rolls 2D10 for a total of 13]
C: There goes your axe.
H: Damn. Alright, Yaqhara falls for this cheap trick. She was just too cocky. Now she has to let go of the axe and duck out of the leader's sword's way. I'll just have to strangle them with my bare hands. [marks the resource as "denied (5)" on the character sheet]

Recover Resource

In order to regain a resource that has been denied, the acting player must make a defensive roll against the opposition's offensive roll that beats the other player by at least as much as the roll that denied the resource.

For example, the Hunter from above who lost his spear has to make a defensive roll against the beast's offensive roll (basically the same rolls as before, unless they activated more traits in the meantime) and beat the beast by at least 8 points, the beast's margin of success from earlier. When the Hunter describes how he plans to recover the resource, the Challenger can but does not have to decide that the description is sufficient without needing a roll. Most of the time, you should require the roll, but a very good description of the Hunter's action can override this.

H: I changed my mind. I want my axe back!
C: Alright. But you still don't have any defensive traits active, so that might be difficult. They beat you by 5 points when they denied it, so you'll have to get at least as good a result. That'll be tough; if they roll an average 11, that's worth 15 with their active trait, and you'll need to roll a 20.
H: Let's see. Here's what Yaqhara does. She knows that the second bandit is not nearly as smart as the leader, and her keen insight tells her that he's really hotheaded. So she focuses on the leader, trading blows, and whenever the second bandit comes near she pushes him away dismissively without really hurting him, as if he wasn't a threat at all. So she's insulting him, making him feel like he's worthless. Finally, when he's all wound up, she pushes him right against the tree where her axe is stuck. She's trying to taunt him into grabbing the axe and getting it out to attack her with it in his rage.
C: Wow, that's a damn cool plan. Good enough that I'll let you get your axe back without a roll.
H: Awesome! So when he comes at me with the axe, I dodge under it, twist it out of his hand, and smirk at the two of them as I have my weapon back. [erases the "denied (5)" from the character sheet]

Achievement

Sometimes one of the players will want to achieve something in the midst of a challenge that can't be expressed simply as damage. For example, the Hunter might want to leave a scar on an enemy, make sure that the innocent tribespeople get to safety before the brigands get to them, or impress a love interest during a heated debate with the tribal chief. These special effects are normally too small to be considered challenges in themselves, but they are still significant to the players and can make a great tool for branching your story into different directions. Also, any serious damage to characters other than the Beast Hunter or his direct opposition must be achieved through a goal.

When a player wants to establish a goal, she explains to the opposing player what the desired effect is. The players then assign the goal a difficulty rating together. The default rating is 1. The Hunter and the Challenger can each add 1 to this difficulty, resulting in a difficulty somewhere between 1 and 3. This difficulty represents the headstart that the Challenger gets for rolling dice to resolve the goal in her favor.

Achievements allow the players to add dice to their side of the outcome roll for a goal. The player who chooses this action first describes how she works toward tipping the goal in her side's favor, then spends advantage points. The cost for this is 4 AP per D6 added to her side, which is the same cost as for Strikes. However, unlike Strikes, these dice are not necessarily rolled immediately.

Goals are resolved when both sides agree to roll the outcome dice. This can happen at any time during a conflict (and without either side spending an action). The Challenger rolls the difficulty rating in D6 plus any D6 that the adversity added with Achievements, and the Hunter rolls any D6 she bought with Achievements, with the higher sum determining the outcome of the goal. Ties go to the Hunter.

Any leftover goals are resolved at the end of a conflict. If the Hunter won the conflict and has AP remaining, she can use them to buy more dice for the leftover goals before they are resolved; however, the cost goes up to 6 advantage points per outcome die.

Whenever a goal is resolved in the Hunter's favor, she earns reward points in the amount of twice the difficulty (e.g., 4 reward points for difficulty 2). These are bonus reward points that do not come out of the adversity pool.

Both players have a responsibility not to bring up goals that are unrelated to the challenge at hand. If you think the other player's proposal is unrelated, say so. Discussions about it need to be conducted after saluting out.

[after more maneuvers, toward the end of the challenge]
H: It's not enough for me just to beat these guys anymore. I want to spare the leader's life to see him run away in terror when this is over, spreading my name in the nearby villages and letting my enemies know that I'm coming for them.
C: Very cool. That sounds like an achievement to me. Let's just call it "Spreading Yaqhara's Name", because that works even if they win the challenge. The basic difficulty is 1. It shouldn't be that hard, so I won't add to that. [writes the goal on a slip of paper]
H: I won't add to it either; 1 is fine with me. So was that my action then?
C: Oh, no. Making a goal is free. You need to use an achievement action to get dice for its outcome, though.
H: Ah right, I'll do that. I have 12 advantage points by now. I'll spend 8 of them to buy 2 outcome dice for my side of the goal. [changes advantage points from 12 to 4]
C: Sure. Since the difficulty is 1, that means I'll roll 1D6 for the adversity's side and you'll roll 2D6 for your side. Do you want to do it now, or do you want more chances to add dice throughout? Either way is fine with me.
H: Let's do it now. [rolls 2D6 for a total of 4]
C: Alright. [rolls 1D6 for a result of 4]
H: It's a tie! Luckily, Hunters win ties. So when the conflict is over, the leader will run around spreading tales about my combat prowess.
C: Yep, even if by some crazy turn of events the bandits end up winning. And you get 2 bonus reward points for achieving a goal of difficulty 1.
H: Sweet. That'll go toward raising my social trait later, due to my increased reputation.

Multiplayer Goals

In a Multiplayer game (that is, one with more than one Hunter), when a goal is established, each Hunter can opt to add 1 to the difficulty, while the Challenger can add anywhere from 0 to the number of Hunters in the conflict. For example, a goal in a conflict with three Hunters is established by default as difficulty 1, then the Challenger could add 0-3 to that, and each of the three Hunters could add 1 to it, for a difficulty range of 1-7. Once the difficulty is established, it can't be changed anymore.

Any Hunter who has advantage points left at the end of a conflict can use them to buy outcome dice for unresolved goals before they are rolled; Hunters can even combine advantage points if their leftovers don't add up to multiples of 6, in case this allows them to buy more dice. The Hunters gain the usual bonus reward points for any goals they achieve according to twice the difficulty of the goal, split up among those Hunters who bought dice for the goal.

Multiplayer Actions

The following additional actions are available when you're playing with two or more Hunters at the same time.

Aid Hunter

Two Hunters can combine their actions to work together. In that case, one of the Hunters chooses Aid Hunter, while the other chooses any action that requires the use of traits. The aiding Hunter simply grants the bonus of one of her traits to the other Hunter's action. This use is subject to the rule for halving the bonus if the trait is not of the same domain as the conflict; however, the aiding trait is not counted for the purposes of the three-trait limit on offensive or defensive traits of the second Hunter.

Switch Target

With this action, a Hunter can turn advantage points against one target into advantage points against another. This is especially useful for leftover points after a target has been defeated. However, the tradeoff is made at a 2:1 ratio. That is, 11 advantage points against target A turn into 6 advantage points against target B.

Transfer Advantage

A Hunter can use this action to transfer advantage points from one Hunter to another. This action automatically succeeds. The target of the advantage points, however, remains unchanged unless the Hunter trades the points in at a 2:1 ratio, as with Switch Target.