Quick Contest
Quick Contests
A "Quick Contest" is a competition that is over in very little time – often in one second, perhaps even instantly. Examples include two enemies lunging for a gun, or two knife throwers seeing who gets closer to the bull's-eye. Each competitor attempts his success roll. If one succeeds and the other fails, the winner is obvious. If both succeed, the winner is the one with the largest margin of success; if both fail, the winner is the one with the smallest margin of failure. A tie means nobody won (in the examples above, both fighters grabbed the weapon at once, or the knives hit the same distance from the bull's-eye).
Margin of Victory
The amount by which the winner beat the loser is often important – success by 5 vs. failure by 5 generally means more than success by 2 vs. success by 1! The winner's "margin of victory" is the difference between his margin of success and the loser's margin of success if both succeeded, the sum of his margin of success and the loser’s margin of failure if he succeeded and the loser failed, or the difference between the loser's margin of failure and his margin of failure if both failed.
Resistance Rolls
Most abilities that can affect an unwilling subject offer the subject an attempt to resist using an attribute, skill, or supernatural ability. This is sometimes a Quick Contest between the attacking ability and the defender's resistance, in which case two special rules apply:
- The attacker must succeed to win. He cannot win by having the smallest margin of failure. If he fails his roll, he loses automatically and his subject does not need to attempt a resistance roll.
- The attacker must win to affect the subject. All ties go to the defender.