Stakes

In T13 we have a system for deciding how dangerous a situation is. This is known as The Stakes. Ordeals are particularly based heavily on the Stakes, you can’t really decide when the Ordeal ends without knowing the Stakes.

Ordeals come in differing levels of risk. In a High Stakes Ordeal, like Combat, failure and death is always an option, but the same Combatants meeting for a Fencing Competition are unlikely to kill each other in Medium Stakes, and when training before the competition both competitors would be much more controlled, and the risk of injury and Stake would be very low.

While these Stakes are Omniversal, some stories and games may add some specific Stakes. For example, Seelie Stakes, and Unseelie Stakes are a bit of a standard for games with Færy and Eelafin Characters, and would be detailed but are not Standard otherwise. Referees and Yarn-Tellers can create custom Stakes as well.

Creating Custom Stakes

There are several things to think about before you make a custom Stake:

• How deadly are Ordeal cards? — They can be a multiple of the Base Cost from ×1 to ×3, have a +/- 1 to the Wound Level of the Ordeal card, or have a standard or Random Pip modifier. So you might make each card have +5 Pips but require ×3 Base Value to Summon and make the Limit -1 Class. This would allow large attacks to be deadly, but smaller attacks would tend to fall around the middle, and would effectively remove Distracts.
• How long is an Ordeal? — Is the Stage a specific number of Phases long, and if so how many from 1 to 26? Does every Character get the same number of Phases per Stage? Is there a limit on the number of Phases per Round? Or a limit on the total number of Phases ?
• How does the Stake effect the Ordeal? — How does an Ordeal of this Stake end? Is there a limited number of Rounds, or Phases and then is failure automatic? Is there an Automatic failure if any Stage is failed? Or do Failure Levels have to be accumulated before the whole Ordeal is failed?
• How big is the Ordeal Wild Pool? — Larger Wild Pools create quicker, more destructive rounds. Smaller Wild Pools lead to less dangerous, longer Ordeals.
• How Many Soak Levels are Characters allowed? — There is a balance to be made here though. More dangerous Ordeal cards can be balanced by more Soak Levels, which reduces the full damage somewhat (spreading it to Armour Descendants and the like).

Your custom Stake will be a careful blend of these factors to create something new, and you can create interesting new Ordeal types for your Custom Stakes too.

Example Custom Stake: Honour

• During each Round you begin with a Round Wild Pool (that assists in making Tricks) of 2 cards.
• Wounds have their Base Pip Costs Doubled (×2), their Limit card is increased by 1 and each has +2 Pips. So a Distract Wound requires 2 or higher. A Flesh Wound can be played with two 3s. A Mortal Wound has a cost of 32 Pips which could be reached with three 10s.
• Virtue Score Phases to the Stage. Orthodox Draw Round-Limit to the Ordeal or automatic failure. However you may quit the Ordeal at any time to a Stalemate situation.
• Maximum Soak Levels: 1

This Honour Stake might be useful in a chivalric or samurai based story, perhaps anything courtly or romantic can also find uses for it under the right circumstances. Within the Honour Stakes insults and insulting behaviour are easier (as noted by the lowered card Limit and the +2 Pips), and so are more cutting, and the opponent gets less Soak than you might otherwise expect, but while dangerous attacks are possible, they are more or less equivalent to Medium Stakes (due to the ×2) in difficulty. Additionally, the Honour Stakes limit how long you can maintain an Honour Ordeal, but you can always quit and force a Stalemate if you think you won’t win out, or haven’t failed a Stage yet. It is quite a fun Ordeal to throw a couple of Chivalrous Characters into whenever they meet, especially fun if they are on opposed sides.

Examples: Færy Stakes

The Færy Stakes of Seelie and Unseelie are similar, in that only particular Games and Characters can access them, but the actual Ordeals can vary greatly. In general, you can use either when a Character meets a Færy, depending upon the Færy met, and the time of year and day. You can also run the two simultaneously, with the Færy Stakes blending together, as often it is not obvious which they are when you first meet a Færy.

Seelie Stakes: During the day, and in the summer the Faeries are at their most benign and friendly. They are jokers, and pranksters, but there is little malicious to their activities. Engaging with them can however be dangerous, as they forget how easily broken Mortals are, but usually quickly remember before things get too deadly. Seelie Stakes can indicate that a Færy is meant to be helping the Character achieve some Doomed goal set by Wyrd, but they rarely are upfront about such things.

• Round Wild Pool: 4 Cards
• Wounds (Limit is -1 Level)(Distract: 5-7, Flesh: 8-9, Maim: 10-J, Cripple: Q-K, Mortal: A, etc)
• Wound Cost (x3) e.g. Distract 6, Flesh 15, Maim 24, Cripple 30, Mortal 42, Carnage 63 Pips.
• Pips per card +1d6 (e.g. a 2 could add 3-8 Pips a Joker adds 16-21 Pips).
• Liberty Score Phases per Stage. Wyrd Boon Phases Round-Limit or automatic failure.
• Maximum Soak Levels: 2

Unseelie Stakes: During night, in the dead of winter, the Fae are fickle and devilish beasts, as quick to kill as to prank, and even their pranks have a certain deadly malignancy that make them dangerous to even glance at. Spiteful and mean creatures, the Unseelie Fae are powerfully murderous often without provocation. Unseelie stakes are often a sign that you are going against your own destiny, as the Unseelie Faeries are often tasked with rearranging destinies to fit Wyrd’s plans (although only when the Loom can take them being removed from it).

• Round Wild Pool: 3 Cards
• Wound Limits +1 (Flesh 2-4, etc)
• Wound Costs (x2) e.g. Distract 4+, Flesh 10+, Maim 16+, Cripple 20+, Mortal 28+, Carnage 42+, Carnage+ 52
• Pips per card +1d6.
• Wyrd Draw Phases per Stage. Liberty Score Phases Round-Limit or automatic failure.
• Maximum Soak Levels: 3

Blended Stakes

It is important to remember that Stakes can be blended, so while you are jogging in the park at Low Stakes, a mugging would raise the Stakes to Medium (or maybe even High if there is a knife or a gun involved), and when the police start taking pot-shots at the Mugger as he runs away, the Stakes raise to High (or even Extreme if those guys are SWAT or Cyborg-Cops that have mistaken you for an accomplice, not a victim), all the while the original jog in the park continues at Low Stakes… If it turns out that one of the Cops is actually your Love Interest, the Soul-Stakes of that relationship may come into play while the two Characters interact, and the moment a time-traveller appears telling the police that they have the wrong guy then Paradoxical Stakes are invoked.

While the Higher Stake sections effect Wound Summoning Costs and so on, they do not affect the original Jog Stakes (or your ability to complete the Jog, unless you are injured during the events). Conversely the lack of time constraint on the Jog in no way effects the time-limit the Police impose on you to surrender. So while you may have to wait, and even have your day in court, one day you can complete that fateful jog.

Blended Stake Obstacles

Stakes can be further complicated by Obstacles. The Yarn-Teller may decide that it makes no sense for a certain Obstacle to be Low, or even Medium Stakes, and so rules that dangerous Traps must be treated as High or even Extreme Stakes. A Shopping Obstacle, on the other hand, while it might bankrupt you (creating an Lacking Hitch), is hardly likely to kill you, and may be made automatically Medium or Low Stakes (depending on what is being shopped for and the state of the Character’s finances.

In general, it is advised that Obstacles match the common Stakes, and Ordeals are constructed accordingly, with the Stakes ramping up through Trap-ridden sections, and shopping in town is usually a Low risk event.

When to Change Stakes

Moving between Stakes can require some practice. In general, if during an Ordeal something changes dramatically then the Stakes are probably shifting. The most obvious rules are this though.

• If everyone is talking and standing around, it is probably Low Stakes
• If everyone is rushing to get something done, then it is probably Medium Stakes
• If someone is waving a sword, or a gun, around it is already High Stakes
• If someone is firing a machinegun, cannon or fireball, it’s already Extreme Stakes
• If someone says they’d sell their soul, or love someone else, bam — that’s Soul Stakes
• The moment anyone is displaced in time, interacting with themselves in another dimension, or someone can directly see the back of their own head somehow, it’s paradoxical Stakes and everyone should be very careful…

Early in a Story (the Frame Act) you should keep the Stakes generally Low or perhaps Medium, although it will also be guided by the Suspense Level of the Story. The Stakes should rise during each Warp of the Loom, with the Suspense, until the Stakes are Extreme, Soul or Paradoxical in the Zenith. However, this can get complicated with multiple interacting Storylines, and also feel like you are only ever raising the Stakes of the situation. Feel free to reduce the Stakes at least a Level whenever the Character’s take a Weft Loom Scene, as they rest, recover and recuperate.

Increasing the stakes without Increasing the Stakes

Sometimes during a Story you need to raise the stakes of the game for a Character without actually changing the actual Stakes at all. This is especially common when we need to ratchet up the Suspense in a Story during the Late Loom, but we don’t want to jump up to Extreme or Soul Stakes just yet. There are, of course, plenty of ways that you can increase the apparent Stakes and Suspense, without actually increasing the mechanical Stakes at all. These include:

• Threaten something they Love — Okay, it may be a bit obvious, but you can capture an Ally or Love Interest and threaten to kill them. This has no effects on the mechanical Stakes, but the Character will feel the Stakes ratchet up.
• Add, or shorten, a Time-Limit — The Medium Stakes Ordeal is a timed Ordeal usually. You have to get something done in a certain time. Well, imagine finding out what you thought was a six week project, is actually only a four week project, in the middle of week 3. That may cause tensions to rise.
• Ramping up the Damage — It is possible to modify the Pips of each card as part of the Stakes. You could easily add a +3 Pips modifier and make everything a little more deadly for a while.
• Bake in Success or Failure — Stakes can have automatic Success or Failure Levels guaranteed, no matter what the PCs (or NPCs) do. Nothing reduces the threat of the Stakes as easily as having a guaranteed Success Level or 5, and the inverse is also true.

Stakes and Blinds

In some Games when a Character enters an Ordeal Round, or makes a roll, they are required to bet some resource or potential Wounds on the outcome. Often this bet is set by the Yarn-Teller or Referee as a Blind Bet. Blinds are usually related to the activity being attempted and the larger Stakes surrounding the circumstance. Basically, the Yarn-Teller might set the Blind as 1 point of Sway (usually specified by Facet in these sorts of games) for a Low Stakes event, but could set it at a Carnage Wound for an Extreme Stakes combat, with little to no chance of survival. Each Player must match the Blind (although they can raise the bet, betting more Sway or adding Wounds if they think they can do better). If a Player raises the bet then all other Character Players (NPCs as well as PCs) must also either match the bet or fold. Folding means they will not enter the Round or Roll. Matching the bet means that they will pay the Sway or take the Wound. Each Success Level that a Player generates on the Roll, or during card play, allows them to offset some part of the bet (an amount of Sway, or a Level of a Wound). The Ultimate bet that a Player can make is to go “All-In”, this risks the whole Character (not just an Alt, or Wounds), and failure will mean they are lost.