Amid the passing of time and motion in relative space, characters experience formative and meaningful moments. In any setting, the character’s story is a tapestry woven by the player’s role, through the careful interplay of directing the character’s decisions and intentional actions. The Augurs recognize the profound impact that character decisions and actions have in driving a story, and have established rules in the path that help guide these moments in the game’s scenarios.

There are two character elements that the player can directly employ to inspire character decisions: motivations, which typically extend from one’s origins, and obstacles, which often connect to a character’s profile. In guiding the character’s decisions, the player may choose to depend heavily on these character elements, or simply use these elements as a general framework. In any case, it is the player’s responsibility in game play to make character decisions. The narrator is encouraged to look to a character’s motivations and obstacles and offer support and momentum to players whenever they feel unable to guide the character’s decisions. The player should also look to the collective for character support or when group decisions must be made.

Motivation

As a character element, the motivation can be whatever the player envisions will help them make decisions that contribute to a character’s development. This can be something the character takes pride in, or finds particularly inspiring that encourages showing up in a noticeable way. In established game compendiums, the Augur will have an initial pool of motivations that a character can draw from. Players should always be able to use experience to shift the character’s motivation throughout a campaign as their character continues to develop.

Obstacle

As a character element, the obstacle can be whatever the player envisions will hinder the character’s growth or cause them trouble of some kind. This can be personal trouble, trouble with their collective, or trouble with the political and social environment of the setting. In established game compendiums, the Augur will have an initial pool of obstacles that a character can draw from. Players should always have the option to shift the character’s obstacles throughout a campaign as their character continues to develop.

The motivation and obstacle are the primary catalysts for helping players evoke the decisions of their characters, and as such these elements should be especially considered by the Augur and must be presented in a clear way to help the player engage their character.

Action Types

Additionally, the path offers three types of actions as an initial framework for character development–resistances, insights, and tasks. According to the path, actions always have source attributes as outlined in the later section. The source attributes of various action types are at the discretion of the narrator, but typically these will be established within a game’s compendium according to the context of the setting.

Additionally, characters within a setting must always have the option to create and train a clearly defined action, at the discretion of the narrator or player as noted for each action type. In established game compendiums, the Augur will have fleshed out clearly defined actions in each of the action types as a measure of the game. The specific rules of the action types are noted here.

Resistances

Resistances represent a character’s reactions and resolve, and serve to mitigate situational moments of danger within a game scenario. Established game compendiums have contextually appropriate resistances that are accessible to all characters. There is no set expectation for which resistances are best for a setting, but the Augurs have determined that no fewer than four and no more than eight resistances should be set within a game setting. It is at the narrator’s discretion when a character takes a resistance action.

Insights

Insights represent a character’s intuitions and senses, and serve to mediate situational moments of character awareness within a game scenario. Established game compendiums have contextually appropriate insights that are accessible to all characters. There is no set expectation for which insights are best for a setting, but the Augurs have determined that no fewer than four and no more than eight insights should be set within a game setting. It is either at the narrator’s discretion or the player’s discretion, depending on the scenario, when a character takes an insight action.

Tasks

Tasks represent a character’s repeatable actions, and serve to mediate direct, hands-on undertakings with describable outcomes. These can be anything the player imagines for their character, and can represent both general repeatable tasks with simple success or failure outcomes, and highly specialized tasks that might require specific training to attempt. Examples might include hiding behind a rock or striking an opponent.

In game compendiums, tasks can take on intricate, setting-specific forms, such as differentiating between skills–tasks that any character can attempt–and proficiencies–tasks that require training to even attempt, and that take on specialized forms as characters continue to train their ranks. A setting can contribute greatly toward envisioning how the tasks take shape within that reality. In every case, tasks are action types that fall to the player’s discretion. The player will always have the choice and the final say regarding the task their character will undertake, using the core mechanic to mediate the outcome according to the guidelines of the setting.

In the APC System, the only concrete rules regarding tasks are that the action must be a clearly defined and repeatable action with a source attribute. And each of the eight attributes should be represented in a character’s tasks. Established game compendiums will flesh out numerous tasks of general and specific types for each of the eight source attributes.

These three action types as clearly defined for the setting will create an interplay between the players and the narrator for working with the characters and the setting.