storyteller

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====== Cause and Effect ======
This section outlines the degree of influence characters may apply to dramatic editing; Inspiration costs are listed in brackets.

===== Minor Off-screen Effect (1 Inspiration) =====
A minor off-screen effect cannot possibly save the character right away, but it can bring help within 15 minutes to an hour.  That may be too late depending on the circumstances (like a vat filling with acid), but works just fine for less immediately deadly events.

===== Minor Extension (1 Inspiration) =====
A minor extension expands on a coincidence that another player's character has generated. This extension cannot get too blatant — no fair turning the piece of shipwreck flotsam into a motorboat but it can build upon another character's coincidence in order to let it help the current character as well.

===== Minor Onscreen Effect (2 Inspiration) =====
A minor onscreen effect won’t save the character’s life by itself, but it can give him some breathing room or a fighting chance. It may include the unexpected arrival of Background or Storyteller characters who, while unable to rescue the character directly, can provide other sorts of aid. Alternatively, it may be a piece of (easily concealed) equipment the character “forgot” that he'd had or something similar.

===== Major Onscreen Effect (3 Inspiration) =====
A major onscreen effect saves the character's life or even the lives of the whole team. This effect can be just about anything that doesn't contradict the Storyteller’s summary of the situation.

===== Obvious Continuity Violation (4 Inspiration) =====
An obvious continuity violation directly contradicts the Storyteller’s description of the scene or is just thoroughly beyond the bounds of plausibility. Clearly, this use of dramatic editing demands the Storyteller’s scrutiny. but it should be possible as long as it is appropriately creative and maintains the feel of the game and the genre.

===== Plot Ramification (+1 Inspiration) =====
A plot ramification gives the characters a clue to solving a mystery that has plagued them. winds one of the villain's henchmen in jail or brings any character in the group an unexpected benefit. This extra cost also applies if a player chooses to solve the team’s problem by making another player character's life much harder though injury, social inconvenience or great expense. Relatively minor things (loss of property worth two dots less than the target‘s Resources Background, a loss of cleanliness or basic human dignity) do not incur this cost penalty. Feel free to pile those sorts of things on.

This charge can be used to directly influence the character’s situation in the present scene, but it is meant to represent Fortuitous events that occur perpendicular to current events. in other words, it won’t generally aid the characters in dealing with his immediate situation, but will provide a useful benefit to the story afterward.

===== Plot Complication (-1 Inspiration) =====
A plot complication is a circumstance during the scene that makes life harder for the character who spends the Inspiration. He breaks his leg leaping to safety just as the car careens over the cliff; he escapes From certain death only to fall under the influence of a lesser enemy; the characters' efforts to escape a deathtrap give the Czar enough time to make off with the character’s significant other; and so on. Remember: there is no cost break (and there is often a cost penalty) for giving complications to other characters. That's a plot ramification, above. This cost break applies only if you give your own character a complication. As above, this should not be a trivial complication; breaking a nail or losing a pair of shoes will not score you this bonus.

A plot complication calls for particular scrutiny by the Storyteller. If one player is deliberately messing with another player’s character for out-of-game reasons (rather than to make the episode more interesting), the request should be rejected. If both parties find the complication entertaining, the Storyteller should feel free to let it go through.
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storyteller

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