Open-Ended Resolution

One-pager. The One Rule resolves a task in isolation. But tasks rarely stand alone — one builds on another, or fights against it. This page is how results chain: how to build on a prior result, and how to oppose one. It's foreshadowed everywhere (parries, persuasion, hacking, a forged document used later) and it's all the same two moves.

Opposing — both roll, the QRs fight

When two characters contest directly — a parry against an attack, stealth against a searcher, a tug-of-war, a chess match, a lawyer building a case against one tearing it down — both roll their own task and compare Quality Ratings. The better QR prevails.

• A large QR gap is a decisive win; a small gap is a narrow one.
• Equal QRs cancel — and that's a feature, not a fudge. This is the blow that just barely gets blocked, the tail that's almost spotted, the point neither player can convert. Nothing decisive happens, the tension holds, and you keep going. A string of ties is a long, taut struggle.
• If you genuinely must break a tie (someone has to act now), fall back on the ability scores — the more skilled contestant edges it.

Older editions had you use your opponent's QR as your ease factor. Rolling and comparing QRs is simpler, more symmetric, and produces those satisfying near-stalemates the old way couldn't.

How much got through — partial blocking

Sometimes you don't want win/lose but how much of an effort survived a partial defense (an attack partly parried, a case partly undermined). For an effective defense the rule is simple arithmetic: a defense equal to or better than the attack negates it; otherwise the attack's QR drops (5 − the defending QR) notches down the 1-2-3-4 scale. The failure end isn't arithmetic — it follows the general principle that QR7 is plain failure, QR10 actively backfires: a QR7 defense is no defense (the attack lands at its full rolled QR), and a QR10 defense makes the attack worse by one notch (the defender fumbled into it). The result is the attack's effective QR — what got through.

(The better the defense, the more of the attack it eats; an equal defense blocks it cleanly — the just-barely parry. A botched defense leaves you worse off than no defense at all.)

Building — a modifier, not a new base

When one task's product feeds a later task — a tuned engine you then race, a forged passport you then present, intel you then act on — carry the first result forward as an ease-factor modifier on the follow-up:

Build: +(5 − QR). QR1 → +4, QR2 → +3, QR3 → +2, QR4 → +1. Opposing a standing prior result instead? Take the same value as a penalty.

Crucially this is a modifier, not a replacement base ease factor: the follow-up still uses its own ability and BEF, nudged up or down by what came before. Even a marginal success (QR4) leaves the next person a little something to stand on, and a brilliant one (QR1) hands them a real head start.

Examples

• Sneaking vs. noticing — your Stealth against their Perception (or Search, if they're actively looking). Compare QRs; a tie means they sense something but can't place it.
• Concealing vs. finding — hiding an object (Stealth/relevant skill) against a searcher; a tie is "they walked right past it."
• Attack vs. parry — the defender's parry blocks by the table above; an equal QR is the blow turned aside at the last instant.
• Hacking vs. security — the defender built the system earlier, so the intruder works against a standing result: apply −(5 − the setup's QR) to the hack. (A botched install, conversely, helps the attacker.)

Tennis (and why this rule is general). Each point is a contest of Tennis skill, compared by QR. The server gets +1 (the serve advantage). Either player may commit extra energy for a better ease factor — going for the line — at the price of an Endurance check and mounting exhaustion over a long match. A tied QR is deuce: nobody converts, replay the point, tension climbs. It maps perfectly — and the very same shape runs a football match, a dogfight, or two generals maneuvering armies. You never needed a tennis rule; you needed the One Rule and a QR comparison.

Designer's Note: two moves — compare QRs to oppose, shift an EF to build — cover tennis, trials, hacking duels, assembly lines, and seductions alike. And note why the QR scale runs 1-2-3-4-7-10: it makes (5 − QR) come out right, so building on a botch is hard and building on brilliance is easy, with no extra table to consult.