Editing Unwritten: System Reference Document/Playing a Scene (section)

====Choose the Skill and Type of Action====

First, you choose which skill you will be using as the basis for the action.

Next, we classify what the character is doing into one of four different actions. Which action you choose determines what the actual outcomes signify and how they are resolved. There are four different actions.

=====Overcome=====

This is the action for overcoming opposition. When there’s something between your character and their goals, you use the overcome action to deal with it. Look at it as the “catch-all” action—if it doesn’t fall into any other category, it’s probably an overcome action.

Success in an overcome action means you have gotten past whatever was in your way.

=====Advantage=====

Advantage actions are focused on aspects and using them to help you. You can create advantage or take advantage.

Creating an advantage means that you have created something that your character can use to help out in other rolls. Sometimes, that means you’re doing something to actively change your circumstances (like attaching pulleys to a set of heavy stones or setting something on fire), but it could also mean that you’re discovering new information that helps you (like scouting out the lay of the land). If you are successful, you can place an situation aspect on a person or scene.

Taking advantage of something means you are using something you’ve previously observed (like an antagonist’s predisposition to a bad temper). Success means you can create free invocations on an existing aspect.

No matter what type of advantage action you are performing, if you are not successful then you may inadvertently accomplish something that hinders you instead.

=====Discover=====

The discover action is how a character (and thus a player) learns about the world around them. They may be examining a building, digging through dusty tomes, or talking to people in the know. A successful discover action gives the player a chance to ask the GM a specific number of questions dependent on the outcome.

=====Oppose=====

A oppose action is what your character is doing when you are acting as active opposition. You may be the target of a Create Advantage action or otherwise providing actively getting in the way of some action. Unlike other actions, an oppose action is a reaction to another’s action. However, it is also resolved during the resolution phase of an action.