PvE and PvP

Many games include some degree of conflict, and Work In Progress is no different. Whether between players and non-player characters, players and the World of Dream or between players as groups or individuals, it is likely that you will want something that someone else doesn't, and that you won't be able to negotiate a solution. In this case, you'll engage in Player versus Environment (PvE) or Player versus Player (PvP) activity.

When adjudicating how these work - who wins! at what cost! - we will take into account a wide range of factors. Mechanics and rules - Quirks, Flaws, Skills, Ideals and Trope Cards - factor into our determinations, but a good plan can also be useful to use your abilities effectively or deploy them in innovative ways. If you use your Skills, abilities and advantages in particularly devious ways, you might be able to defeat a more powerful opponent; if you don't have much of a plan, or weren't planning for a particular challenge, this might mean that your abilities are less effective.

No matter what happens, a key principle that we will abide by for writing turn sheets is that both winning and losing should be fun. What does this mean?

• That winning should be fun is obvious. You get the satisfaction of seeing your plan work perfectly, advantages over your rivals or see your personal goals and agenda advanced. At the same time, we don't want to give you simple 'you succeed at doing this thing!' outcomes; instead, successes will typically raise interesting new problems or opportunities for you, or give you information that you may wish to share with people in session.

• At the same time, we also want losing to be fun, if not more so. We will endeavour to write turnsheets so that losses raise fun issues to deal with in game. Defeated characters may gain new insights into how the setting works or the strategies of a foe; they may incur strange and exotic wounds that you may enjoy physrepping in session; they will at least get a fun or entertaining writeup. Our pledge to you is that we won't write turnsheets that just say 'you fail to achieve your goal' - there will always be interesting things to deal with. In turn, we hope that this will encourage players to not be afraid to fail, or to make their characters vulnerable - that's how the best stories are made. And stories are what Work In Progress is about.

While much of Work In Progress deals with Player versus Environment conflicts, we expect that Player versus Player action will play a major role as Muses duel over their visions of the world, fight aesthetic rivals or pursue their own labyrinthine personal vendettas.

When we talk about PvP we're not just talking about Muses wielding Ideals and Trope Cards against each other in spectacular arcane duels - we're also talking about sabotage, subversion, dirty tricks and political skirmishes against each other. Where one player is trying to get one over on another, it's PvP. Indeed, particularly during the first half of the game, we expect this kind of subtle PvP to be much more prevalent in the game (though we're not ruling anything out!).

While PvP is nothing new to most roleplayers, we want to make sure that all players approach it in the right spirit in order to create a narratively satisfying, OC fun, generally positive game experience.

By the essential nature of PvP action, there will usually be a 'winner' and a 'loser' - that's just how things go! We ask that though players may portray characters as sanctimoniously or bitterly as they want while in character (and do in fact encourage it!), all players are gracious about the victories and defeats of their characters in equal measure when out of character.

As discussed above, we will work to ensure that PvP is interesting and fun. Even if PvP action results in mechanical losses, with characters experiencing great loss or suffering, we hope that their players will take these outcomes gracefully out of character.

Remember, it is the character that lost, not the player.