Time Heroes - Fate Adaptation - Franchise Conflicts

Franchise Conflicts
In the course of a Time Heroes game, there is going to be plenty of conflict at the personal level. The good guys are going to fight the bad guys, head games will be played, information extracted. However, in Time Heroes, there is a type of conflict that will occur at a higher level: the Franchise Conflict.

At the end of each session, a Franchise Conflict test will be made by the players. Depending upon the era the game is set in, the conflict could take different forms. An example from each era might be:

Past - A rival group of knights begins performing acts in the name of the PCs group, working to destroy their good name with the peasantry.

Present - The characters' particular Time Heroes, Inc. franchise is attacked by a rival corporation in the media in an attempt to drive its stocks into the ground.

Future - An elite group of robowarriors is capturing members of the characters' rebel cell, as well as allies, getting information from them that gradually brings them closer and closer to the location of the rebel base.

During world creation, the players and GM need to decide on the type of conflict that will be occurring, at least initially. This will likely stem from the decision made regarding who or what the group is going after in the long term (not la Fey generally, but what big bad a particular arc revolves around). After that particular arc is resolved one way or another, the group will have to work to decide what form the Franchise Conflicts in the next arc of the story are going to take.

At the end of each session, the GM will roll for an attack against wish the Franchise will roll a defense. The total defense can be affected by three things:
1. At the GM's discretion, actions taken by the characters during the session may add a bonus to their defense roll (or the attack roll if they really bungled something at the wrong time).
2. Remaining Fate Points may be spent on the roll, one per character, to invoke character aspects they can rationalize applying to the attack.
3. The defense skill of the Franchise is added to the roll.

Franchise Defense - This is a skill that is carried only by a Franchise. New Franchises start as being relatively unknown and so the skill begins at 0. Each time the players reach a milestone in which they are allowed to increase a skill, the Franchise Defense increases by one point.

Franchise Consequences - When a Franchise fails at defending itself, it gains a consequence in the same way a character does. They are removed slightly different than character consequences, however. First, one consequence may be renamed at either a Significant or Major Milestone. To remove it completely a second Significant or Major Milestone must be reached. In essence, it takes two Significant or Major Milestones for a Franchise Consequence to heal entirely.

The players may affect the removal of the consequence. The GM may offer them a situation in which they can remove a consequence with only one relevant milestone. However, this will work similarly to a Compel. The situation will be one that inconveniences the characters and/or makes their lives in general more difficult. This could even be impetus for a session all on its own (perhaps investigating to find evidence that the rival corporation was lying the entire time).

At the moment, this is how I see the conflicts working. Is it a good plan? I don't know. I won't know until I get a chance to use it. However, like many of my other posts, it feels at the very least like a great starting point.

With that, I think I might actually be done with the basic adaptation of Time Heroes to Face Core. I'll write more posts if I come up with other things I need to touch on, but for now I think I'm going to move on to other subjects. I'm not sure what tomorrow's post will be about as of yet, but chances are it won't be Time Heroes of Fate-related (unless I need make another correction or something else DOES end up coming to mind).

I hope you've enjoyed reading this little design journal as much as I have writing it. I also hope you'll keep reading my blog and find more of interest as I move on to other RPG topics.