7.1 Basics

Most conflicts have goals. They are things that can be achieved aside from just beating the crap out of the other people involved. There can be just one or multiple goals, depending on the situation. You should write down the goal somewhere where it’s visible to all of the players; index cards for each goal or a central sheet of paper listing all goals both work.

Most goals are determinative: once the goal is achieved by someone, its outcome cannot be altered anymore during the conflict. Exceptions to this need to be specifically noted. An example of an exception is the disarming of a Soulbound Weapon: the weapon can be recovered through a new goal, then disarmed again, and so on. For more, see the section on chained goals below.

In general, a goal that is not achieved means that the status quo remains in place. If the goal was to rescue someone, and no one achieved it, that person is still captive. The GM rules after the conflict whether unresolved goals can still be achieved (maybe in a follow-up character scene) or, if not, how they turned out. The only way for players to determine the outcome is to achieve the goal before defeating the adversity (or being defeated).

Difficulty

Goals have a difficulty rating associated with them that indicates how hard it is to achieve the goal. A player who wants to determine the outcome of the goal has to roll more successes with an achievement (see Achievements in the Conflicts chapter) than the difficulty rating.
An example of a goal would be:

Determine Possession of the Gem [5]

This goal refers to a gem in the scene that either the players or their opponents want to grab; it doesn’t matter which side currently has it.

The goal has a difficulty rating of 5. Whoever first manages to do score 6 or more successes with an achievement will determine whether the gem gets taken, and by whom (it doesn’t have to be the player’s character, nor does it have to be in her favor if the player prefers another outcome). After this has been determined, no one else can end up with the gem for this conflict. It might change hands during descriptions, if you like, but at the end of the conflict it ends up where the player who achieved the goal put it.

Weakening Adversity

If the opposition in a conflict is strong, you can have goals that allow the players to weaken the opposition in actual game-mechanical terms. This allows for tactical decisions as well as cool combat scenes and tactics like the ones you see in good anime shows.

For example: The GM’s adversity has a defense of 4, and she links some of those to conflict goals. They could be 1 goal that's harder to achieve:

Destroy Fortifications [5]: Adversity loses 2 points of defense

Or 2 goals that are easier to achieve:

Destroy East Fortification [3]: Adversity loses 1 point of defense

Destroy West Fortification [3]: Adversity loses 1 point of defense

You’ll find listings of the possible effects on the adversity in the Effects and Conditions section below.