Adjudicating Actions

It's up to you whether someone's preparation is enough to let them Aid an ally. The preparation should be specific to the task at hand. Helping someone hold a lockpick steady might be enough preparation to Aid an attempt to Pick a Lock, but just saying you're going to “encourage” them wouldn't. Second, the character who's attempting to Aid needs to be in a proper position to help and able to convey any necessary information. Helping a character Climb a wall is pretty tough if the character a PC wishes to Aid is nowhere near them. Similarly, a character usually needs to be next to their ally or a foe to Aid the ally in attacking the foe. You'll also need to determine how long the preparation takes. Typically, a single action is sufficient to help with a task that's completed in a single round, but to help someone perform a long-term task, like research, the character must help until the task is finished.

The Ready activity lets the acting person choose the trigger for their readied action. However, you might need to put limits on what they can choose. Notably, the trigger must be something that happens in the game universe and is observable by the character, rather than a rules concept that doesn't exist in-world. For instance, if a player says, “I Ready to shoot my sonic rifle at her if she uses a concentrate action” or “I Ready to attack him if he has fewer than forty-seven Hit Points ,” find out what their character is trying to specifically observe. If they don't have a clear answer for that, they need to adjust their action.

The Seek action leaves it up to you how long a search should take. Use common sense. Most of the time, just trying to spot a creature hiding in a small area, or something else you could find with a simple Seek action rather than a longterm Search exploration activity, should default to a single action. The biggest distinction is whether something uses 3 actions or fewer—and can therefore be accomplished in a single turn—or requires significantly longer and can't be accomplished in an encounter at all. Consider whether it makes sense for the character to pull this off during the encounter or not, and whether that could be an interesting wrinkle in the story.

When someone tries to Sense the Motive of an NPC, you'll need to figure out how to convey the information they receive. It's best to try to convey this indirectly, such as by describing a lying target's body language, odd word choices, sweating, or other details rather than saying, “They aren't behaving normally.” However, sometimes dropping a punchy, “Oh, she is a hundred percent lying about this!” on a critical success can be satisfying. You also might need to determine when the situation changes enough for someone to try to Sense Motive again. Usually, this means either the behavior of the subject needs to change or the person attempting the check needs to receive new evidence that something is out of the ordinary. If another PC tries to Sense Motive, gets different information about the target, and shares it, that doesn't really count as new information for a PC who tried previously. Rather, it's up to the players to roleplay out any changes in their thinking as a result.

You'll often need to determine whether someone can Take Cover. They usually just need a large enough object to hide behind. Imagine the character crouching, and picture whether the object could almost entirely cover up their silhouette. Taking Cover might also require them to Drop Prone, such as if they want to hide under a table. Most of the time, you can let them combine these instead of using two separate actions.