In the Final Hour of a Storied Age playtest I've been running with Lance Allen and Lenny Balsera (audio recordings here and here, text AP reports here and here), Lenny suggested that it would be a useful design exercise for me to write out the procedures as explicitly as possible, including who is supposed to talk and what they're supposed to say, as a step toward improving the way I communicate the procedures in the rules. The part I'm talking about is the "Playing out a Chapter" section of the rules, from pages 20 to 23 in rev 0.61 of the rules. I'd appreciate feedback and questions, both about the procedures themselves and my explanations thereof, since it's hard for me (as someone who knows how it's supposed to work) to evaluate whether or not I'm communicating clearly.

For the purposes of this exercise, assume these game terms are well defined: spotlight player, adversity player, story die, action die, tax. The bolded text are steps in the procedure where what the players say is important to the mechanics and/or fiction.

1. The spotlight player sets a location for the chapter to begin
2. Neither player has any active traits, no characters are officially "in the chapter" yet
3. Begin "an exchange"
   1. The adversity player must "present adversity"
      1. The adversity player looks at his pool of active traits and decides which trait(s) he wants to use as adversity, either because he has a good idea of how to talk about them or because he wants to roll those particular dice
      2. If the adversity player wants more active traits in his pool he can spend story dice
         • If you have no active traits you must get some. If you can't get any then the chapter ends and you lose the chapter. The winner of the chapter narrates the conclusion
         • Spending a story die showing 1-9 lets you activate a passive environmental threat (a d4 trait) or one trait from a character
         • Spending a story die showing 10-14 lets you activate an active environmental threat (a d6 trait) or two traits of a character
         • Spending a story die showing 15-20 lets you activate four traits of a character
         • If you use a story die to activate character traits and if it is the first time the character has been used mechanically in the chapter, check to see if taxes apply
           • Discuss the appropriate level of tax with the group
         • Make it clear to the group which traits you are activating
      3. The adversity player describes situations or describes characters taking action that make it difficult for the spotlight character to achieve their overall plot goal -- this is adversity that the spotlight character must overcome. These descriptions should be strongly linked to which traits are being rolled for in the exchange.
         • Make it clear which traits you are using will contribute action dice to the exchange
   2. The spotlight player must respond to the adversity
      1. The spotlight player looks at his pool of active traits and decides which trait(s) he wants to use to respond to the adversity, either because he has a good idea of how to talk about them or because he wants to roll those particular dice
      2. If the spotlight player wants more traits to choose from he can spend story dice
         • If you have no active traits you must get some. If you can't get any then the chapter ends and you lose the chapter. The winner of the chapter narrates the conclusion
         • Spending a story die showing numbers from 1-9 lets you activate one character trait
         • Spending a story die showing numbers from 10-14 lets you activate two character traits
         • Spending a story die showing numbers from 15-20 lets you activate four character traits
         • If you use a story die to activate character traits and it's the first time the character is used mechanically in the chapter, check to see if taxes apply.
           • Discuss the appropriate level of tax with the group
         • Make it clear to the group which traits you are activating
      3. The spotlight player describes character actions (or perhaps thoughts or attitudes that would directly lead to action) that would help them overcome the adversity they face.
         • Make it clear to the group which traits are mechanically contributing dice to the exchange and the corresponding die sizes
   3. Both players roll their action dice
   4. Check for exhaustion: If any of the action dice rolled came up less-than-or-equal to the current exchange number then every trait that the player rolled is exhausted (i.e. no longer active)
   5. Whichever player has the highest number showing wins the exchange
      1. The winner can "bump" the die size of one active trait by one die size level, either increasing one of his own or reducing the size of one of his opponent's
         • If it isn't possible to bump a trait (either because of a lack of active traits or because the traits which are active are already maxxed/minned out) then the player gets one bonus point
      2. The winner narrates the result of the exchange, improving his position relative to his opponent but limiting the narration to not undercut any traits that his opponent still has active. Although it's not required, you can use the information about which traits were exhausted and which trait's die size was adjusted to guide the narration.
4. Start a new exchange

I appreciate feedback about whether the procedures make sense, if I'm making assumptions without stating them, if the written rules text seems to deviate from the procedure I'm describing here, etc. Hopefully Lance and Lenny will chime in, too, since they've been playing the game. (Sorry if the formatting is hard to read...)

Posted By: jprussellDo you roll story dice then and there, or are they sitting on the table already rolled? Or is that a totally different procedure from what you're discussing here?

They're sitting on the table. That's covered in an earlier section of the rules than the one I'm focusing on in this thread.

Dan,
I was able to follow it no problem.
I think the only confusion is on the dice naming. Maybe you can rename Story Dice to Help Dice or Kept Dice or Saved Dice. Something that tells you right in the name what you do with them?
Dave M