Chapter Five: Gamemaster Options a single concise and clear sentence that makes a positive claim This is what the player would like and it is specifically what is being debated A Declaration of Intent could be as simple as “The party will go to the village to save the magistrate.” Other examples of good Intents are “You will give us enough guards to defend the inn from the orc attack” or “I wish to possess the longsword +2 we just found.” Each of these statements are clear, precise, and easily understood An example of a badly worded Intent might be “The party will go to the village, drink at the inn all night, and then visit my mother, then question the guards, then fight some orcs, and then rescue the magistrate.” This would be a badly worded Intent as even though it is a clear plan, it is excessively wordy Another poorly worded Intent might be “I get to have the stuff.” This Intent is too open-ended as it is not clear what “stuff” the character actually wants nor how long the player’s call of “dibs” would last After the Intent is decided on, both parties must write down the exact words of the Intent and place it face up on the table This way everyone is clear about what is at stake Both parties must then agree to the stakes involved If the stakes are not agreed to the parties may revise their Intents until they are agreeable A side cannot be forced to take part of a War of Words if they not wish to Phase Two: Determination of Resolve & Wit Points Every participant in a debate or argument has only a limited amount ability to argue their side They also have a limited amount of patience and self-assurance to defend these convictions before they are mentally drained In a War of Words this is represented by a character’s Resolve Points Resolve Points are used to measure how strong an argument is as well as the mental constitution of the character defending the argument Once these points reach zero or lower, either the argument is discredited or the character runs out of the will to defend it In either case, losing your Resolve Points in a War of Words is the path to losing the Intent you are fighting for An argument’s Resolve Points are determined by a character’s mental stats Use the following equation to calculate and argument’s Resolve Points RP = + Wisdom bonus + Intelligence Bonus + Charisma Bonus Both sides also receive a number of Wit Points in a Wit Point Pool based upon their level Wit Points represent the character ability to think on their feet and outmaneuver their opponent The Wit Points they roll is the total numbe of Wit Points they may spend over the course of the entire War of Words encounter The side spending Wit Points can choose to add a bonus equal to the number of Wit Points spent to either their skill roll used to determine the effectiveness of their chosen tactic, or the difficulty of their opponents skill roll The points must be spent before any dice are rolled in that particular bout and the bonus only lasts for the bout in which the points are spent Character level 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 Available Wit Points +1d2 +1d4 +1d6 +2d4 Phase Three: The Debate The debate is the phase of a War of Words where the action really takes place, now that the states are agreed to and the strength of the argument has been determined, it’s time for the two sides to see who is the better The Debate Phase is divided into four stages: Tactic Choice, Tactic Reveal, Speech, and Tactic Resolution These stages are repeated until at least one side has or fewer Resolve Points Stage One: Tactic Choice At this stage, both sides will decide what tactic they wish to use This tactic is written down in secret on a piece of paper or a note card There are nine different tactics which may be chosen Each tactic uses a different skill and has a different difficulty depending upon the tactic their opponent has decided to use Each tactic also provides a different amount of defense as well as being able to a different range of damage to their opponents argument The choosing of which tactic to use is very strategic For Example, if you know that your opponent does not have a very high bluff skill, the chance of success may be high if you choose to use the Dialectics tactic even though your Interrogate skill might not be as high as your other skills If you have a healthy reserve of Resolve Points and your opponent’s are close to 0, you might choose to use a tactic which may more damage to your opponent’s argument but provides less of a defense in the hopes of defeating your opponent quickly Each tactic has five different components that determine how the tactic is used in a War of Wits 59