How do I know when I've failed/succeeded?

[BMunchausen]

Hi all,

 

I'm new to this kind of game I admit, but I find I'm totally lost when it comes to gameplay. I watched the tutorial and I've played a lot of RPGs so I get the concept of abilities and attributes and such, but when I get to the map, I don't understand at all what I'm doing.

 

I click on things like, "go dancing at the Cotton Club" and then I get the card screen with the inspirations on it - I guess I'm supposed to swap the three cards I'm given with three less appropriate ones at the top? I do that, hit Done, and then...nothing happens. Is that the extent of attempting an Action? It seems like there should be some kind of positive or negative feedback that tells me whether or not I got past it.

 

Can anyone clarify this for me? It would be much appreciated.

[Legate of Mineta]

Herr Munchausen;

 

Sure- on the Maps, there are 4 basic kinds of actions to take.

 

(1) The first is to build your Skills. You'll want to be doing that so you can get better Inspirations- every 10 levels of a Skill gives you access to a better Inspiration, which leads us to...

 

(2) Actions which give you Inspirations (that's the kind you are asking about)- you collect Inspirations so you can pass Obstacles.

 

(3) Speaking of Obstacles, the third kind of Action are Capers- these are the Stories you can take Sadie on, and you'll need the aforementioned Inspirations to succeed at them (these are indicated by a character face icon next to action name). When you mouse over a Caper on the Map, you can see a list of the Obstacles in that Caper, along with the Skills those Obstacles test. What you'll want to do is pick up Inspirations which offer bonuses to those Skills, so you can more easily succeed at the Obstacles.

 

As an example, if you see a Caper that requires Perception, you might want to Train your Perception several Levels, and then pick up a few Inspirations related to that Skill to maximize your chance to succeed.

 

(4) Finally, there are Actions which reduce Stress. You'll probably want to have your Stress at 0, if you can help it, before you go on a Caper. There's usually one on each map indicated by a purple icon.

 

Does this help?

[Adrian]

It should perhaps be said that you cannot fail any action save for the obstacles, and you will know if you failed them if you didn't gather the necessary points.

[Legate of Mineta]

Ah, good point!