4. Resolving and interpreting
The standard configuration
Regard's standard configuration lets you play immediately with six-sided dice.
The Focus places two possible outcomes in the balance. The Bets favoring each outcome are resolved on either side.
In the standard configuration:
- each retained Bet contributes one D6 on the side of the outcome it favors;
- each even result counts as a Success;
- each odd result produces no Success;
- the number of Successes obtained on each side is then compared.
This even / odd reading is Regard's standard Prism, also called the Indifferent Gaze. It reads uncertainty without inscribing any particular perspective into it: every die is treated in the same way. We use it here as the default answer for learning to play. Later we will see why this Prism is neither more “real” nor more fundamental than any other: it is a design zero point that fiction may keep or transform.
The roll and its reading through a Prism give each side reality's answer in a form the game can use. In the standard configuration, that answer is simply a number of Successes.
When several perspectives or Prisms contribute to the same outcome, their compatible outputs are brought together before comparison.
When the outcomes correspond to identifiable actors, the table can simply speak of sides. But the two sides do not always imply two opposed wills: a character crossing a storm may have Bets favoring the crossing while cold, wind, fatigue, and terrain favor the other outcome.
This operation turns uncertainty into two comparable answers, then into a fictional result.
Bets on each side → D6 → Prism → reality's answer → comparison → interpretation through the Bets
The standard result scale
Tie: Status quo or escalation
If both sides obtain the same number of Successes, neither outcome clearly prevails.
The standard result is a Status quo.
Depending on the fiction, it can be narrated as a literal continuation of the situation, a Yes, but... or a No, but....
If the actors involved refuse to leave it there, the standard configuration also allows escalation:
- keep the Bets already in play;
- each side that pushes the confrontation adds a Bet representing its determination to finish this;
- resolve again with those additional Bets.
Escalation makes mechanically present the fact that the sides choose to push a confrontation beyond a balance at which it could have stopped.
A game designed with Regard can choose another philosophy for ties. What matters is that it knows what a tie means in its own fiction.
Positive difference: Victory / Defeat
If the Bets favoring one outcome produce more Successes than those favoring the other, that outcome prevails in the fiction.
When the two outcomes correspond to sides, the winning side gains a Victory and the other side suffers a Defeat.
For the winning side's Intention, this usually reads as Yes.
For the losing side's Intention, this usually reads as No.
Dominance: amplifying the result
In the standard configuration, a result is dominated when both of the following conditions are met:
- the difference is strictly greater than 1 Success;
- the winning side obtains strictly more than twice as many Successes as the other.
Examples:
2–0→ dominated result;3–1→ dominated result;4–2→ simple Victory / Defeat;5–2→ dominated result;6–3→ simple Victory / Defeat.
Dominance expresses a strong asymmetry in the result, not merely a large absolute difference.
It opens the possibility of fictional amplification:
- the winning side may achieve an Exploit, read as Yes, and...;
- the losing side may suffer a Fiasco, read as No, and....
Exploit and Fiasco are not automatically symmetrical.
A spectacular success for one side does not necessarily turn the other side's failure into a catastrophe. Conversely, a Defeat may have particularly serious consequences without the victor accomplishing anything beyond their own Intention.
The two outcomes placed in the balance before the roll are therefore not an exhaustive catalogue of everything that can happen. They define what the resolution must decide. The And of an Exploit or Fiasco can introduce a consequence, discovery, transformation, or advantage that was not contained in the initial wording of either outcome.
Dominance indicates that amplification is available; the fiction determines what it adds to the established result.
Interpreting: the Bets return to the fiction
Bets do not merely produce the dice before the roll.
They also provide the material for interpretation after the roll.
Once the result is known, the table already has:
- the Intentions;
- the two outcomes placed in the balance by the Focus;
- the Focus and its Zoom;
- any important consequences that were announced;
- what mattered in the fiction;
- the form of the result produced by resolution.
There is therefore no need to invent an arbitrary consequence from an abstract number.
Imagine a mountain crossing in which the Bets are:
- the driving rain;
- the fear that the pursuers will arrive;
- the character's experience with mountain passes;
- their companion's trust.
On a Defeat, the rain may make the pass impassable, urgency may cause a bad decision, experience may prevent a worse consequence, or the companion may stay behind so the others can continue.
The dice and Prisms give reality's answer to what was put in the balance.
The Bets give the table the material through which that answer becomes fiction.
The words Yes, No, And, and But are a practical vocabulary for interpretation. They are not mechanics unique to Regard.
When resolution writes on the character sheet
A lasting consequence can add, transform, or remove an element of the sheet when the fiction justifies it.
For example:
- Injured leg may appear after a serious fall;
- Companion's trust may become Companion's mistrust;
- an oath may be broken or replaced;
- a reputation may be earned;
- an object, symbol, or mark may be lost;
- a new element may appear as a consequence of an And or a But.
The sheet therefore does not merely recall what could matter before the roll.
It can also preserve what resolution has changed.
This writing does not need to be systematic. Many consequences remain local to the scene or the world.
But when a change becomes lasting and is now part of what the character is, owns, believes, suffers, or represents, the sheet can become its memory.
The full loop then becomes:
fiction / sheet → Intention → Focus / Zoom → outcomes in the balance → Bets → resolution → form of the result → interpretation → transformed fiction / sheet