Other than players not being a ****, is there any mechanical reason why a PC can't use Assess the Situation outside of combat to regain Fatigue and Stress. The Action Card seems built for in-combat use only, trading not taking an attack with recovery. However, outside of combat it seems that its use would be unlimited.

If it is somehow only limited to encounters, could it be used in social encounters? Seems like an excuse for a combat PC to sit back and regenerate that Fatigue and Stress.

The rules for Fatigue and Stress say that after an episode or encounter, PCs recover Stress = WP and Fatigue = Toughness. Also a night's rest recovers the same. If, after recovery a PC has Fatigue or Stress tokens, they remain until after a new encounter or they get more rest. This would imply that PCs can't just use Assess the Situation over and over again in story mode until fully recovered.

Now look at the Assess the Situation card. In addition to recovering 1 Stress and 1 Fatigue, it adds a misfortune die to any Ranged or Melee attack targeting you until the beginning of your next turn. In story mode, the concept of turns has no meaning. Banes and boons add or remove recharge tokens. Again, outside of encounter mode, recharging actions has no meaning. By default, I feel that all actions are intended for use during encounter mode only. In story mode, play is narrative rather than governed by the strict one action per turn mechanics of encounter mode.

In a social encounter, I would ask the player to justify why he needs to take this defensive action. Does an NPC appear to be threatening to attack? If the player insists on using this action, then there will be negative consequences. The NPC doesn't like the way the character is looking him over and his disposition changes. This could translate into additional misfortune dice for the rest of the party's actions that round or if a progress tracker is being used, maybe it moves the NPC an extra space in whatever direction is unfavorable for the party. If the player insisted on doing this a second time rather than contributing to the encounter in a more constructive fashion, the NPC, feeling threatened, would lash out at the guilty character, in effect switching the encounter from a social one to a combat encounter. Hey, at least the PC that was busy Assessing the Situation would now get the benefit of his action when the NPC attacks him. It would also have a negative effect on the party tension meter since I presume the rest of the party wasn't looking to start a fight.

mac40k said:

Nice I like this line of thought quite a bit.

I had the same question after our test run. Thanks for the thoughtful explanation mac40k