The term Automatic Actions refers to Actions that are resolved quickly without having to start a Hand and play cards. Sometimes during the game an Actor will state some simple intent, like, “I jump across the creek,” or “I throw my grappling hook and climb up the wall.” Keeping the game pace fast is most important, and unless the GM has some surprise planned that would warrant a Conflict, it is best to resolve these a Automatic Actions

For an Action to be resolved automatically, there must not be an opposing Actor who is trying to make the Action fail: dodging an attack, trying to hide, hacking the terminal, whatever. In both of the examples above, there are implicit Environmental Actors involved (the creek, and the wall), and their Actor Attributes set how difficult an Action involving them is to accomplish, but they are not sentient beings, and therefore have no Mind or Spirit Aspects, and therefore no thoughts or desires that could oppose the Actor, and therefore the Action to jump or climb is “Unopposed”.

A mini-Scene encompasses every Automatic Action, which means that when the Action concludes, successfully or not, the Scene is over and any Attribute Points bid on an Action immediately refresh. For this reason, all Actors involved in Automatic Action resolution are assumed to bid maximum (their TS) for the Action they are attempting, since there is no reason to budget AV points that will immediately refresh afterward.

Resolve Automatic Actions just like Action Cards played during a Hand, and compare one Actor's Bid to the other Actor's bid normally, but never actually play the cards and tokens on the table, instead, just say what your Actor does.

1. A PC Actor takes an Action, the Player says what they intend to do
2. The GM evaluates that Action and decides that it is Unopposed
3. The GM decides what Actor to use to set success difficulty. Usually the Target of the Action, like a creek or a wall in our above examples.
4. The GM consults the Stat Block of the other involved Actor (creek, wall, etc.), and picks the Attribute that best matches the difficulty of accomplishing whatever Action the PC Actor is taking, and informs the Player something like, “it's Difficulty 2.” See Attributes for a description of which Attributes to go with what type of Actions.
5. The Player responds with their Action and AV like, “my Agility is 3” (jumping the creek)
6. The GM confirms degree of success, like “great, you made it across, now what?” (Difficulty 2 < Agility 3 = Success)

Let's walk though our examples using the steps above:

Just like playing a Hand, the Margin between what one Actor bid, and what another Actor bid determines the degree of Success or Failure of an Action. Unsuccessful Actions result in Damage to the Actor who attempted them, but sometimes, success does not result in Damage to another Actor, but rather overcoming the obstacle it represents (like our creek and wall examples above).