You’ve seen Bladerunner and this classic scene with Deckard and Paris? How would your game of choice describe this scene mechanically?
[EDITS IN PURPLE TO BETTER EXPLAIN SOME BITS]
[Damn @Ovinomancer I really like this look]
Torchbearer is my game at hand.
The GM describes the room and how everything is just a confusing menagerie of dolls and toys marching around and making noise.
The player describes their character searching cautiously around the room with their gun drawn, looking in the closet and through the sea of toys.
The GM decides that the player's description denotes a Scout test
[vs Pris' Nature]. They look at Pris' writeup and notes that her Nature descriptors are Dancing, Charming, and Accommodating. Pretending to be a doll to ambush someone doesn't really feel like it fits in to any of those descriptors, so they decide that her attempt is going to made at half her Nature, or 3 dice.
[If an NPC exists as anything more than a name and description in Torchbearer, the core of the character will be a single stat, Nature, and three descriptors describing said Nature.]
The player is rolling 4 dice! Their Scout is 3, their description denoted that they were cautious so they say that they're using their Cautious trait for another die.
[Traits are parts of the character that a player can call on for bonus OR penalty dice. Bonus dice help you accomplish the task at hand. Penalty dice help you rack up a resource called Checks that you can use while resting to do things like heal up.] There are no party members to help them (big mistake) and the player said that they had their gun drawn, but that that doesn't grant any additional dice towards "looking around".
[Aside from your skill, pretty much everything that could use help or hinder you either adds or subtracts a die.]
They roll. The GM rolls 2, 4, 4 and has two successes (a 4, 5, or 6 on a D6) The player rolls 1, 2, 3, 5 and has only 1 success.
This is a loss for the character, so the GM has two options. They can either declare that the character succeeds but gains a Condition (a binary hitpoint of sorts that denotes a penalty), or they can introduce a Twist (a new story element that causes new problems for the character).
The GM decides to introduce a twist. They describe how Deckard is prowling around the room, searching through the toys, and how he spots a life sized porcelain doll wrapped in a wedding veil. He's suspicious, but unsure of himself. He pulls the veil off over her face, gun drawn, but still not certain that what he's looking at isn't just a overgrown toy. It attacks, knocking him forcefully out of the room, leaving his gun spinning on the floor where he dropped it and the GM initiates a kill conflict.
[There are three ways to resolve problems in Torchbearer. If the GM thinks your idea is really clever, they tell you that it's a Good Idea, and it just happens without taking a turn, or you having to roll a die. If the GM thinks the possibility of you failing a task might introduce something interesting, they tell you to make a Test, a single die roll that eats up precious resources and might lead to failure. If the GM thinks that the problem is REALLY interesting and might involve lots of different skills to try and solve, say that your action triggers a Conflict, a mini-game series of tests that tells a story.]
The player and GM each figure out how many hitpoints they have for this conflict. Pris' character writeup notes that her Dancing Nature comes into play for Kill and Drive Off conflicts cause she has some kind of crazy, acrobatic, fighting style. Her hitpoints for the conflict are set at 6. The player does not have a static disposition and instead rolls their Fighter skill and a die for everyone helping, counts the successes and then adds their Health. They're rolling 4 dice and roll 0 successes but then add their static Health of 5.
[Hitpoints in Torchbearer are even further removed from the idea of damage, depending on what kind of Conflict you're involved in. In a fight to the death, they might represent your stamina; in an argument they might represent your cool and resolve; if you're trying to give a speech they represent how much control you have over your audience's attention.]
The player and GM then each state what weapon they're using for the round and then play three face down cards. The GM states that Pris will be using her bare hands, but that her writeup says that she can do that without an unarmed penalty. Deckard is not as lucky and will be suffering -1D on every roll till he can get his hands on a weapon.
[There are four possible broad Actions that you can take to try and describe what you're doing during a conflict: Attack, Defend, Feint, Maneuver. Depending on the type of conflict they can mean different things. In a fight, they are what they say on the tin. In a journey, an Attack might describe the group marching, trying to eat up miles between point A and point B. Defend might describe the group resting and breaking for camp.]
The GM and player then each flip over opposing pairs of face down cards and narrates what happens during the round.
The first pair is Defend vs Feint. The player doesn't even get an action and just falls prey to Pris' 6D Attack. She locks his head between her legs and rains a series of blows down on Deckard dealing 3 points of damage. Deckard only has 2 HPs left!
The second pair is Maneuver vs Maneuver. Both participants roll and describe an action based off the total number of successes they have. The GM gets 3 successes which translates into a -1D to their opponent's next action, and a +2D to their own next action. The player gets 5 successes (-1 cause they're unarmed), which they can use to rearm themselves! Pris theatrically hammers on Deckard's head, stuffs her fingers up his nose to weird him out (-1D), and then nonchalantly wanders across the room to line up for a super ninja flip attack (+2D). Deckard meanwhile scrambles across the floor on his hands and knees and grabs for his dropped PKD.
The third pair of cards are flipped and they're Attack vs Attack. Deckard, now rearmed will be rolling their Fighter skill plus the 2D granted by their weapon, but subtracting the -1D Pris gave them: 5 dice. Pris, flipping in from the other room will be rolling her Nature of 6 plus the additional 2 dice she got from the previous round's Maneuver: 8 dice. Things look dire for Deckard, so his player decides to "channel his Nature" spending one of Deckard's earned experience points to add his Nature of 4 as dice to his roll. Deckard is now rolling 9 dice.
[Experience points, once earned, sit around on the character sheet until spent on special abilities. Once SPENT, they count towards the character levelling up]
Pris somehow manages to whiff on every single die, and gets nothing above a 3; but she still has 6 HPs left, and Deckard hasn't even touched her yet. The player rolls for Deckard and gets 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6. Only four successes, but the player still has tricks up their sleeve! They can spend another one of their earned experience points and explode their 6s, rolling them again and adding to the overall pool! They roll and get two 4s, for a total of 6 successes, killing Pris mid flip and reducing her to a kicking tantrum in the corner.
The conflict is over, but compromises must be made. Pris is dead, there's no escaping that, but Deckard lost almost all his HPs which results in a major compromise. The player and GM agree that Deckard gaining the Injured condition is a good compromise, and the game moves on.
