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Flashbacks

The rules don’t distinguish between actions performed in the present moment and those performed in the past. When an operation is underway, you can invoke a flashback to roll for an action in the past that impacts your current situation. Maybe you convinced an archivist to let you borrow some maps from their collection, so you make a Sway roll to see how that went.

The GM sets a stress cost when you activate a flashback action.

  • 0 Stress: An ordinary action for which you had easy opportunity.
  • 1 Stress: A complex action or unlikely opportunity.
  • 2 (or more) Stress: An elaborate action that involved special opportunities or contingencies

After the stress cost is paid, a flashback action is handled just like any other action. Sometimes it will entail an action roll, because there’s some danger or trouble involved. Sometimes a flashback will entail a fortune roll, because we just need to find out how well (or how much, or how long, etc.). Sometimes a flashback won’t call for a roll at all because you can just pay the stress and it’s accomplished.

If a flashback involves a downtime activity, pay 1 coin or 1 rep for it, instead of stress.

One of the best uses for a flashback is when the engagement roll goes badly. After the GM describes the trouble you’re in, you can call for a flashback to a special preparation you made, “just in case” something like this happened. This way, your “flashback planning” will be focused on the problems that do happen, not the problems that might happen.

Limits of Flashbacks​

A flashback isn’t time travel. It can’t “undo” something that just occurred in the present moment. For instance, if a Vampire attacks you when you’re at the Lady’s party, you can’t call for a flashback to assassinate the Vampire the night before. She’s here now, threatening you—that’s established in the fiction. You can call for a flashback to show that you intentionally lured the Vampire so she would attack you at the party—so you could use that opportunity to impress the Lady with your aplomb and daring.