When you push your luck in a risky situation, say what you want to do and roll with Passion. On a hit, you do it, but it costs you to scrape by; the GM tells you what it costs you. On a 10+, your boldness pays off despite the cost; the GM tells you what other lucky opportunity falls in your lap.
Swimming through rapids after a pirate ship, convincing someone you weren’t stealing from them after being caught red-handed, leaping to catch a priceless artifact before it shatters on the floor while your hands and feet are bound—any time you rely on fate and luck to carry you through instead of skills or training, you’re pushing your luck. If you’re attempting something complicated or risky outside the scope of your training (bending, weapons, or technology), or one of your backgrounds, you trigger this move. A character who’s never sailed before has to push their luck to steer a boat through a heavy storm, while a PC who served on a pirate ship’s crew could
to do the same thing.This acts as a catch-all move for doing anything risky that doesn’t neatly translate to any of the other basic moves. If the outcome of your dangerous action is uncertain or you’re relying on fortune itself to carry you through a risky action, you need to push your luck. The stakes don’t have to be incredibly high for you to make this move—there just has to be interesting uncertainty about outcomes!
In some cases, you might try to do something simply beyond both your skills and training, or you might be hoping for a lucky break. The GM may either say you outright can’t do that given the circumstances or just tell you what happens when you try.
Options for Pushing Your Luck
When you roll a hit to push your luck, you always pay a cost for your audacity. The exact cost of succeeding by the skin of your teeth is the GM’s call, and it depends on the situation. The most common cost is marking one or more fatigue or a condition (mostly for physical actions), but costs can include anything: using up supplies, shifting your balance, or more abstract costs. You might claw your way out of a quick-flowing river but ruin your rations or lose a personal item in the water. You might survive a tense social situation with your lies intact, but lose the trust of an involved NPC or expose others to danger.
Despite the cost, pushing your luck can pay off in the form of an unforeseen opportunity when you roll a 10+. This opportunity is either caused by your boldness or you noticing something in the process of pushing your luck. As such, it’s usually a time-sensitive opening that must be capitalized on quickly (by you or your companions). The GM describes the opportunity. Remember that getting the opportunity never means that you avoid paying the cost inherent in the move—you always pay a cost when you push your luck!
Kirilaq the Rogue is in a bit of a sticky situation and wants to escape. She’s currently locked in a tower overlooking the sea below, awaiting the return of the local tyrannical Earth Kingdom governor, who will not look fondly upon her. “Okay…but I have a window, right?” asks Kayla, Kirilaq’s player. The GM nods.
“Then…I dive out the window to the sea below! They didn’t know I was a Waterbender when they locked me in here, did they? Yeah, it’ll be perfect! I’ll just waterbend the sea to catch me! So that’s
, right?”“Hold on,” says the GM. “You are very, very, very high. Sure, you can try this—your waterbending abilities give you the slimmest of chances. But it’s definitely pushing your luck, not relying on your skills and training.”
Kayla decides to do it anyway, and rolls. She gets an 11! “Okay, so the cost you pay is that this still hurts a bunch, like getting punched in your whole body at once as you hit the water. Mark 3-fatigue. But the opportunity—as you fall, you see a boat out there. You’re certain it’s not flying Earth Kingdom colors, but you’re not certain of much else. If you want, you can use your momentum to bend yourself in an arc through the water and fly up onto the deck of the ship. That’ll only cost 1-fatigue more. So, what do you do?”
Ren Tsuji the Prodigy has wound up in the cockpit of a hummingbird mecha suit, trying to flee from a squadron of biplanes flown by Triad members! “I gun it!” shouts Ruhan, Ren’s player.
“Hold up,” says the GM. “No way you know how to fly this thing. You’re a master martial artist, the greatest archer in the world and deadly with any weapon invented…but you’re not at all trained in Technology, are you?” Ruhan shakes their head. “That’s what I thought. This is pushing your luck, my friend.”
Ruhan rolls and gets a 9. “Excellent,” says the GM. “So you blast through the air, doing your best to make this thing fly and dodge at the same time—and it works! But not before the mech takes a few hits from the biplanes’ new lightning guns. You pull away from the other biplanes, which turn back to the city as you hurtle into the mountains…where you are DEFINITELY going to crash.”