| Level | Name |
|---|---|
| 0 | None |
| 1 | Lesser |
| 2 | Standard |
| 3 | Great |
| 4 | Extreme |
Peril, as seen on TV
Every player character has a current Peril rating. This is a general idea of how dangerous the situation you are in is. It doesn't just mean direct physical danger, it can include being caught and forced to flee, or have the con collapse.
Remember, this is a TV show, so this is an abstraction that is basically 'How high is the tension right now? How seriously is this scene being played, what does everyone, including the audience, understand the risks to be? How bad do they think failure will be?'. It isn't just the actual facts of the scene, something that might have been some calm and relaxed earlier might have ramped up narratively because other things have changed.
How it changes
If you're just roleplaying between jobs, your Peril is None. There's nothing plot-wise going on to fail at, and you're in no physical danger. You're likely not making any rolls at all, and if they are they're just for roleplay and have no real negative consequences. This is not really a rating, per se, it's just here for completeness.
When you're planning a job, before you've done anything that attracts attention, your Peril defaults to Lesser Peril. You might do something that messes things up, but it would be minor, and probably easily fixable. And you're still in no real physical danger, you can get Lesser Harm, but Lesser Harm doesn't really matter if you're not in the action, cause you can just take a second and fix it.
Note: While in Lesser Peril, you can figure out if you're going to succeed or fail before you fully commit to the action. So you first make the roll, see the results, and then choose to go ahead do it or not. Why would you still do it if you're going to fail? Because the consequences will likely be minor, and you can continue in that direction, likely now with a Standard Peril. Whereas if you choose not to proceed, you have to figure out a different direction to appoach the problem from.
Once the action phase starts, everyone moves to Standard Peril. That just is normal. Some physical danger, aka, Standard Harm, and a normal chance of screwing things up.
You can end up in Great Peril if rolls stop going your way. This is dangerous, it's possible to blow everything up and have to flee, and if you get injured it's Great Harm and bad enough to take you out of the scene and maybe the entire job, etc. The tension is high. Great Peril can be fun, for a second, and gives you XP, but try not to stay there.
You do not ever want to be at Extreme Peril, which is almost always immediate life-threatening peril, with possible Extreme Harm, aka, death. There are technically other sorts of Extreme Peril, perhaps you're about to go to jail forever or the Bad Guy definitively wins forever with no chance of recovery, but it's usually physical. It's unlikely for you to get here just failing rolls, the narrative has to take you here, and the GM should signpost the level of danger you're putting yourself in. Extreme Peril is not good, cannot recommend, zero stars.
Your Peril can change, both from good or bad rolls, or just narrative things.
It can vary
Usually, the entire team will be in the same Peril, but sometimes it might just be one scene, or even a single character.
Sometimes the GM will even end up treating certain things as very different Peril even with the same character. For example, if you'e trying to fistfight a guy on a 40 story high catwalk, the fight might be pretty Standard Peril and thus Standard Effect, but the 'fall off the catwalk' might be Extreme, as it would kill you. You are technically at Extreme Peril, or whatever the worst Peril is, even if the Harm for 'getting hit' is still Standard.