18 Attention

18. Attention

Attention represents how much the world is actively watching the players.

Attention is awareness. It becomes dangerous when the world has time to respond.

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18.1 The Attention Pool

Attention is tracked as a shared pool for the party.

• no fixed maximum • each gain adds one marker • it manifests locally through Locations and Factions

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18.2 Gaining Attention

Gain Attention when the party: • uses violence publicly • wins Defense Scenes loudly • accumulates visible wealth • interferes with factions • repeats patterns in one region • suffers Catastrophe-tier Fate results (Section 2) • triggers certain Exposure/world effects (Sections 14 and 17)

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18.3 When the World Spends Attention

The world checks to spend Attention at World Response Triggers (Section 14.5), including: • end of a Cycle • after a major failure • after a loud Scene ends • when Doom advances (Section 19)

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18.4 Thresholds (Suggested)

When the world spends Attention, resolve one reaction based on the highest threshold crossed:

• 3 — Minor Reaction • 6 — Major Reaction • 9+ — Advances Doom (Section 19)

After resolving: • reduce Attention by the amount spent

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18.5 Design Intent

Attention ensures: • success creates visibility • repetition creates patterns • loud victories are dangerous • consequences arrive on world time

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18.6 Example

For practical examples, see Appendix A (e.g., Ready to use examples.md). A brief illustration:

The characters successfully defended a settlement but used loud explosives, triggering a World Response check. They accumulated 4 Attention during the Scene. Since they crossed the 3 threshold, the World spends 3 Attention to trigger a Minor Reaction (e.g., a scouting party is drawn near).