Stating Intent - LunarNeil/Call-of-Cthulhu-Campaign GitHub Wiki

The most important thing a player does during conflict resolution is formulating their Investigator's Intent, which a combination of what they are doing and what they want to have happen. In a more technical sense, it is a precise statement that allows for a single contest roll to resolve both Actions and Results, and it gives the player an opportunity to elaborate on the contest, adding their own creativity and personality. Stating your Intent is simple, and similar to the kinds of descriptions used outside of conflict resolution.

One good example of a detailed Intent would be:

"I'll turn the corner, my head down and body low to hug cover, swinging my arms up and taking a second of aim before firing dead center on the Cultist with the dynamite vest--knocking them backwards and off the roof, down thirty feet to the cobblestones below."

But if you wish to wait before acting, or "hold" an action until an enemy moves, or otherwise leave room for reactions and improvisation, you can also craft an Intent that does that. Building flexibility into an Intent allows you more wiggle room in the execution phase, but it comes at the cost of narrative Priority during the initiation phase. Priority can be thought of as the "who wants it more" of a contest, and in general, the less flexible and the more single-minded an Intent is, the more they want it.

One good example of a flexible Intent would be:

"I'm going to wait a second before popping my head up, just to make sure nobody is shooting at me first, and then I'll look around and see if I can shoot any Cultists with those dynamite vests. If I can I'd like to shoot them in the hand, making them unable to flip the switch, but I won't hesitate to blast them right in the chest if that's what it takes."

As mentioned in the section on Contested Actions, when an Investigator and an Enemy are in conflict, it is the Investigator who is the important "actor" in that contest, and so Investigators have Priority over Enemies when everything else is equal. However, it is possible for an Investigator's Intent to succeed without invalidating an Enemy's Intent. If an Investigator's Intent is to kick a Cultist through a window, and the Cultist's Intent is to activate his dynamite vest, both can happen. The real question, the sort of thing that makes crafting an Intent so exciting, is which happens first.