Depending on what is going on, certain Areas convey opportunities and pitfalls to characters. A smoky bar scene with low lighting and overly loud jazz music might make it hard to chat, but easy to slip away from a tail. These circumstances may impose a Complication or grant a bonus to certain actions, and we denote these as Area Effects. Not every Area needs an Area Effect applied to it, but it’s useful to consider what Effects might apply when setting up a scene, and use those to describe the area as well as inform players as to what kinds of actions they may want to take while there.
Area Effect can apply to a single Area at a time, and Narrators should consider which ones make the most sense when crafting their scene.
Some Area Effects may be temporary, something the characters can interact with and change, and others are simply the nature of the space the characters are in. Characters may also be able to use powers to apply their own Area Effects, or remove certain ones from play, even if it isn’t normally temporary.
The following are examples of Area Effects and the Complication they impose on characters who are in them.