Rolls

The gamemaster will call for a roll to see if you overcome certain challenges. Each roll has a difficulty and a type, set by the GM. The difficulty of the roll is given as a dice size, with larger dice representing greater difficult. The type of roll will be an ability or personal value, which determine the target number (TN) for the roll. Your tools, backgrounds, bonds and especially your approach to solving the problem, will all improve the results of roll. Finally, you will roll the dice to determine how well you do.

Roll Difficulty

The GM will assign each roll a a dice size based on the task’s difficulty. The dice size is determined by considering how easy the task would be for a normal person under normal circumstances. The dice size doesn’t depend on your proficiency at the task, the tools you use, or unusual circumstances; those are represented as bonuses or penalties to the roll. The GM may decide that some rolls are impossible unless you have the right training or tools. If you have no way of knowing the difficult of the roll before hand, the GM might not tell you what size dice you will roll until you commit to making the roll.

Opposed Rolls

When another character would oppose your roll, then the GM will decide which of their abilities or personal values would pose the greatest challenge to you. That is used to set the difficulty of the roll, according to the table below. If your adversary has training that would help them oppose you, then the TN of your roll is penalized by -2.

Target Number

The target number, or TN, of a roll is based on the roll’s type. For example, if the GM asks for a brawn roll, and your brawn is 3, then 3 is the TN for the roll. The higher your TN is, the better your odds of success. If you have any backgrounds that will help with the roll, then each increases the roll’s TN by +2.
The tools you use can also give you a bonus to your TN. If you have a tool that is well suited for the task - beyond the bare minimum needed to attempt it - you gain a +1 bonus to your TN. If it is precisely the right tool for the job, it gives you a +2 instead. The GM might also determine that a particularly bad tool imposes a -1 penalty to your TN.

Roll Results

Roll two dice of the size set by the GM to determine the outcome of a roll. For each of the dice that comes up less than or equal to your TN, you earn one success! Count up the number of successes; each one improves the result of the roll.

• If zero dice succeed, then the roll is a failure. Not only have you failed to accomplish your goal, but you also suffer a setback determined by the GM.

• If your earn exactly one success, then you have achieved a mixed result. You might accomplish your goal, but suffer a setback. You might fail at your main goal, but achieve something else of value. Or you might simply make no progress and be forced to try again.

• If at least two dice succeed, you have accomplished you goal! Things have gone as you planned.

• If a boon gives you three or more dice, then the third successful die and each one after that earns you a critical effect! The GM will describe the extraordinary effect your roll has earned. When your enemies’ rolls earn critical effects, they will cause you to suffer setbacks.

Setbacks

A setback resulting from a failure, mixed result, or enemy critical will cause a problem for you. The consequences will be relevant to what you were attempting and what stakes had been set. Some example setbacks might involve:

• You or an ally involved suffer stress, usually 1-3.

• You attract unwanted attention or waste time, generating a point of doom.

• You suffer a condition determined by the GM.

• Some of your resources or equipment become lost or damaged.

• You lose your window of opportunity.

Critical Effects

You roll earns a critical effect for the third die that succeeds against the roll’s TN, and each successful die after that. Notice that it is normally only possible to earn critical effects if your roll has a boon, so seek out such advantages whenever you can! Another way to earn critical effects is when defeating your enemies. Each of your dice that you didn’t use to defeat an enemy earns you a critical effect, regardless of what those dice rolled.
When you earn a critical effect, the GM will determine a positive outcome above and beyond normal success. Truly extraordinary critical effects can even be the stuff that legends are made of.

Total

When your goal might take more than one roll to finish, the GM will consider the total of all the dice added together. Add your ability or value, as well as any relevant training or tool, to the total of the roll. The GM will use this total to determine the amount of progress you make toward your goal, such as the amount of damage done by your attack’s yield, or how far you can move in one round. Notice that rolling lower on a die is more likely to avoid setbacks, but rolling higher will get you more progress. You can do something carefully, or do it quickly, but not both at once.

Boons & Banes

Boons and banes represent your character’s bonds, features of the game world, or the actions of other characters that help or hinder a roll. The GM will also award you a boon if you come up with a very clever plan, or impose a bane if you plan has a major flaw. For each boon that you’ve earned, roll one additional die of the same size as the rest of the dice in the roll. It counts just like the other dice for determining the success of the roll and the roll’s total. Furthermore, if three or more dice succeed, then the roll is a critical success! Not only has the roll succeeded, your roll has earned a critical effect that the GM will describe.

Each bane that you suffer takes away one of your dice for the roll. A roll with only one bane forces you to roll one one die, and a roll with two banes takes away both your dice, making failure inevitable! Each bane cancels out with one boon your roll has, and vice-versa.

Push Your Luck

By throwing caution to the wind and fulling committing to your plan, you can push your luck! This gives your roll a boon, but imposes a -2 penalty to the roll’s TN. Failure becomes more likely and a normal success less likely, but the total of your roll increases and a critical effect becomes possible. Pushing your luck is most useful when your TN is already high. You can only push your luck once per roll, and you can’t push your luck on a yielded attack roll.

Play it Safe

By executing your plan slowly and methodically, you can play it safe on your roll. This gives you a +2 bonus to the roll’s TN, but imposes a bane on the roll. Complete success becomes impossible without help, but the chances of total failure diminish, likely resulting a mixed success. Playing it safe is most useful when your TN for the roll is low. You can only play it safe once per roll, and you can’t play it safe on a yield roll.

Group Rolls

Sometimes, you and your allies will make one roll that represents your success as a group. If the task is one where having multiple people is helpful, like searching a room, then you can use the highest TN of anyone in your group to determine your success. However, if having multiple people might hinder the task, like sneaking around, use the lowest TN of anyone in the group.

If any character participating in the roll has relevant tools, backgrounds, or bonds, you can add those to the highest or lowest ability or personal of anyone in the group to determine your group’s total TN and boons. As normal, multiple background or bonds can all contribute to your sucess.

Once you’ve determined the TN and any boons or banes, make one roll using these numbers to determine the outcome for your entire group.