Check Difficulty and Results

When a roll occurs, the GM must decide a difficulty for the action. This value can be either secret or known, but will guide the final result of the roll. The following chart gives a basic outline of the difficulty values and the contexts that justify them.

Once a roll has been made against the difficulty, the outcome can be determined. On an exact match, the player has barely succeeded. If the check is not met, the player has failed to complete the action. If the player fails by more 5, there may be some consequences. Likewise, if the player succeeds by 5 or more, the action is especially successful. They may find themself with strategic advantage, gaining more than expected, or break no sweat in the process. A ±5 result additionally grants the player a help die.

In addition to helping via a help die, player characters may also assist in a task in such a manner that the relative difficulty of the check is reduced, where the narrative supports it. This is not a strictly structured mechanic and is up to the decisions of the group and game mediator. For instance, a player character who is attempting to intimidate a bouncer at a nightclub and is performing this action alone. The GM decides the difficulty for this action is above-average, and must exceed a check value of 12. However, through the course of roleplay the other characters within the group have decided that attempting to intimidate an individual whose entire job is intimidation is more likely to succeed when bringing more force to bear, and send one of the other characters to back the original up. With a force multiplier present, the difficulty for this check has reduced from a 12 down to an 8. Additionally, this check may be performed as a group check involving the two characters now interacting with the bouncer. In such a case, regardless of the success or failure, the characters involved should be awarded a help die each to reward their act of teamwork.

Advantage and Disadvantage

At times, a character may find themself in a position of great situational strength or weakness. In these circumstances, the player may be asked to roll with advantage or disadvantage, respectively. On advantage, the player rolls their stat die twice, discarding the lowest result. On disadvantage, the discard the higher result. When rolling with advantage or disadvantage, die explosions can still occur. When it does, the exploded die or dice continue(s) to roll until it lands on a value less than the die's max face value. For instance, when rolling with disadvantage:

The player rolls their first roll, it explodes, and they continue rolling until it no longer explodes, keeping note of that result. They again roll "from zero". If this roll also explodes, they continue rolling again until they roll less than the max possible for the die. Finally, the player takes the lowest result of the two sets of rolls. Finally, they add any relevant modifiers and bonus die to their result.