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Basic Systems

Trait Ratings

A character's Traits — innate and learned capabilities, called Attributes and Abilities — are defined by a number of dots. Traits are rated from one to five dots; • indicates a mediocre level of skill, while • • • • • indicates the absolute peak of human capability. Trait ratings are recorded by filling in the appropriate dots on the character sheet.

x Abysmal

* Poor

* • Average

••• Good

* • • • Exceptional

* • • • • Superb

Rolling Dice and Dice Pools

When your character takes a dice action, you roll one die for every dot in the Traits most suited to that task. The Storyteller decides which are the best Traits simply by choosing the Ability that best covers the action being attempted.

Attributes (innate capabilities) and Abilities (things you know and have learned) have individual ratings, but are added together to determine the Dice Pool. If your character has a 3 Perception and you put two dots in Alertness, your Alertness Dice Pool is 5. Whenever your character performs an Alertness-related action, you roll five dice.

Default Traits

On occasion your character may not have a rating in an Ability that the Storyteller designates. If so, you default to the Attribute on which the Ability is based. So if the Storyteller calls for a Perception+Alertness roll, but you put no points in that Ability, you simply use your character's rating in Perception. This system reflects the idea that someone who improves upon her natural capability through training will generally perform better than someone who tries to get by purely on raw talent.

Personality Traits

Two Traits have no Abilities related to them — Willpower and Inspiration. Each Trait has both a permanent and current rating. The permanent rating (designated by dots on the character sheet) usually stays the same. However, the character's current rating (noted by the squares on the character sheet) can fluctuate during an episode. Dice actions using Personality Traits are based on the character's permanent scores (the dots) not the current ratings (the squares).

Success and Failure

When you roll your Dice Pool, you want each die to match or exceed the Target Number. The Target Number is always 7. So each die that comes up an 7, 8, 9 or 0 (10) is considered a success. A success is just that — a positive result, a successful resolution. Conversely, if all the dice you roll come up less than a 7, your action fails.

All you have to know when you roll is the number of successes you need; if you get at least the minimum quantity, you succeed. The standard number of successes necessary for any task is always one (unless the Storyteller says otherwise). Extra successes beyond the minimum can sometimes be used for additional effect (at the very least, extra successes mean your character accomplishes the action in a superior and notable fashion).

Total Successes Rolled Degree of Success
OneStandard
TwoSuperior
ThreeRemarkable
FourAstonishing
FivePhenomenal

Botches

Normally if none of your dice roll a 7 or higher, your character simply fails. If any dice on such a failed roll come up 1s, you've botched. A botch is an unfortunate result; not only does your character fail the action, but she does so rather significantly. However, as long as you roll at least one success, any 1s are ignored.

The specific circumstances of a botch are up to the Storyteller, but they should affect the character adversely and should relate to the action being attempted. A botch's severity depends on the total number of 1s rolled; the more botches you roll, the worse the disaster. While a single botch may result in only temporary distress, a major botch should result in a spectacular problem.

Total Botches RolledDegree of Botch
OneEmbarrassing
TwoUnfortunate
ThreeSevere
FourDisastrous
FiveCatastrophic

Botch Cancellation

If you have a 5 or 6 in the Ability you are rolling with, you may subtract 1 or 2 of the results dice from a botch respectively. It only applies to cancel 1's where you would otherwise botch. This reflects two things. One, your mastery of the Ability reduces the chance of a botch. Two, there is a probability anomally where rolling large numbers of dice in a pool (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 in this case) disproportionately increases your chance of a botch compared to dice pools of 1 to 6 dice.

Automatic Successes

Your character may be so skilled in a certain task that you need not roll for it. At the Storyteller's discretion, your character has an automatic success if her Dice Pool for an action is at least equal to the Target Number of 7. So if you have eight dice or more, your character succeeds automatically — you don't even need to roll. Still, it's merely a standard success; you might want to roll anyway to achieve extra successes.

You may also spend a Willpower point to earn an automatic success. This “free” success is in addition to any successes gained by rolling dice, but the Willpower point must be spent prior to your roll. You won't want to do this too often. While Willpower points are easy to spend, they're not easy to earn. Only one Willpower point may be spent per turn to gain a free success.

Difficulty and Difficult Actions

Most of the time you need only one success to complete an action. However, some tasks, like performing a trick shot or disabling an encrypted lock, can be more challenging. The Storyteller declares difficult actions when appropriate, designating a certain number of successes that you need to roll for your character to complete the task. The difficulty to a roll is always listed as a number of additional successes needed beyond the standard one. So a “+2 to difficulty” means you must get a total of three successes. The harder the action being attempted, the more successes that are needed. Any extra successes you get beyond the difficulty indicate that your character does an even more outstanding job than required.

Difficulty RatingDegree of Difficulty
ZeroStandard
+1Tough
+2Challenging
+3Difficult
+4Critical
basic_systems.1387767637.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/12/04 00:40 (external edit)