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--- basic_systems [2014/03/15 20:18]
storyteller [Rolling Dice and Dice Pools]
+++ basic_systems [2021/12/04 00:38] (current)
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
+There’s no point in rolling dice unless you know what results you’re looking for. Whenever you try to perform an action, the Storyteller will decide on an appropriate difficulty number and tell you her decision. A difficulty is always a number between 2 and 10 (but generally between 3 and 9). Each time you score that number or higher on one of your dice, you’re considered to have gained a success. For example, if an action’s difficulty is a 6 and you roll a 3, 3, 8, 7 and 10, then you’ve scored three successes. The more you get, the better you do.
-<del>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).</del>
+You need only one success to perform most actions successfully, but that’s considered a marginal success. If you score three or more, you succeed completely. Also, a result of a 10 is always a success, no matter the difficulty number.
+The following charts should give you a good idea of how to combine difficulties and degrees of success.
-|**Total Successes Rolled**|**Degree of Success**|
+====Difficulties====
-|One|Standard|
+|Three|Trivial (scanning a small crowd for a familiar face)|
-|Two|Superior|
+|Four|Easy (following a trail of blood)|
-|Three|Remarkable|
+|Five|Straightforward (seducing some one who’s already “in the mood”)|
-|Four|Astonishing|
+|Six|Standard (firing a gun)|
-|Five|Phenomenal|
+|Seven|Challenging (locating where those agonized whispers are coming from)|
+|Eight|Difficult (convincing a cop that this isn’t your cocaine)|
+|Nine|Extremely difficult (walking a tightrope)|
+==== Degrees of Success ====
+|One Success |Marginal (getting abroken refrigerator to keep running until the repairman arrives)|
+|Two Successes|Moderate (making a handicraft that’s ugly but useful)|
+|Three|Complete (fixing something so that it’s good as new)|
+|Four|Exceptional (increasing your car’s efficiency in the process of repairing it)|
+|Five or More|Phenomenal (creating a masterwork)|
+Naturally, the lower the difficulty, the easier it is to score successes, and vice versa. Six is the default difficulty, indicating actions neither exceptionally tricky nor exceptionally easy to accomplish. If the Storyteller or rulebook ever calls for you to make a roll, but doesn’t give you a specific difficulty number, assume the task is difficulty 6.
+The Storyteller is the final authority on how difficult attempted actions are — if the task seems impossible, he’ll make the difficulty appropriately high, while if the task seems routinely easy, the difficulty will be low (if the Storyteller decides you even have to roll at all). A difficulty 3 task is so easy that it probably doesn’t merit a die roll, but a fluke failure or extraordinary success might sometimes make it worth the chance.
+At difficulty 10, the results curve becomes very anomalous – indeed, there are a few dice pools for which the likelihood of botching actually increases over having a smaller (and thus theoretically “worse”) dice pool. Be careful when assigning such a high difficulty to an action.
 =====Rule of One=====
 Whenever one of the dice comes up as a 1, it cancels out a success. Take the die showing 1 and one of the dice showing a success and set them aside. In this manner, an otherwise successful action may be reduced to failure.
 ===== 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.
+Bad luck can ruin anything. One more basic of a roll is a “botch.” Whenever one of the dice comes up as a 1, it cancels out a success. Completely. Take the die showing 1 and one of the dice showing a success and set them aside. In this manner, an otherwise successful action may be reduced to failure.
-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.
+Occasionally, truly bad fortune strikes. If none of your dice comes up a success, **and** one or more dice are dice showing 1, the roll is a botch. If you score at least one success, even if that success is canceled out and additional 1s remain, it’s just a simple failure.
+A botch is much worse than a normal failure — it’s dramatic misfortune.
+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. The Storyteller decides exactly what goes wrong; a botch may produce a minor inconvenience or might result in wholesale catastrophe.  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 Rolled**|**Degree of Botch**|
@@ Line 64: / Line 85: @@
 |Five|Catastrophic|
+Botching is a place where some creativity on the part of the Storyteller goes a long way. There’s nothing wrong with having a botch signify a dropped gun or stalling out a car in a chase, but a botch might also be an odd fluke that happens at an incongruous time or a butterfly effect that may haunt the chronicle at a later point.  Botches should create a new dramatic twist to the scene in which they occur. They don’t have to be reliable pratfalls.
 ==== 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.
@@ Line 72: / Line 95: @@
 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. 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 =====
-<del>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.</del>
-|**Difficulty Rating**|**Degree of Difficulty**|
-|Zero|Standard|
-|+1|Tough|
-|+2|Challenging|
-|+3|Difficult|
-|+4|Critical|
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