Making Skill Rolls
Whenever a player wishes for his or her character to attempt a task that has a reasonable chance of failure, the gamemaster may call on the player to make a Skill roll.
To make a Skill roll, the player consults his or her character sheet and rolls dice equal to the character’s Skill Level.
Skill rolls should only be required if the success of the attempt is in doubt (i.e. not automatic).
For instance, a player should not have to make a Skill roll to see if the character can tie his or her shoes.
However, if the character attempts to tie his or her shoes atop a moving wagon while being shot at… a Skill roll may be required. (Though, admittedly, there are probably some higher priority attempts to make at that time; but we are not here to judge the merits of a player’s decision.)
When the gamemaster decides a player should make a roll, the gamemaster tells the player which Skill will be used for the attempt.
Dice Rules
Six-Sided Dice
All dice used in this game are ordinary, six-sided dice with either pips, numerals, or other easily distinguished symbols with values ranging from 1 to 6.
The size, color, or shape of these dice does not matter so long as none of these factors hinders a person’s ability to interpret each die’s result or changes the probability of each die rolling a result ranging from 1 to 6 in an equally likely way.
Annotation
Each roll requires a quantity of dice to be rolled either based on a character’s Skill Level, a piece of equipment, or other special effect, condition, circumstance, or ability.
All such rolls are listed as a number and then “D” (dice).
For example, “2D” means “two six-sided dice” and “5D” means “five six-sided dice,” etc.
Success
Each result of a 3, 4, 5, or 6 on a die made for a roll is counted as a “success.”
If the total number of successes achieved by a roll equals or exceeds the Difficulty (see Difficulty Number section below), the attempt is successful overall.
Failure
Each result of a 1 or 2 on a die made for a roll is counted as a “failure.”
Failures do not count toward an attempt’s overall degree of success.
Example Roll
The gamemaster asks a player to make an Athletics Skill roll for the player’s character to climb over a 10-foot-high fence.
The player’s character has an Athletics Skill of 4D.
the player rolls four six-sided dice, and the results are: 1, 3, 3, and 5.
The player scores three successes for the attempt.
Difficulty and Target Number
Whenever the gamemaster calls on a player to make a roll for his or her character, the gamemaster also decides upon a Difficulty for the attempt.
The Difficulty reflects how easy or difficult the attempt is to accomplish, relative to what the average, untrained person might reasonably hope to achieve.
The Difficulties are as follows:
| Difficulty | Target Number | Who Could Do It |
| Easy | 1 | Most people |
| Moderate | 2 | Trained people |
| Difficult | 3 | Experts, professionals |
| Legendary | 4+ | The most talented people alive. |
The gamemaster need not advertise to any of the players what he or she has decided upon for the Target Number for any given attempt.
The gamemaster may simply ask the player to make the roll, have the player tell the gamemaster the result of the roll, and then decide upon the outcome.
Target Numbers higher than 4 are possible, though few characters stand even a half-decent chance of succeeding at such attempts, and few things are as difficult as to warrant the use of such extremes.
Dice Bonuses and Penalties
Sometimes, circumstances might be such that a character’s attempt is helped or hindered.
A bonus or penalty may apply to a Skill roll based on the relative influence of those conditions on the character’s attempt (as determined by the gamemaster):
| Bonus/Penalty Type | Dice Modifier |
| Minor help | +1D |
| Major help | +2D |
| Minor hindrance | -1D |
| Major hindrance | -2D |
Minor help: Two or more characters (who all have sufficient Skill training) attempt to aid one another in the attempt; the character has a powerful set of tools or specialized equipment for the task.
Major help: Another character (who is a master in the attempt in question) guides the character’s attempt; the character takes extra (twice or more) time, has ample resources, tools, equipment, and additional help for the attempt.
Minor hindrance: Environmental conditions make the attempt more difficult than normal; the tools and equipment available for the attempt are of inferior quality.
Major hindrance: The character has no access to the needed tools, equipment, records, or help from other characters to attempt to task.
Luck Rolls
Whenever a character would make a Skill roll that has 0D (or less)—either because penalties have reduced the dice for that roll to 0D or less or the character simply has 0 Levels in that Skill—the character can still make a Luck Roll.
Unlike with other kinds of rolls, a Luck Roll only scores a success on the result of a 6.
When making a Luck Roll, if the die used results in 1, the character scores a “critical failure.”
As determined by the gamemaster, a critical failure brings about an unforeseen (and certainly undesirable) outcome.
| Example: Critical failures on rolls can take a variety of forms.
Some examples:
|
Numerical Roll Results
Sometimes, the rules or the gamemaster may call for a “numerical roll result.”
Unlike the normal counting of successes and failures as previously described, a numerical roll result requires that the actual numerical total of the dice used be calculated.
| Example: The gamemaster calls on a player to determine the numerical roll result of 4D.
The player rolls four dice, and the results are 2, 3, 4, and 4. The numerical roll result is 13 (2+3+4+4). |
Action Points
The players’ characters have capabilities far beyond the normal inhabitants of the game world.
One of the things that sets the player characters apart are Action Points.
These points represent a heroic power and resolve that player characters can tap into in their time of need.
Action Points allow them to survive what others cannot, and thus, achieve great things.
Attaining Action Points
Player characters start off with 5 Action Points.
New Action Points can be purchased at a cost of 1 Experience Point each.
Using Action Points
A player character can use Action Points in one of the following ways:
- Enhance the result of a Skill roll the character makes.
- Reduce damage the character takes.
- Pay for the cost of a Miracle.
Enhance Skill Rolls
When a Skill roll is made, a player may choose to use 1 or more Action Points to enhance the result.
Action Points used in this way add 1 success to the affected roll per 1 Action Point used.
The choice do to this may be made before or after the normal dice for the Skill roll are made, but before the result is tallied.
A player may use any number of Action Points to enhance the roll.
Reduce Damage
Action Points may be used to reduce Wound, Fatigue, or Fear damage.
Each Action Point used reduces the damage taken by 1 point.
The choice do to this must be made before the Wound, Fatigue, or Fear damage is applied to the character.
A player may use any number of Action Points to reduce damage.
Pay for Miracles
Miracles are more powerful versions of a Spell.
Each Spell that can be cast as a Miracle will have the associated Action Point cost in the Spell’s description under the Miracle heading.