Exigency Mechanics Thread

For mechanics questions and discussions that you feel would be out of place elsewhere! Primer here

Core Mechanics
Roll skill (1d20), then roll effect (minimum 1d6). Sometimes a challenge will only require one or the other: sometimes it will simply compare a flat value to the character’s own stats. In most cases dice rolls will be altered by characters’ attributes and talents and by situational modifiers.

A success in the Exigency system is called a hit. At its most basic, a hit deducts 1 Hit Point from the target’s total, but with the right aspects it could also deliver a status effect: slowing a character down, tripping them, banishing them to another dimension. Lots of things can happen in the field.

Whenever an effect roll beats the Resistance value, apply one hit. If the roll is twice the value, apply two hits. If it’s triple, apply 3, and so on. The maximum number of hits you can deliver at once is limited by your talent rank.

The values that oppose skill rolls are called defences, whether an abstract challenge or a character. The values that oppose effect rolls are called Resistances: Constitution, Reactions, Mind, each used to mitigate the effects of the oppositions’ successful rolls.

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I guess we should be posting our questions about combat rolls in this thread. :)

Can you maybe just give a quick rundown again of how the combat mechanics work?
What rolls and modifiers do we use to determine initiative? What rolls and modifiers do we use to hit? To defend? What rolls and modifiers do we use to determine damage?

Thanks.

Some quick thoughts, will elaborate later:

Determining Initiative varies from encounter to encounter. The only constant is that if you have an aspect ability that describes granting a bonus to Initiative, that bonus applies regardless of the stat the GM is asking you to roll for in that instant

Your defence (think AC, your active defence, dodging, parrying, anything and everything you can do to frustrate or oppose enemy action) is your highest attribute + the talent most appropriate to that situation. I.e., opposing a kick with your Melee rank, opposing a sneak attack with your Insight rank. Your defence is what opposes incoming skill rolls and you must be aware, alert, and capable of movement to use it

Your Resistances are more innate, and almost always apply. Your three Resistances are Constitution (VIT or STR), Reactions (AGI or FOC) and Mind (WIL or KNO). Your Resistance opposes the effect/damage roll of an ability or attack. Similarly to defence, you get to include a talent rank when appropriate

If an attack fails to meet your Resistance, it's just a Fatigue hit (or no hit at all if the enemy is merely a mob). If it meets it, 1 Normal hit. If the attack's damage is twice your Resistance, 2 Normal hits, if it's thrice your Resistance, 3 Normal hits, and so on

While you still have HP, there's little difference between F hits and N hits: they both eat into your Hit Point count. Once HP is at 0, F hits are merely a nuisance, as only N hits have the potential to cause actual harm

Lets use an example from the IC just now:
Serana's defence is 7, and she gets a +2 from her Melee talent rank as this is of course a Melee attack. He beats her defence

Serana has 7 armour from her STR score (note that this is tied to a Resource and so boss attacks/special encounters of an anti-cyborg flavour, say ion weapons or EMP and such like, could easily bypass this entirely but let's not get distracted). His combat knife ignores 3 armour, so her armour is "only" 4 now.

This reduces his damage to 5, which isn't nearly enough to beat her 9 Constitution versus a low-tech physical attack (STR 7 + Melee +2 again). The gunner is an elite, so Serana is down a Hit Point, but if he was a mob that attack would've been tanked with no impact whatsoever

(And If Serana had an action spare, she could've made a guard action and swapped her 9 defence for a 1d20 roll, potentially frustrating the attack completely)

you have "or" for the resistances when it seems like you mean "and"

So, to roll a check for FOC+Insight, I'd roll a d20 and then add the values of both FOC (3) and Insight (3); is that right? Is there an effect die for a check, or are effect dice intended primarily for combat and other situations where you're trying to do something TO something else (so I wouldn't roll an effect die here)?

Yeah so +6 total, and you are absolutely right that effect die are normally reserved for combat (or any opposed challenge, as you say). If it helps to picture it this way: in a mechanical sense, think of traditional (D&D etc) DC checks like this one as single hit point "enemies" with Resistance 0 or 1: i.e., rolling any effect at all is enough to take that HP

BUT the HP mechanics could be maintained if the task had degrees of success, i.e., if there was even more to recall/eavesdrop on rather than a binary "you know this" or "you don't know this". This one doesn't though, so go ahead and roll!