Nov 13, 2023 1:46 pm
THE DICE ROLL
You describe how you try to overcome the Trouble, and what you’re trying to accomplish. The Gamemaster may ask for more details if she thinks the situation is unclear, or may ask you to change your mind if you are trying to do something that is impossible.
Grab a number of dice equal to your score in the attribute you use. Then add more dice equal to your level in the corresponding skill. If there isn’t any suitable skill, only roll for the attribute. Every six rolled is a success. In most cases, only one success is needed to overcome Trouble.ITEMS AND PRIDE
You may use your Iconic Item for a dice roll, when appropriate (the Gamemaster has final say). It gives you two extra dice to roll.
You can also use your Pride, once per Mystery. It gives you an automatic success. You can activate the Pride after a failed roll, or even after a successful roll to add a success.
LUCK
You can spend a Luck Point after a failed dice roll. A Luck Point lets you reroll failed dice, without needing to push. You cannot go back to the earlier result. You cannot spend more than one Luck Point on a single dice roll. Your maximum number of Luck Points is equal to 15 minus your age. Your Luck Points are replenished after each play session. You cannot save them between sessions.
DOING THE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE
in rare cases, more than one success is needed to overcome Trouble. You might be trying to do something almost impossible, such aspersuading your mother to let you go outside even though the garden is full of crazy robots, or jumping from a bridge down onto a car passing at full speed. This may require two or even three successes. The Gamemaster should only demand more than one success in the most extreme cases.
FAILED ROLLS
If you roll no or too few successes, your action fails. An unsuccessful attempt to overcome Trouble must never mean that nothing happens. Somehow the situation changes, probably for the worse. What happens is up to the Gamemaster to decide. You might need to check a Condition, you might end up in new Trouble, or you might suffer a Complication (see the boxed text). Some examples follow:
■ You are caught or detained.
■ The robot you built becomes hostile.
■ Your parents get angry and give you a curfew.
■ A time machine sends you thousands of years back in time, instead of forward
PUSHING THE ROLL
When you fail a roll, you may choose to immediately retry the task, by mentally or physically pushing yourself to the limit of your abilities. This is called pushing the roll, and can only be done once, immediately after the failed roll. You must describe what you do to push yourself.
You may push a successful roll to be able to buy more Effects.
When you push a roll, you must first check a Condition. Choose any Condition that you feel fits the story. Then you reroll all the dice except those showing sixes. If the reroll is successful, the Gamemaster describes what happens. If the reroll also fails, you may not push again (but you can use a Luck Point or your Pride).
If the Trouble came with a threat of a Condition, you may have to check two Conditions if you pushed the roll but still failed after the reroll. You can push a dice roll before or after using a Luck Point.
HELPING EACH OTHER
One Kid may help another overcome Trouble if it seems plausible in the situation. To help, you describe what you do, and then your friend gets one extra die to roll. A Kid may never get help from more than one of her friends for a single dice roll. The Gamemaster has final say on when helping is possible.
When you help someone, you are bound to the outcome of the roll. If it fails, you suffer the same effects as the Kid who rolled. In some situations, all of the Kids need to overcome the same Trouble at the same time. You are trying to walk home through a blizzard or sneak past the headmaster. In these cases, you cannot help each other as noted above. You can, however, give each other successes from BonusEffects (below).
KID VERSUS KID
When two or more Kids fight each other, wrestle, haggle, hide from each other, or come on to the same guy, you all say what you want to do and roll the dice at the same time. The one with the most successes wins and gets to say what happens.
You can all push your rolls. If you get equal numbers of successes after the push, you may buy extra successes by checking Conditions, one success for each checked condition. You can make yourself Broken to win if you want to. If there still isn´t a winner, something happens that interrupts the situation – a parent walks in, the rain starts falling, or the lunch break is over.
EXTENDED TROUBLE
Sometimes, at a crucial moment of a Mystery, Trouble can be so climactic that the Kids have to come up with a plan and work together – a single dice roll is not enough to portray the Trouble they are in. Each Kid will have their part to play in the plan’s final success or failure. This is called Extended Trouble.
You describe how you try to overcome the Trouble, and what you’re trying to accomplish. The Gamemaster may ask for more details if she thinks the situation is unclear, or may ask you to change your mind if you are trying to do something that is impossible.
Grab a number of dice equal to your score in the attribute you use. Then add more dice equal to your level in the corresponding skill. If there isn’t any suitable skill, only roll for the attribute. Every six rolled is a success. In most cases, only one success is needed to overcome Trouble.
[ +- ] Example
The Gamemaster: At the bottom of the hole lies a stone tablet with strange figures and characters on it.
Player 3 (Dennis): I pick it up. Do I understand what it says?
The Gamemaster: Not without studying it at the library.
Player 3: Okay, I place it in my backpack and bicycle over to the school library. A while later, I sit at a table covered in books.
The Gamemaster: Roll comprehend.
The Gamemaster: At the bottom of the hole lies a stone tablet with strange figures and characters on it.
Player 3 (Dennis): I pick it up. Do I understand what it says?
The Gamemaster: Not without studying it at the library.
Player 3: Okay, I place it in my backpack and bicycle over to the school library. A while later, I sit at a table covered in books.
The Gamemaster: Roll comprehend.
Player 3: I have mind 4 and comprehend 3, for a total of seven dice. (Rolls the dice.) I get a 6, which means success!
The Gamemaster: When you open a book about Pharaohs, you realize that these are Egyptian hieroglyphics. The tablet must have traveled through some kind of portal from another time. It tells about a monster with shiny, hard skin and long, two-fingered hands that can easily lift a grown man.
Player 3: Do I get what that means?
The Gamemaster: No more than you’ve already figured out. I have mind 4 and comprehend 3, for a total of seven dice. (Rolls the dice.) I get a 6, which means success!
The Gamemaster: When you open a book about Pharaohs, you realize that these are Egyptian hieroglyphics. The tablet must have traveled through some kind of portal from another time. It tells about a monster with shiny, hard skin and long, two-fingered hands that can easily lift a grown man.
Player 3: Do I get what that means?
The Gamemaster: No more than you’ve already figured out."
Player 3 (Dennis): I pick it up. Do I understand what it says?
The Gamemaster: Not without studying it at the library.
Player 3: Okay, I place it in my backpack and bicycle over to the school library. A while later, I sit at a table covered in books.
The Gamemaster: Roll comprehend.
The Gamemaster: At the bottom of the hole lies a stone tablet with strange figures and characters on it.
Player 3 (Dennis): I pick it up. Do I understand what it says?
The Gamemaster: Not without studying it at the library.
Player 3: Okay, I place it in my backpack and bicycle over to the school library. A while later, I sit at a table covered in books.
The Gamemaster: Roll comprehend.
Player 3: I have mind 4 and comprehend 3, for a total of seven dice. (Rolls the dice.) I get a 6, which means success!
The Gamemaster: When you open a book about Pharaohs, you realize that these are Egyptian hieroglyphics. The tablet must have traveled through some kind of portal from another time. It tells about a monster with shiny, hard skin and long, two-fingered hands that can easily lift a grown man.
Player 3: Do I get what that means?
The Gamemaster: No more than you’ve already figured out. I have mind 4 and comprehend 3, for a total of seven dice. (Rolls the dice.) I get a 6, which means success!
The Gamemaster: When you open a book about Pharaohs, you realize that these are Egyptian hieroglyphics. The tablet must have traveled through some kind of portal from another time. It tells about a monster with shiny, hard skin and long, two-fingered hands that can easily lift a grown man.
Player 3: Do I get what that means?
The Gamemaster: No more than you’ve already figured out."
You may use your Iconic Item for a dice roll, when appropriate (the Gamemaster has final say). It gives you two extra dice to roll.
You can also use your Pride, once per Mystery. It gives you an automatic success. You can activate the Pride after a failed roll, or even after a successful roll to add a success.
LUCK
You can spend a Luck Point after a failed dice roll. A Luck Point lets you reroll failed dice, without needing to push. You cannot go back to the earlier result. You cannot spend more than one Luck Point on a single dice roll. Your maximum number of Luck Points is equal to 15 minus your age. Your Luck Points are replenished after each play session. You cannot save them between sessions.
DOING THE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE
in rare cases, more than one success is needed to overcome Trouble. You might be trying to do something almost impossible, such aspersuading your mother to let you go outside even though the garden is full of crazy robots, or jumping from a bridge down onto a car passing at full speed. This may require two or even three successes. The Gamemaster should only demand more than one success in the most extreme cases.
FAILED ROLLS
If you roll no or too few successes, your action fails. An unsuccessful attempt to overcome Trouble must never mean that nothing happens. Somehow the situation changes, probably for the worse. What happens is up to the Gamemaster to decide. You might need to check a Condition, you might end up in new Trouble, or you might suffer a Complication (see the boxed text). Some examples follow:
■ You are caught or detained.
■ The robot you built becomes hostile.
■ Your parents get angry and give you a curfew.
■ A time machine sends you thousands of years back in time, instead of forward
PUSHING THE ROLL
When you fail a roll, you may choose to immediately retry the task, by mentally or physically pushing yourself to the limit of your abilities. This is called pushing the roll, and can only be done once, immediately after the failed roll. You must describe what you do to push yourself.
You may push a successful roll to be able to buy more Effects.
When you push a roll, you must first check a Condition. Choose any Condition that you feel fits the story. Then you reroll all the dice except those showing sixes. If the reroll is successful, the Gamemaster describes what happens. If the reroll also fails, you may not push again (but you can use a Luck Point or your Pride).
If the Trouble came with a threat of a Condition, you may have to check two Conditions if you pushed the roll but still failed after the reroll. You can push a dice roll before or after using a Luck Point.
HELPING EACH OTHER
One Kid may help another overcome Trouble if it seems plausible in the situation. To help, you describe what you do, and then your friend gets one extra die to roll. A Kid may never get help from more than one of her friends for a single dice roll. The Gamemaster has final say on when helping is possible.
When you help someone, you are bound to the outcome of the roll. If it fails, you suffer the same effects as the Kid who rolled. In some situations, all of the Kids need to overcome the same Trouble at the same time. You are trying to walk home through a blizzard or sneak past the headmaster. In these cases, you cannot help each other as noted above. You can, however, give each other successes from BonusEffects (below).
KID VERSUS KID
When two or more Kids fight each other, wrestle, haggle, hide from each other, or come on to the same guy, you all say what you want to do and roll the dice at the same time. The one with the most successes wins and gets to say what happens.
You can all push your rolls. If you get equal numbers of successes after the push, you may buy extra successes by checking Conditions, one success for each checked condition. You can make yourself Broken to win if you want to. If there still isn´t a winner, something happens that interrupts the situation – a parent walks in, the rain starts falling, or the lunch break is over.
EXTENDED TROUBLE
Sometimes, at a crucial moment of a Mystery, Trouble can be so climactic that the Kids have to come up with a plan and work together – a single dice roll is not enough to portray the Trouble they are in. Each Kid will have their part to play in the plan’s final success or failure. This is called Extended Trouble.