General Rules and Clarifications

Rolls

If I call for a roll, I'll give a Stat Pool, a Difficulty [0-10], followed by a Target Number (or TN) in parenthesis afterwards, and ended with a consequence, like so:


"Speed, Difficulty 6 (TN 18) to avoid falling off the roof and taking 2 damage when landing in the street below."


This allows you to make the roll and describe the fail state or success state without needing to wait for me, and lets you know which pool you need to spend points from to apply Effort. I might post this in an OOC note at the bottom of my post, either as a response to NPC actions or preempting a task I believe you are likely to take. I'll make it clear if the roll is optional or not. This is also the format I will use if I decide an action your character has taken requires a roll, in which case I will give you a friendly ping ;)

When you roll, please name what Skills, Assets, and special abilities you are using that modify the roll, as well as any effort you are applying. Roll for the Difficulty and Target Number that you adjust for, and simply assume they apply. This will speed up play greatly, with little to no downside. There is a chance that you reduce the difficulty of a task to 0 (and thus, a TN of 0). If you do so, please still make the roll.

In the rare instance that I feel any of these do NOT apply, and that disregarding the element would change the result of the roll, I will simply correct the fiction organically down the line. For example, in the above scenario, you may say that you have a crowbar that you can use to hook onto the roof and swing back on in the event you DO slip, this providing an asset, and lowering the difficulty to 5... you make the roll, get a 15! You proceed to narrate continuing the rooftop chase.

When it comes around to my turn, I may veto your asset, in which case I will simply say you catch up to the person chasing you! They turn and sucker-punch you, sending you sprawling, and tumbling off the roof. That way, you don't need to wait for me to approve each and every change, or wait for confirmation on your success, nor do we need to edit posts, ret-con, or anything else that might put the brakes on the narrative. :D


Finally, there is a rule for retrying a roll. To do so, you must spend at least one level of effort on the roll to even attempt a retry, regardless of whether you spent effort the first time. For the sake of ease in this game, you may assume that you ALWAYS have the option of retrying a roll, and may only retry once, unless you have a specific special ability or cypher that says otherwise.

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A Quick Re-cap of Terms:

Difficulty: The number modified by Skills, Assets, Inabilities, and Effort

Target Number: The number you are attempting to meet or beat on the d20. Target Number is always three times the difficulty.

Skills: Any area of training specified in the Skills section of your sheet. Trained skills reduce difficulty by 1, and Specialized skills reduce difficulty by 2. Skills can never reduce the difficulty of any one task by more than 2.

Assets: Any item or environmental factor that eases a task. Each asset reduces difficulty by 1, and assets can never reduce the difficulty of any one task by more than 2.

Effort: You may spend points from a task's stat pool to reduce the difficulty of a task. It costs 3 points to lower the difficulty by 1, and 2 additional points for each step after that. You may only reduce the difficulty of a task up to a maximum number of steps equal to your effort rating.

Edge: When spending points from a pool, you subtract the number of points spent by your Edge in that pool. This applies to every expenditure from that pool except taking damage, and it can reduce the cost to 0.

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Special Rolls

On a roll of a natural 1, I get to impose a free intrusion. There is a chance that you may roll a nat 1 on a task that you have reduced to difficulty 0. In this case, do NOT presume that the nat 1 indicates a failure. If the task is difficulty 0, the roll will not be a factor; The nat 1 only takes effect in the case that I veto an asset or skill that reduced the task difficulty so low.

On a natural 19, you get a free, minor effect. During combat, you may choose any one of the following without asking me first:
- You deal and additional 3 damage
- You strike a specific body part of the enemy. The exact nature of this effect, and the penalty it imposes on the enemy, is up to me (but feel free to give an indication of your intent either IC or OOC)
- You knock the opponent into (or off) terrain. Try to keep it to something with is more or less within a few feet... I know that depending on descriptions, this might be a little fuzzy, but I think we can trust each others' judgement on this generally. Again, I'll determine the nature of the penalty.
- You knock the opponent down. All allies reduce the difficulty of attacking this enemy by 1 step.
- You distract or disorient the opponent. The difficulty of any tasks the enemy attempts next round are modified by 1 to the opponent's detriment. This translates into reducing the difficulty of your rolls to resist the enemy.
- You take advantageous terrain. You may move with impunity anywhere within a few feet. This might mean breaking through the door the enemy was guarding, or taking the high ground, swinging on a chandelier to the far balcony... you either get to where you want to go, or if it is far away, you will get an opportunity to get there (likely with one more roll resisting your opponent's attempt to catch or stop you on the next turn).


On a natural 20, you get a free, major effect. In combat, you choose any of the minor effects above, or one of the following, without needing prior approval from me:
- You deal 4 additional damage.
- You disarm the opponent of one item it is carrying. This can be a weapon or something in the hands, or an item such as a belt, a coin purse, a sheathed weapon, etc.
- You stun the opponent. The enemy loses their next turn.
- You impair or gravely wound the opponent. The difficulty of all tasks the enemy attempts for the rest of combat is modified to its detriment by 1.

On a nat 20, you you choose an open-ended minor effect, I'll try to give its effect a little more weight to match the major effects.

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