Dresden D6 The Rules

Rolling Dice

Most game mechanics involve rolling dice. A die code associated with each attribute and skill represents how good the character is. A die code associated with a weapon shows how much harm it can cause. Each die code (also known as a value) indicates the number of six-sided dice you roll (1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D, etc.), and sometimes an added bonus of “+1” or “+2” you add to the total result you roll on the dice. (This bonus is sometimes referred to as pips.)

A piece of equipment or a background note may provide a bonus to the roll. If the bonus is in the form of a die code (such as +1D), then you add the listed number of regular dice to the amount you would roll. If the bonus is in the form of a number (such as +2), then you add the amount to the total that you rolled on the dice.

Example: A med-kit adds +1D to first aid attempts. A character decides to help treat another character’s injuries with their first-aid skill. If your character has a first-aid skill of 4D, you would roll five dice to determine how well your character helped the other character with the med-kit.

Wild Die

Whenever any player, including the gamemaster, makes any roll, one of the dice must be different from the rest (in size or color). This odd die is designated as the Wild Die; it represents the vagaries of life — like the direction of the wind affecting the flight of bullet — that are too small to warrant their own difficulty modifier.

Example: Your character’s Strength attribute is 3D+1, so if you tried to jump onto a table, you would roll two regular dice and one Wild Die.

If the player rolls a 6 on the Wild Die, this is called a Critical Success and they may add the 6 to their total and roll the Wild Die again. As long as they turn up Critical Successes on that die, they may continue to add them to their total and continue to roll. If they roll anything other than a 6, they add that number to the total and stops rolling. (Note that, unlike rolling a Critical Failure initially on the Wild Die, no complications occur when it shows up on later tosses of the Wild Die in the same roll.)

If the player rolls a 1 on the initial toss of the Wild Die, this is called a Critical Failure, and the gamemaster may choose one of two options for the result, depending on the gravity of the situation.

1. The Critical Failure cancels out the highest roll. Then the player adds the remaining values, and the roll is determined normally.

2. Add the dice results normally, but a complication occurs. The gamemaster gauges the significance of the complication by the total generated — from a funny, “nearly didn’t do it” result for a high total to a serious, “we have a problem” obstacle for a low total.

If the gamemaster decides to go with the Wild Die Critical Failure option of creating complications, make certain the complications chosen relate to the tasks attempted. They should serve as extra, minor obstacles the characters must now deal with or as places to insert a bit of comic relief. Only on rare occasions (such as numerous poor decisions by the players) should the complications be without solutions or even deadly. The complications can also serve as opportunities to bring nearly invincible characters down to a more reasonable level.

Improving a Roll

The average person fails at average activities nearly half of the time. Characters aren’t average people, so they need ways to beat those odds. Thus, they have Action Dice and Feats, which represent those surges of adrenaline, sudden

insights, and other unexplained helpful acts of chance.

Action Dice

Action dice are a pool of extra dice that give a boost or add a dramatic resolution to rolls. At the start of each session, you get your full action dice total. This is determined by character level. All action dice not spent by the end of the gaming session are lost.

You may spend these dice in any of the following ways:

1. You may add the result of 1 or more of your action dice to any die roll you make. There is one exception: You may not spend action die to boost damage results.

2. You may declare that you want to boost a die roll at anytime, even after making the roll. Also, you may spend any number to boost 1 die roll, so long as there are Action die left. You may not continue spending action dice after the GM has described the outcome of the action(s) associated with the roll. GM should ask if you are done with your roll first.

3. If you roll a six on the action die, then roll the die again. If you get another six, roll again. Every time you get a six on action dice, roll again.

4. The GM may award action dice during a session if he feels that you have roleplayed, shown leadership, problem-solving, or entertained the group. If you feel one of the other players should be awarded and the GM hasn’t done so, you can nominate that player. The GM is final arbiter of who is to be awarded. These action die can be used anytime in the session, but go away after the session. You do get an xp bonus of 5 points for every 1 action die awarded.

GM Action Dice

GMs also receive action dice to use during game sessions. They may use them the same as the players do above for their legions of NPCs as well as the following ways:

1. Save a NPC from capture or death. A GM may spend 4 Action Dice on the moment of death or anytime after capture. The means of escape or survival are to be detailed by the GM. The NPC can’t appear again in the same session.

2. When awarding a Action Die to a player, he gains an Action Die.

3. Anytime he gives a hint to the players, he gains an Action Die. Unless noted by a feat or special ability.

GMs have a number of Action Dice determined by the number of players and the level of the characters. The formula: total character level/number of players +2. So if you have 5 level 6 characters, the GM would get 8 dice. ((30/5)+2)

Feats

Feats are special abilities, qualities, experience, or edges that a character may posess. Several feats can improve rolls, change initiative, or other effects.

Using Skills

 Whenever there’s a chance that a character may fail at an action, that character must make a skill check. The player decides what they want their character to do and which skill is best for accomplishing the task (sometimes with the help of the gamemaster). The gamemaster determines a suitable difficulty number, which the player must meet or beat by rolling the number of dice in the skill and adding the results.

Untrained Skill Use

 If a character doesn’t have dice in the skill required to attempt an action, they may use the die code of the attribute under which that skill falls. This is sometimes referred to as defaulting  to the attribute or using the skill untrained.  The gamemaster may include an unskilled modifier  to the difficulty.

This modifier takes into account that people who aren’t trained or don’t have experience in certain tasks usually have a harder time doing them. Typically, this modifier is +5, but it could be as low as +1 for simple tasks or much higher for complex plans.

Rounds and Initiative

 Generally, time in a roleplaying game doesn’t matter too much. A character may spend several hours searching a library, though only a minute passes as far as the players and gamemaster are concerned. To keep the storyline moving, sometimes it’s necessary to skip the tedious parts.

More intense scenes require more detail. In these cases, time slows to units of 30 seconds called rounds. Each character may take two actions in the round with no penalty. Unless the character has special skills, feats, or abilities, additional actions are not possible. Once a round ends, the next one begins, continuing until the scene ends (with the task completed, the opponent subdued, and so on).

Determining Initiative does not count as an action. Once the GM declares that combat begins, or roll initiative, players grab a D20, roll and add their initiative bonus to the roll. The GM will then put in order highest to lowest, including NPCs, who goes when. Starting with the highest roll, the GM will ask that player to declare what their two actions are and any movement made. Once the first player goes, then it falls to the next hightest roll, and so on, until all players and NPCs complete their actions. The next round starts again with the same highest roll from the previous turn.

Initiative bonus is determined by Feats, Level Bonuses, and Dex Dice. Number of Dex Die = bonus to roll. 3D+2 Dex is +3 to init, 2D+1 is +2 to init and so on.

In the case of a tie on initiative rolls, whoever has the highest Perception goes first. If still a tie, roll a D6, whoever is higher, goes first.

Changes to initiative order can occur if the player or NPC have feats, choose to hold action, or have a conditional action in waitng.

Holding An Action Or Conditional Actions

Players and NPCs can choose to hold an action. A player may want to go after another player, or wait for an opponent to go first. Players can declare that they are holding their action on their initiative turn.

When a player declares a hold, they need to also state when the hold ends and/or conditions that would release the hold. Conditions could be: doesn’t fire until fired upon, waitng for opponent to move into a particular distance, wait for a teamate to perform their initiative actions, wait for a teammate’s initiative order to combine actions on their initiative. Or they could just declare that they want to go last or on initiative count 10.

Once a hold is declared and the hold ends, then the player’s initiative number changes to the lower initiative number of when they acted. If the Condition comes to pass and the player then does the held actions, then their initiative changes to when the condition happened.

Players and NPCs cannot hold an action into the next round. They cannot hold action to the next round to raise their initiative to a higher number. At the end of the round, holds end.

If a player holds an action and the round gets to the end with no actions made by the holding player, then they have a round where they did nothing. The player may keep their original initiative number. Next round they declare their next actions. GMs may, at the end of the round, ask the holding player if they now want to go and perform actions.

Gamemaster’s Characters Gamemasters should rarely treat their characters, sometimes called nonplayer characters or NPCs, the same way as the players’ characters. The players’ characters are the heroes of the story and thus can outperform the average Human (or, with the help of Action Dice and Feats, have the chance). The gamemaster’s characters serve as interactive elements in the story. The less important the character, the fewer skills, Action Dice, and Feats they should have. Only the major antagonists deserve the same care (and rules) in creation as the players’ characters.

 Since all characters in a scene are making actions in the same 30 second round, the actual length of game time taken up by an action will usually be less than 30 seconds.

Performing Actions in Rounds

 A character does not need to declare what they intend to do until it is their turn in the round. Once the character decides to take their turn, they may use their two actions and movement.

Actions in Rounds

 Each entry on this nonexhaustive list counts as one action taking no more than 15 seconds to perform. The gamemaster may decide that certain types of actions offer some kind of bonus or special effect and, thus, have requirements to perform. The suggested skill to use with each action is included at the end of the task’s description.

Bash:  Hit an opponent with a blunt weapon. (melee combat)

Catch:  Stop the movement of a thrown or dropped object or person. (The catcher must act later in the round than the person doing the throwing or dropping. This is one of the few cases where a character may “move up” their turn.) (throwing)

Choke:  Grab a person’s neck and gripping tightly. (brawling, martial arts)

Communicate:  Relay plans or exchange complex ideas and information with other characters (more than a few words or one sentence).

Disarm:  Remove an object from an opponent’s hand. This action is treated as a called shot. (brawling, firearms, martial arts, melee combat, missile weapons, throwing)

Dodge:  Actively evade an attack. (acrobatics, dodge, martial arts)

Entangle:  Throw an entangling weapon at an opponent. (throwing)

Escape:  Break a hold. (acrobatics, martial arts, Strength)

Grab:  Latch onto an opponent. Depending on where the opponent was grabbed, they can take other actions. (brawling, martial arts)

Kick:  Strike out at an opponent with a foot. (acrobatics, brawling, martial arts)

Leap:  Jump over an opponent or onto a table or any other such maneuver. (acrobatics, climb/jump)

Lunge:  Stab forward with a pointed weapon, such as a sword or a knife. (melee combat)

Parry:  Block an opponent’s blow. (brawling, martial arts, melee combat)

Pin: Pin an opponent by either holding them to the ground or tacking a piece of their clothing to a wall or other nearby object. When pinning the whole opponent, this is the same concept as tackling. Pinning prevents the victim from using the fastened part. (acrobatics, brawling, martial arts, melee combat, missile weapons, throwing)

Punch:  Strike out at an opponent with a fist. (brawling, martial arts)

Push:  Forcibly move an opponent. (acrobatics, brawling, martial arts)

Ready a Weapon:  Draw a gun, unsheathe a knife, reload a rifle, and similar actions. This generally does not require a skill roll, but the gamemaster may choose to require one related to the weapon in question for particularly stressful situations.

Run Away: Flee from the scene. (running)

Shoot: Fire a missile or projectile weapon. (bows, firearms, energy weapons, missile weapons)

Slash: Swing an edged weapon. (melee combat)

Switch a Weapon’s Setting: Firearms switch between auto, burst, and single shot. Some energy weapons have more than one damage setting. It takes an action to change the setting. This generally does not require a skill roll, but the gamemaster may choose to require one related to the weapon in question for particularly stressful situations.

Tackle: Bodily overcome an opponent. Once tackled, the opponent can do no other physical actions other than speak or attempt to break the attacker’s grip. (acrobatics, brawling, martial arts)

Throw a Weapon or Object: Toss something at an opponent. (throwing)

Trip: Quickly force one or both of an opponent’s legs upward. (brawling, martial arts)

Use a Skill or Ability: Perform a quick action related to a special ability the character possesses or a skill they want to use. A character may not use a special ability they do not have, though they may use a skill they have no experience in (though possibly at a penalty). Note that some skills and special abilities take longer than one action or one round to perform, so trying to do them in 15-30 seconds will incur penalties.

Vehicle Maneuver: Perform a stunt in a moving vehicle. (powersuit operation, piloting, vehicle operation)

Free Actions

Free actions are anything a character can automatically perform except under the most extreme conditions. They don’t require a skill roll or much effort. If the gamemaster thinks a task requires concentration (and has a possibility

of failure, thus requiring a skill roll), it’s not a free action.

A few examples of free actions include:

• determining initiative

• speaking a few words to someone nearby

• a quick glance around a room

• Move over an easy area or up to a meter over more challenging terrain

• rolling to resist damage

• taunting an enemy

Related Skills

In some situations, two or more skills may be appropriate for the task at hand. The gamemaster chooses the primary one and decides which, if any, other skills are appropriate secondary, or related, skills that the character can use to improve their chances with the primary skill. The gamemaster sets difficulties for each skill. To determine the related skill’s modifier to the primary skill, the gamemaster subtracts the difficulty from the related skill’s total and divides it by 2, rounding up, with a minimum modifier of 1. If the skill total was less than the difficulty, the modifier is subtracted from the primary skill’s total. If the skill total was equal to or greater than the difficulty, the modifier is added to the primary skill’s total.

The character may perform the related skills and the primary skill successively, but the related skill modifier is only good for the one initially intended attempt and that attempt must be made within a short time of using the other skills. Should the character decide to perform the primary skill and the related skill at the same time, then they take the multi-action penalty.

Example: Your character has a cybernetic eye that gives them a bonus to their search rolls. You decide they will use the eye to help them with some tricky surgery. Once you make your character’s search roll for the surgery, you must apply the modifier to your medicine roll, which must take place immediately after your character’s examination of the body.

Gamemasters also can use the related-skills guidelines for deciding how well one person can help another person.

Preparing

A character willing to spend twice as much time to complete a task receives a +1D bonus for the die roll for every doubling of time, up to a bonus of +3D. However, the character can do nothing else or be otherwise distracted (such as getting shot at) during this time.

Aiming

One of the most common types of preparation is aiming a weapon. Each consecutive round of uninterrupted aiming adds +1D to the characters’s firearms, gunnery, missile weapons, or throwing skill, up to a maximum bonus of +3D.

Rushing

A character can also attempt to perform an action that normally requires two or more rounds in less time. The difficulty increases by +5 for every 25% less time the character puts into the task, with a minimum of one round.

Thus, to rush an hour-long surgery into 30 minutes, the difficulty is increased by +10.

Multiple-Roll Tasks

You may also use multiple-roll tasks, where the task is resolved with several die rolls. Each roll covers a different part of the task and may represent minutes, hours or even days of work. (Use discretion to determine how long each task takes.) Sometimes a task is too difficult for the characters; you may want to break it down into several smaller, easier tasks. The players will have a better chance of succeeding, but the job takes a lot more time.

Combined Actions

Two or more characters can work together to more effec­tively accomplish a single task: this process is called combined actions. Combined actions can be used for combat (several stormtroopers shooting at a single character) or a situation where several characters are working closely together (a group of mechanics overhauling a busted landspeeder or several Rebels working to build a rope bridge across a canyon). The characters must agree to combine actions. The only other thing a combining character can do is roll reaction skills (such as dodge, melee parry or brawling parry).

The character in the group with the highest command skill (or Perception attribute) is the leader. They can only command as many characters as they have command skill dice.

The leader rolls their command skill to see if the group can be combined. If the leader is just supervising (not working on the task), they roll their full command skill. If they are commanding and working on the task, this counts as two actions, giving them a −1D penalty to their command roll.

You have to use your best judgment in selecting a com­mand difficulty. Here are some factors to consider:

• How hard or complex is the task? (The easier the task, the lower the command difficulty.)

• How much precision is needed? (A task where the end result must be very precise — components must line up to the millimeter, for example — is a lot harder to combine on than something where “that’s good enough” is indeed good enough.)

• How many characters are involved? (Generally, the more people who have to work together, the harder it is to get them to work together effectively.)

• How much skill or experience do the characters have? (Characters with a very high level of skill in the task or who have done this type of task in the past will be better able to understand what’s expected of them to do their part. Characters who’ve never done anything like this before are going to have a tough time figuring out what to do, especially if the task is of any complexity.)

• How well do the characters know each other? (If the charac­ters are a group of soldiers who’ve been adventuring together for years, they’re probably pretty good at working together — even if they’re completely inexperienced at the task. People who barely know each other sometimes have trouble working together effectively. And people who can’t stand each other probably aren’t going to be very easy to combine either.)

• How much time is being taken to complete the task? (If the task would normally take two hours to complete and the group is taking just two hours, the difficulty should be a little higher just because it takes some time to coordinate a group of people. If the characters are willing to take extra time — three or more hours in this example — the difficulty should be lower; perhaps significantly lower if they’re willing to take much longer to finish the task. If the characters are rushing things — in this example trying to finish the task in an hour or less — the command difficulty should be higher to reflect the challenge of getting a group of people to work together under pressure.)

Very Easy. The task isn’t too complicated or is not at all precise. The characters are highly skilled or work together reg­ularly.

Easy. The task is fairly easy or requires a minimal amount of precision. The characters are skilled or work together well.

Moderate. The task requires a good deal of effort or requires precision. The characters have a modest level of skill or have worked together before (although not all that often).

Difficult. The task is difficult or requires a high degree of precision. The characters don’t have very much skill or have seldom worked together before (if at all).

Very Difficult. The task is very difficult or requires extreme precision. The characters are completely unskilled in the task or have never worked together (or despise each other).

Heroic. The task is incredibly difficult or requires an almost impossible level of precision. The characters are completely unskilled, despise each other or don’t even speak the same lan­guage.

You can increase or decrease the difficulty based on other factors, such as weather conditions (people are going to have a harder time working in torrential rains than in pleasant weath­er) or anything else that affects the commander’s ability to get the characters to work together as a unit. If a task is very easy and the characters are highly skilled or experienced, you may even allow a leader to combine actions for more characters than he has command skill dice

Example: Threll is supervising a group of eight Jaffa troops who are fixing a cargo hauling Tel’tak that broke down in the middle of a dense jungle. Threll is only one supervising the action (and not working on the ship), so he rolls his full com­mand skill.

The cargo hauler needs to have its cooling system fixed (the Jaffa don’t have replacement tubes, so they have to patch the ones that are already on the Tel’tak) and recalibrate the generator. This repair job is a fairly difficult task and none of the characters are very experienced at working on Tel’taks, but they’ve all worked together for a long time. The gamemaster selects a command diffi­culty of Moderate, with a difficulty number of 12.

Threll’s command roll is 27 — he succeeds in com­bining the actions of his troops. If the command roll is successful, the combined action bonus is +1D for every three characters combining. Add a +1 for one “extra” character and a +2 for two “extra” characters.

Example: Threll has commanded eight Jaffa troops. That’s a combined action bonus of +2D+2. (The first six characters earn a +2D, with a +2 for the two “extra” characters.)

If the commander fails the roll, there may still be a smaller combined action bonus. Subtract −1D from the bonus for every point the roll failed by. (A bonus cannot go below 0D.)

Example: Threll successfully commanded eight troops to get the combined action bonus of +2D+2.

The command difficulty number was 12. If Threll had rolled an 11, he would have missed the difficulty number by one: the bonus would have been +1D+2. If he’d rolled a 10 (missing the difficulty number by two), the bonus would have been +2.

If he’d rolled a 9 or less, there would have been no bonus at all.

The combined action bonus is added to the character with the highest skill who’s working on the task.

Example: Threll has commanded the troops to get a +2D+2 bonus. Repairing the busted Tel’tak is a starshp repair (or Technical) task; one Jaffa trooper has starship repair at 4D+1. Because of the bonus, the trooper now gets to roll 6D+3 to fix the busted starship.

If a group of characters are combining actions on a combat task, the bonus can be split between the attack roll and damage roll. Likewise, if the task requires two or more skill rolls, the bonus can be split up among any of these rolls.

Example: Threll’s troops have repaired the Tel’tak and continue through the area. Several hours later, the Jaffa sneak up on an Tau’ri SG Team.

Threll decides that his troops should ambush the team. The Jaffa have to take out the team with one shot, since they could get off a warning on their radios if they have a chance.

Threll commands eight of his troops to combine fire on the team. The command difficulty is Moderate; Threll beats the difficulty number to get the +2D+2 bonus.

One of Threll’s troopers has an energy weapons skill of 6D and uses a staff weapon that does 6D damage. The Jaffa is pretty likely to hit the trooper, but he wants to add +1D of the bonus to his energy weapons skill just in case. If the Jaffa hits, he gets to roll 7D+2 for dam­age. (6D and the remaining combined action bonus of +1D+2.)

Groups

To save time, gamemasters may choose to roll one action for a group of characters they control. Any number can belong to the group. Each member of the group does not have to per­form exactly the same maneuver, but they do need to take similar actions. A gamemaster could make one roll for a pack of womp rats who attack different characters, but they would have to separate the pack into those attacking and those cir­cling if the gamemaster wanted to have them perform those distinctly different activities.

Choosing Difficulties, Determining Success

There are two possibilities for assigning difficulties to a specific action: a difficulty number or an opposed roll. Generally, the adventure specifies the difficulty and what skill is needed, but the gamemaster may come across  circumstances that were not foreseen. In such cases, use these guidelines to decide what to do.

Generic Standard Difficulties

Level	Number
Very Easy	1-5
Easy	6-10
Moderate	11-15
Difficult	16-20
Very Difficult	21-30
Heroic	31 or more

Certain circumstances (typically involving a character attempting a task without a force actively opposing her, such as climbing a wall or piloting a boat) may call for a static difficulty number. In these cases, select a standard difficulty  or use a special difficulty. Circumstances involving an actively opposing force call for an opposed difficulty.

Standard Difficulties

 A standard difficulty is a number that the gamemaster assigns to an action based on how challenging the gamemaster thinks it should be. Existing conditions can change the difficulty of an action. For example, walking has an Automatic difficulty for most characters, but someone who is just regaining the use of their legs may be required to make a Very Heroic running  roll to move even a few steps.

The numbers in parentheses indicate the range of difficulty numbers for that level.

Automatic (0):  Almost anyone can perform this action; there is no need to roll. (Generally, this difficulty is not  listed in a pregenerated adventure; it is included here for reference purposes.)

Very Easy(1-5):  Nearly everyone can accomplish this task. Typically, only tasks with such a low difficulty that are crucial to the scenario are rolled.

Easy (6-10):  Although characters usually have no difficulty with these tasks, a normal adult may find them challenging.

Moderate (11-15):  There is a fair chance that the average character will fail at this type of task. Tasks of this type require skill, effort, and concentration.

Difficult (16-20):  Those with little experience in the task will have to be quite lucky to accomplish these actions. A little luck wouldn’t hurt either.

Very Difficult (21-30):  The average character will only rarely succeed at these kinds of task. Only the most talented regularly succeed.

Heroic (31 or more):  These kinds of tasks are nearly impossible, though there’s still that possibility that lucky average or highly experienced characters will accomplish them.

Random Difficulties

You can randomly determine a difficulty number instead of picking one. First, determine the difficulty level: Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Difficult, Very Difficult, or Heroic. Then roll the dice and use the total as the difficulty number (don’t for­ get to use the wild die).

Level	Random #
Very Easy	1D
Easy	2D
Moderate	3D-4D
Difficult	5D-6D
Very Difficult	7D-8D
Heroic	9D+

Opposed Difficulties

 An opposed difficulty  (also called an opposed roll) only applies when a character’s action is being resisted by another. In this case, both characters generate skill totals and compare them. The character with the higher value wins, and ties go to the defender of the action.

In an opposed task, since both characters are actively doing something, both the initiator and the resisting character use up actions. This means that the resisting character can only participate in an opposed task either if they waited for the initiating character to make a move or if they were actively preparing for the attempt. Otherwise, the gamemaster may allow a reaction roll of the appropriate skill as a free action in some circumastances, or they may derive a difficulty equal to two times the target’s appropriate opposing skill.

Generic Difficulty Modifiers

Modifier	Situational Example
+16+	Overpowering Disadvantage: Something affects the skill use in an almost crippling fashion (repairing a vehicle without any proper tools).
+11-15	Decisive Disadvantage: The skill use is very limited by circumstance (trying to find someone in complete darkness).
+6-10	Significant Disadvantage: The skill use is affected negatively (tracking someone through drizzling rain).
+1-5	Slight Disadvantage: There is an annoying problem (picking a lock by flashlight).
-1-5	Slight Advantage: A tool or modification that makes the skill use a little easier (really good atheletic shoes for climb/jump).
-6-10	Significant Advantage: A tool or modification that makes the skill use much easier (rope with knots in it used for climb/jump).
-11-15	Decisive Advantage: A tool specifically designed to make the job easier (complete language database used for languages).
-16+	Overpowering Advantage: An exceptional tool or modification that specifically makes the skill use much easier (wilderness tools and equipment specially designed to help with survival).

Generic Modifiers

The modifiers offered in a skill’s list or a pregenerated adventure may not cover all the gamemaster’s needs. When conditions arise for which there aren’t pre-established modifiers, use the chart herein to help at those times. These modifiers may be added to opposed, standard, or derived difficulty values.

Good Roleplaying Modifier

 Gamemasters should reward good roleplaying by lowering the difficulty a few points. The better the roleplaying — and the more entertaining the player makes the story — the higher the modifier the gamemaster should include. They could also earn a Action Die as well.

Unskilled Attempts

 Remember that someone without training or experience might, with blind luck, do better than someone with experience — but generally only that one time. There is no guarantee of future of success. When a character defaults to the attribute, figure in not only a difficulty modifier of +1, +5, or more, but also adjust the result accordingly: it won’t be as precise or stylish as someone with skill.

Second Chances

As characters tackle obstacles, they’ll find ones that they can’t overcome initially. Gamemasters will have to rely on their judgment to decide whether and when a character may try an action again. For some actions, such as firearms  or running,  the character may try the action again the next turn, even if they failed. For other actions, such as security  or con,  failing the roll should have serious consequences, depending on how bad the failure was. A small difference between the difficulty number and the success total means the character may try again next round at a higher difficulty. A large difference means that the character has made the situation significantly worse. they will need to spend more time thinking through the problem or find someone or something to assist them in their endeavor. A large difference plus a critical failure could mean that the character has created a disaster. they can’t try that specific task for a long time — perhaps ever. This is especially true with locks and computer programs.

Gamemaster’s Fiat

 The rules are a framework upon which you and your friends build stories set in fantastic and dynamic worlds. As with most frameworks, the rules work best when they show the least, and when they can bend under stress. Keeping to the letter of the rules is almost certainly counterproductive to the whole idea of making an engaging story and having fun. To keep a story flowing with a nice dramatic beat, gamemasters might need to bend the rules, such as ruling a modifier to be less significant in this situation than in another one, or allowing a character to travel a meter or two beyond what the movement rules suggest.

Example Difficulties and Modifiers

This section and the accompanying tables below describe some of the more common noncombat difficulties and the modifiers.

Interaction Difficulties

Several skills are interaction skills: intimidation, command, bargain, con, and persuasion. Character use them to influence other people that they meet. The typical difficulty is 10, modified based on the dispositions of the characters involved, but it can also be based on a skill roll. See the Mental Defenses sidebar for more information on this, as well as some suggested difficulty modifiers. Interaction between player and gamemaster characters shouldn’t be determined only by the die roll. Gamemasters should have their players detail what their characters say and do before rolling the dice. The better the player acts the role of their character, the greater their chance of success should be, which could be reflected by allowing up to a +1D modifier to the skill roll.

Mental Defenses

In general, the resistance difficulty for any extranormal power or interaction skill equals 10. The target cannot actively resist unless they know that a psi power or interaction skill is being used on them by another character. If the gamemaster decides that the target suspects but does not know for certain that someone is attempting to influence him, the gamemaster may allow the character to take an action earlier than their turn in the round and roll their willpower or Knowledge to generate a new resistance difficulty. Should the character be on the active defense against mental intrusion or personal interaction, they may devote all of their actions for the round to that task and roll their willpower or Knowledge, adding +10 to the score to get the new resistance difficulty.

However the resistance difficulty is determined, gamemaster may further modify the resistance difficulty as the situation warrants (such as stress, surprise, or character relationship).

Interaction Difficulty Modifiers

Base Difficulty: 10 or target’s Knowledge or willpower

Situation	Modifier
Target is friendly or trusting	-5
Target is neutral toward character or of equal standing	0
Target is hostile or has superior standing	+5
Target is an enemy	+10
Target is in weakened position	-10
Request is something target would do anyway or target feels is of minor importance	0
Request is illegal or highly dangerous	+10
Target is on guard or actively resisting*	+10

*Do not include this modifier if you are using the active mental defense described above.

Example Difficulties

Information Difficulties

Amount of Information	Difficulty
Basic or common information; unconfirmed rumors	5
Theories; generalities	10
Complex concepts; moderately detailed information	15
Professional level; extensive (though not complete) information	20
Cutting-edge topics; extensive information, including peripheral details and extrapolations	30
Condition Modifier
Age of the information	+5 per century in the past
Closely guarded secret	+15

Observation Difficulties

Situation	Difficulty
Noticing obvious, generic facts; casual glance	5
Noticing obvious details (ex. number of people)	10
Noticing a few less obvious details (ex. gist of conversation)	15
Spotting a few specific details (ex., identities of individuals)	20
Spotting a few obscure details (ex. specifics of conversation)	25
Noticing many obscure details	30 or more

General Repair Difficulty Modifiers

Base Difficulty: 10

Situation	Modifier
Light repairs/modifications	0
Heavy repairs/modifications	+5
Extensive repairs/modifications	+10 or more
Built or modified item	-10
Has item’s designs	-5
Common item	0
Has seen but not used item	+5
Has never seen item	+10
All parts available	0
Some parts available	+10
No parts available	+20
Correct tools*	0
Makeshift tools +15	+15

*Tool kits might provide their own bonuses.

Information Difficulties

This attribute assists characters in finding out how much they know about a certain field, modified depending on the situation. For this reason, one chart of general difficulties can serve most Knowledge-based skills.

This chart can be employed in one of two ways: by picking a difficulty based on what the character seeks or wants to recall, or by comparing the skill total rolled to the difficulties (whichever level the character meets or beats is the amount and type of information collected or recollected).

One high roll in any of these skills does not necessarily make the character an expert in that field. The roll represents only what the character recalls at the time. A high roll could reveal a specific detail of the information sought, as well as some hints for discovering more of what the character seeks.

Oberservation Difficulties

To see if a character notices details of a scene or situation, the gamemaster may have the player make a Perception roll. Unless the characters are actively searching or tracking (and thus using the search skill), this passive observance of

a scene does not count as an action. Use this chart as a guideline for how much the character notices. If the skill total meets or beats the difficulty, the character gains that much information.

General Repair Difficulties

The Technical attribute contains many “repair” skills used to fix and modify various equipment and vehicles. These skills follow similar guidelines for setting difficulties, though the gamemaster should adjust them to best fit a given situation.

Movement

Running

The difficulty to cover rapidly a distance on foot is determined by the number of extra movements the character takes. One movement equals the character’s Move value; two movements equals twice the Move value, and so on. For each movement beyond the first, add 5 to the base difficulty of zero.

Example: A character with a Move of 10 meters per round who wants to move 20 meters in one round has a running difficulty of 5, while a character who wants to move 40 meters has a difficulty of 15. A character who fails their running roll covers only their Move or may even trip.

Swimming

A hero’s swimming Move equals half their normal Move (rounded up). One movement while swimming equals the swimming Move, two movements equals twice the swimming Move, and so on. Increasing this rate likewise increases the base difficulty of 5 by +5 for each movement beyond the first. Thus, the difficulty for a hero to move two times their swimming speed is 10 (5 for the base difficulty plus 5 for the additional movement).

Climbing

Characters who have the climb/jump skill can move up a surface at their normal Move (barring adverse environmental factors) with a base difficulty of 5. Those without such a skill move at half their normal movement rate. Increasing the rate increases the difficulty by +10 for each additional onehalf of the base climbing Move (rounded up).

Example: A character with a running Move of 10 meters and without the climb/jump skill wants to move quickly up a tree. Their base climbing Move is 5. To increase this to 7 meters per round means a difficulty of 20 (10 to climb the tree plus +10 to increase the movement by one-half, or 3 meters, of their base climbing Move).

Jumping

A character’s total leaping distance (vertically and horizontally) from a standing position equals one-quarter of their Move in meters (rounded up). The base difficulty is 5 to move this distance, plus +10 for each additional two meters (vertically and horizontally) the character hopes to cover.

Fatigue

Keep in mind that most characters cannot move rapidly for long periods of time. Determine a suitable length of time depending on existing conditions, the Strength of the character, and any relevant Special Abilities they have. Any additional fast movement beyond that predetermined length requires a fatigue modifier of -5 to the skill total for each additional round that they continue running. The modifier is cumulative. Thus, one round beyond the maximum is –5, two rounds is –10, and so on.

The gamemaster may use the fatigue modifier for any repetitive action performed for an extended period of time.

Accelerating and Decelerating

When it becomes important to the scenario, such as a race or a chase scene, the gamemaster may choose to include acceleration and deceleration maximums.

A character may increase or decrease their current movement rate by up to two times that rate, regardless of whether their movement roll would allow them to travel a greater distance. The minimum increase or decrease is two times the character’s base Move for that type of movement.

Movement Difficulty Modifiers

Base Difficulty: 5

Situation	Modifier
Easy terrain (flat surface, smooth water, using a ladder)	0
Moderate terrain (uneven surface, small obstacles, choppy water, climbing a tree)	+5
Rough terrain (large but negotiable obstacles, strong undercurrent, climbing a rough wall)	+10
Very rough terrain (dense and large obstacles, stormy weather, a few airborne hazards)	+15
Hazardous terrain (minefield, narrow walkway, many airborne hazards, large waves, climbing a smooth surface)	+20
Very hazardous terrain (corridor filled with falling debris and explosions, swimming in a hurricane)	+25 or more

Example: A character with a base walking Move of 10 has minimum swimming change of 10 — two times their swimming move of 5.

Example: A character with a Move of 10 is chasing a thief, who just swiped their cred-key. In the first round, they may move up to 20 meters, which has a running difficulty of 5. In the second round, they can increase their speed to 40 meters, which has a  running difficulty of 15. If, in the second round, the player generates a  running total of 20, by the acceleration rules, they may only move 40 meters, even though their running total meets the difficulty to move 50 meters.

Similarly, if a character does not make a movement roll that would allow them to move at the previous round’s rate, that character automatically slows by two times their base Move. In other words, subtract two times the base Move from the current movement rate to get the new movement rate. If this makes the current movement zero, then the character stops. If it’s less than zero, the character trips.

Example: The character chasing the thief increased their speed to a rate of 40 meters per round. To maintain this speed, their player needs to continue generating a total of 15 with the character’s  running skill. If the player gets less than 15, then their character’s speed drops to 20 meters per round (50 minus two times their base Move of 10).

Movement Options

The gamemaster may include additional modifiers or require an additional related skill roll for any form of movement, depending on surrounding conditions, such as high winds, numerous obstacles, slick surfaces, sharp turns, and so on.