Post by Ayleth Bartheld on Nov 26, 2014 16:17:16 GMT
Just a little something I wrote some time ago that I imagine some might find useful (especially new players), as my experience is that there's always someone that makes mistakes on this.
The Basic Test
For any kind of test, the following steps are followed:
1. Roll an amount of dice equal to the sum of the test dice and bonus dice
2. Discard an amount of dice equal to the sum of the bonus dice and penalty dice
3. Apply any modifiers to the test.
4. Compare the result with the difficulty.
Typically, a difficulty is given by the narrator for a given task, ranging from automatic (0) to heroic (21). If you succeed, you gain a number of degrees of success based on by how much you beat the result with:
0-4: 1 degree
5-9: 2 degrees
10-14: 3 degrees
15+: 4 degrees
Two other kinds of tests are also worth mentioning:
A Competition Test is one where two or more characters each roll against the same difficulty and compares results, whoever gains the most degrees of success wins, while an equal amount of degrees is typically a tie.
A Conflict Test is one where a character use an ability against another character. This may be to swing a sword past his shield or to sneak past undetected. The test is made against the relevant passive defense of the character in question, such as combat defense against attacks and passive awareness against sneaking. Sometimes an opposed roll is used instead. For example, if the guard that a character is trying to sneak past is actively searching, the guard rolls awareness-notice, and that is the difficulty rather than the passive awareness.
Test Dice
These are the kept dice (though see penalty dice below). You have a number of these equal to the rank in the ability tested. Fighting 5D, for example means that you have 5 ranks in Fighting, and thus roll 5 test dices with fighting. Sometimes, you gain additional test dice. Noted as +XD, these are added. If you have the expertise (long blades) quality, you gain +1D when fighting with a longsword, and would thus roll 6D on any test with a longsword, plus any additional test dices you could gather from other circumstances.
Bonus Dice
These are unkept dice. You have a number of these equal to the applicable specialty for the test in question. You may for example have Fighting 5D, Long Blades 3B. You roll the 5 test dices for the longsword as usual, but in addition, you also roll the 3 bonus dices, for 8 dice total. But bonus dices are unkept dice, so you only get to keep the 5 dice with the highest result. Some circumstances may alter the amount of bonus dice you get. If for example, you wield a bastard sword with it's training penalty of -1B, you roll one less bonus dice than you would have (so 5 kept and 2 unkept), if you took the aim action, you'd get +1B (for 5 kept and 4 unkept), and if you had animal handling 3 and were on horseback, you would gain an additional +3B. However, you may not have more bonus dice than test dice on a roll (some qualities and other factors allows you to circumvent this in specific cases, mind). So you remain capped at 5D+5B, if however, you have the expertise (long blades) quality, you have (5+1=6)D, which would allow you to roll 6D+6B.
Penalty Dice
These are additional unkept dice. Noted as -#D. If you have Fighting 5D, Long Blades 3B, and are using the charge action (which bestows a -1D on your attack) you roll 5D+3B as normal, roll all eight dice, remove the 3 lowest, as normal. And then you remove an additional dice because of the penalty. Essentially you roll eight dices and keep the four highest. Keep in mind that penalty dice does not reduce the cap on bonus dice. If you were charging on horseback as in the above example, you would roll 5D+5B and then apply the penalty dice after, effectively rolling 10 dice and keeping the 4 highest.
The Basic Test
For any kind of test, the following steps are followed:
1. Roll an amount of dice equal to the sum of the test dice and bonus dice
2. Discard an amount of dice equal to the sum of the bonus dice and penalty dice
3. Apply any modifiers to the test.
4. Compare the result with the difficulty.
Typically, a difficulty is given by the narrator for a given task, ranging from automatic (0) to heroic (21). If you succeed, you gain a number of degrees of success based on by how much you beat the result with:
0-4: 1 degree
5-9: 2 degrees
10-14: 3 degrees
15+: 4 degrees
Two other kinds of tests are also worth mentioning:
A Competition Test is one where two or more characters each roll against the same difficulty and compares results, whoever gains the most degrees of success wins, while an equal amount of degrees is typically a tie.
A Conflict Test is one where a character use an ability against another character. This may be to swing a sword past his shield or to sneak past undetected. The test is made against the relevant passive defense of the character in question, such as combat defense against attacks and passive awareness against sneaking. Sometimes an opposed roll is used instead. For example, if the guard that a character is trying to sneak past is actively searching, the guard rolls awareness-notice, and that is the difficulty rather than the passive awareness.
Test Dice
These are the kept dice (though see penalty dice below). You have a number of these equal to the rank in the ability tested. Fighting 5D, for example means that you have 5 ranks in Fighting, and thus roll 5 test dices with fighting. Sometimes, you gain additional test dice. Noted as +XD, these are added. If you have the expertise (long blades) quality, you gain +1D when fighting with a longsword, and would thus roll 6D on any test with a longsword, plus any additional test dices you could gather from other circumstances.
Bonus Dice
These are unkept dice. You have a number of these equal to the applicable specialty for the test in question. You may for example have Fighting 5D, Long Blades 3B. You roll the 5 test dices for the longsword as usual, but in addition, you also roll the 3 bonus dices, for 8 dice total. But bonus dices are unkept dice, so you only get to keep the 5 dice with the highest result. Some circumstances may alter the amount of bonus dice you get. If for example, you wield a bastard sword with it's training penalty of -1B, you roll one less bonus dice than you would have (so 5 kept and 2 unkept), if you took the aim action, you'd get +1B (for 5 kept and 4 unkept), and if you had animal handling 3 and were on horseback, you would gain an additional +3B. However, you may not have more bonus dice than test dice on a roll (some qualities and other factors allows you to circumvent this in specific cases, mind). So you remain capped at 5D+5B, if however, you have the expertise (long blades) quality, you have (5+1=6)D, which would allow you to roll 6D+6B.
Penalty Dice
These are additional unkept dice. Noted as -#D. If you have Fighting 5D, Long Blades 3B, and are using the charge action (which bestows a -1D on your attack) you roll 5D+3B as normal, roll all eight dice, remove the 3 lowest, as normal. And then you remove an additional dice because of the penalty. Essentially you roll eight dices and keep the four highest. Keep in mind that penalty dice does not reduce the cap on bonus dice. If you were charging on horseback as in the above example, you would roll 5D+5B and then apply the penalty dice after, effectively rolling 10 dice and keeping the 4 highest.
