Like you, your character can try to do pretty much anything he sets his mind to. He can attempt to jump, read foreign languages or seduce a member of the opposite sex. His relative success is based on his traits, any tools he brings to bear, the number of dice that you get to roll, and how well you roll. V arious activities call for different kinds of rolls. Some, like throwing a punch, have immediate effects if any at all, while others such as rebuilding an engine can involve time and energy, being performed over a prolonged period. Yet other activities have either immediate or extended effects, but involve direct competition with someone else. He who does the best job prevails. Examples of the last include arm wrestling (immediate) or trying to win a long-distance race (prolonged).
The following are the actions your character can perform, along with systems for deciding how well he does.
Many activities take almost no time to achieve. Shooting a gun is an obvious example. Karate chopping a piece of wood is another. These feats are performed and completed in the moment, usually with obvious results — the attempt fails or succeeds. Basically, any activity that can be performed and completed in the space of one turn — three seconds — is considered an instant action. These efforts are resolved with the roll of a single dice pool. If you get no successes on the roll, your character fails at the activity. Most likely, no result occurs and he wastes his time. Instant actions usually require only one success to be performed. Sometimes the actual number of successes that you achieve is counted, as in combat to determine damage done to a target.
It’s possible to achieve exceptional results when five or more successes are earned with a single dice roll. Your character does even better than hoped. Maybe he not only reaches the other side of the pit, he knocks aside debris on the far side that makes it easier for others to land. Or, he makes it up the banister even faster than his opponent who takes the stairs. The Attribute and Skill tasks described in Chapters 2 and 3 suggest possible results when failure, success and exceptional success occur.
By this system, the challenge of any feat is laid out before you. One success always indicates a positive result. Five or more successes might suggest a great success, but one is always the benchmark. And you always roll against a fixed target number of 8. The relative difficulty of an action is therefore determined by the number of dice added to or subtracted from your dice pool. The more dice you have in hand, the more likely it is that you’ll roll a success. The fewer the dice in your pool, the slimmer your character’s chances. When your character performs an activity that requires the space of a turn to be accomplished, you compose a dice pool based on his traits, add or subtract dice based on bonuses or penalties, and roll in hopes of getting successes. If you get at least one, your character succeeds in the moment.
Example: The crook holds hostage the china doll that Travis so dearly needs. If the doll is damaged, the spirit of Travis’ deceased grandmother will haunt him forever. Trying to buy time, the crook throws the doll and makes a run for it. Travis races to catch the special toy. The Storyteller calls for a Dexterity + Athletics roll. Travis’ Dexterity is 3 and his Athletics is 1. He has no special tools or benefits to apply to the effort. Meanwhile, there’s a whole room full of furniture for Travis to navigate to get to the doll in time (the Storyteller imposes a -3 penalty). The result is a dice pool of one (3 + 1 - 3). The roll turns up a 2. Travis dives and falls short as the doll shatters on the floor, just out of reach.
Somewhere in the house, a disembodied wail echoes.
The possible results from any instant action:
Dramatic Failure A single chance roll is made and a 1 results
Failure No successes achieved on the roll
Success One or more successes achieved on the roll
Exceptional success Five or more successes achieved on the roll
Some actions demand time and effort to be performed. They can’t be completed on the fly or in the moment as instant actions are. Activities such as conducting research into a politician with a shady past, or canvassing a neighborhood for strange sightings are considered extended actions. Rather than require one roll, they demand several rolls before overall success can be determined. Successes earned per roll are accumulated, and the period that passes between rolls varies depending on the activity performed.
Each roll — each step in the process — is a step toward achieving the end goal, such as hacking a computer or hot-wiring a car. A failure on any roll means you accumulate no successes at that stage and your character’s time in that period is wasted. The project continues, though.
It’s also possible that particularly crippling penalties could be imposed on your dice pool for any stage, reducing you to a chance roll. Say a research effort is made ever more challenging in the wake of a fire in which important documents are lost. (The Storyteller imposes a high penalty to subsequent rolls made.) A dramatic failure on such a roll cancels all accumulated successes and may mean that your character must start the extended action from scratch, but also has to make some change in circumstance (he has to find a new source of information, get new tools, read the automobile repair manual or find new parts). Under delicate circumstances, perhaps when tools or parts are one-of-a-kind, a dramatic failure may indicate that the project ends in utter failure, maybe with harm done to your character.
The Storyteller determines how many total successes are required to complete an extended action. He also decides what period of time passes for each roll that you make, and translates what each stage means for your character.
Chapter 3 indicates likely extended actions, the number of successes they require, and how much time passes with each roll. Relatively easy tasks such as stripping, cleaning and reassembling a gun may demand four successes, and each roll may constitute 10 minutes of time. Early stages involve pulling the pieces apart, intermediate stages involve ordering and cleaning them, and final stages indicate re-assembly of the weapon. A more demanding project such as building an elaborate bomb can demand 15 successes. Each roll can represent hours or days passed. Early stages indicate acquisition of parts. Middle rolls represent the combination of elements. Final rolls indicate that last touches are applied and that the timing mechanism is set just right (or not).
Unless a particular task or roll is described as an extended action, consider it to be instant.
Example: Marcus barricades himself inside the machine shop while that thing stalks him outside. Marcus realizes that he needs a weapon, but there’s nothing but engine parts and tools lying around. Then his eyes fall on the partially disassembled chainsaw on the worktable. He sets to work right away trying to make the saw run again. The Storyteller calls for Wits + Crafts rolls, since so much improvising of parts is involved. The Storyteller also decides that each roll signifies the passing of 15 minutes, and that a total of 10 successes is required. Secretly, the Storyteller knows that the creature outside will grow tired of waiting and smash the door down after an hour (four rolls) of toying with its prey.
Marcus’ Wits + Crafts total is seven, and the Storyteller says he gets three bonus dice per roll thanks to the facilities available. In the first 15 minutes, the 10 dice produce three successes. In the second roll, they net two more. The third roll gets no successes at all. It looks grim for Marcus. But in the fourth roll, an amazing six successes are achieved — one more than the 10 required, and just in the nick of time. When the creature bursts through the door, Marcus whirls around with a screaming weapon in hand.
Roll Limitations
Tasks described throughout the Storytelling System involve extended actions. Examples include rebuilding an engine or writing a computer program. By definition, an extended action calls for a total number of successes, which a character tries to meet. His successes from roll to roll are accumulated until they equal or exceed that number. At that point, the project is completed and the time it required is determined by the number of rolls made. If each roll involves an hour and six rolls are made, six hours pass. Simple.
And yet, on its own this system implies that almost any project can be accomplished given enough time. A crook can work on a lock indefinitely until she breaks in. A writer can work for an extended period on a movie script until it’s finished. In reality, people rarely have unlimited time in which to accomplish their goals. The crook hears a security guard approach and needs to pick the lock before he spots her. The scriptwriter has a deadline by which the producer wants to see a finished product. The Storyteller can therefore impose a limit on the number of rolls that are allowed in an extended action. He might say that the crook has time for three attempts to break in before the guard arrives in three minutes (each roll takes one minute). Or the writer’s deadline is in five days, and one roll in the extended action encompasses one day. Thus, the author’s required successes all need to be gathered in five rolls. In these cases, time is the great equalizer.
Time isn’t the only limit to an extended action, though. A character’s inherent capabilities could be a limit, too. The Storyteller can rule that a maximum number of rolls can be made in an extended action equal to a character’s pertinent Attribute + Skill. If he can’t get the job done in that number of rolls, the project simply confounds him. Take the would-be burglar above. Say she has 3 Dexterity and 2 Larceny. Assuming she has unlimited time in which to break in, the Storyteller can still rule that if the required number of successes aren’t gathered in five rolls (the total of her Dexterity + Larceny), she simply can’t do it. Maybe the lock is jammed, she can’t think straight or her hands ache from an earlier accident — whatever rationale the player and Storyteller can apply that explains this turn of events.
Just because this attempt fails doesn’t mean the effort eludes the character forever. The Storyteller decides how much time must pass before another stab at the extended action can be made. If the effort itself involves a short period of time, such as overcoming a lock, it might not be picked this scene but the character can try again in a sub- sequent scene. If a project involves considerable time, such as each roll occupying days or weeks, a new attempt at the project might not be possible for a month.
If the Storyteller does allow a subsequent effort at the project, he may impose a penalty on all its rolls. If this is the second attempt, all rolls might suffer a -1 penalty. If this is a character’s third attempt, the penalty might be -2. Such modifiers are akin to those imposed under “Successive Attempts” (p. 132) and are the only case in which such penalties might apply to the rolls of an extended action.
Example: Marcus attempts to frame in his basement as a shelter, complete with booby traps and secret compartments. The Storyteller rules that it’s an extended effort, with each roll demanding one day. A total number of 15 successes is required. Marcus’ Intelligence + Crafts is 6, and he has some high-quality tools that offer a +1 bonus.
If time were of the essence, the Storyteller might decide that Marcus needs all 15 successes in four days — in four rolls. If he doesn’t have them in time, the shelter is useless when that thing in his neighborhood comes looking for food. Alternatively, if time is not an issue but Marcus’ own capabilities are, all 15 successes need to be accumulated in six rolls (the total of his Intelligence + Crafts). In six rolls, Marcus has only 13 successes. He hasn’t been able to overcome certain snags and his basement is cluttered with boards and gear. The Storyteller lets him try again in the future, though. It’s decided that the process can begin again in a week. This time, however, all rolls suffer a -1 penalty because this is a subsequent attempt. Marcus stacks the odds in his favor and gets some self-help books and even better tools. The bonuses this new equipment offers helps him get 15 successes in six rolls, despite the -1 penalty that each roll suffers. Had even this attempt failed, the Storyteller could have allowed a third, but all rolls in it would have incurred a -2 penalty.
It’s also possible in some cases that a character really does have unlimited time to work, and his Attribute and Skill dots are not necessarily a limit to how many rolls he can get to finish a project. A character might rebuild a classic car, for example. The old hulk sits in his garage for months as he tinkers on it on weekends. There is no deadline or imminent threat, and the character does it for pleasure rather than out of fear or pressure. The Storyteller decides that each roll represents a week of work, and the character will eventually succeed given enough time and successes. Here are some guidelines for the amount of time to assign per roll in an extended action.
Pace of Activity - Time per Roll
Quick - 1 turn (3 seconds)
Short - 10 minutes
Long - 30 minutes
Lengthy -1 hour
Consuming - 1 day
Exhausting - 1 week or month
Target Successes
The extended actions detailed throughout this book all call for a total number of successes required to finish a project. Whenever possible, totals are derived from the traits of the characters involved. A competition between characters might require target numbers equal to the opponents’ Speed, Dexterity + Crafts or double Dexterity + Crafts, for example. The goal in choosing these traits and setting a target is twofold:
1) Using traits to set targets keeps those targets relevant to the people involved or to the activity performed.
2) A target is sought that doesn’t allow an extended action to be resolved too quickly, but the task shouldn’t drag on and on, either. A target should reflect the overall difficulty of a task, but it should still involve some kind of prolonged challenge. Otherwise, it would be resolved as an instant action.
Ultimately, the Storyteller decides how long an extended action should last, and therefore how many successes it requires. If the prescribed target listed in this book will make for too quick an effort or competition in your game — it will be resolved in a couple rolls when you want it to have dramatic significance — feel free to increase the number of successes needed. A number normally based on Speed or double an Attribute + Skill can be turned into an artificial target of 15, 20 or 25, instead. Whether the number is based on participants’ traits is ultimately unimportant. How it’s resolved in-game is what really matters. An increased number could allow for a demanding effort or an intense creative process, or could heighten the tension of a competition between characters (in an extended and contested task — see below).
Here are some guidelines for target numbers that you can assign to extended actions. These are based on the complexity or sheer scale of the job, or on the drama that you want to evoke.
Challenge - Target Number
Simple/Relaxed - 5
Involved/Trying - 10
Elaborate/Demanding - 15
Ornate/Daunting - 20
Intricate/Epic - 25
Some activities that your character performs are conducted in direct competition with someone else, whether it’s another player’s character or one of the Storyteller’s characters. A race is a good example. Trying to crack the hard-drive protections created by someone else is another. You pit your character’s capabilities against someone else’s.
Contested actions are easy to resolve. You simply determine your dice pool, apply all modifiers, and roll. The same is done for your character’s opponent. He who gets the most successes wins. Exceeding your opponent’s successes and gaining five or more of them indicates an exceptional accomplishment. If it’s a tie or neither side gets any successes, the effort fails altogether or successive attempts (see p. 132) may be made in subsequent turns, if appropriate. The Storyteller decides if the effort can be attempted over and over until one competitor wins. If both try to grab a fish that swims downstream, they both probably have only one chance before the fish is gone. If one tries to hack into another’s computer, the effort might persist as long as the intruder likes or until fail-safes shut him out. If either side of a contested roll gets a dramatic failure, he either fails utterly or his opponent automatically achieves the equivalent of an exceptional success.
In some cases, rolls aren’t made for opponents in the moment of the contest. Sometimes one participant sets up a defense or creates a situation that a challenger later tries to overcome. The roll for the defender is made when he creates the object or defense, and any successes achieved are recorded for future reference. Challengers’ rolls are made as they approach, and are compared to the defender’s original score. So, if an IT manager creates a firewall for a server and four successes are earned for him, a hacker who comes along a year later needs to attain five or more successes to get in.
The Skill descriptions in Chapter 3 indicate when contested actions are appropriate for various tasks. Rolls made are based on the activity performed, as always. Hacking a computer might involve Intelligence + Computer for both sides. Running a race may involve Dexterity + Athletics or Stamina + Athletics.
Note that in a contested action, the total successes rolled for each participant are compared, and he with the higher total wins. The difference between successes rolled is not the “margin of success.” So, if one participant gets two successes and the other gets five, the latter of the two wins with five successes. He doesn’t win with three, the difference between the two totals.
Contested feats can be based on instant actions or extended ones. Activities that take only a moment — a turn — to perform between competitors are considered instant actions and are resolved with one roll each. Wrestling over a fallen gun probably involves only one action’s effort to decide who ends up with the weapon. If rolls tie or neither results in successes, the struggle can continue into the next turn, but it’s still considered an instant action because it can once again be resolved in the space of one turn.
More time-consuming or demanding activities that are performed in competition are considered extended actions and use the rules detailed above. These feats are also contested, though. Rolls are still made for each com- petitor in each stage. He who gets the most successes wins that stage, and successes achieved by each side are added to a running total. The winner is the first competitor who accumulates successes equaling the total required to complete the project. Such competition over a period of time and effort occurs in a long-distance race, a car chase, a debate or in an effort between scientific teams to be the first to find a vaccine. Essentially, any effort that demands more than a single turn’s effort to decide a winner involves an extended and contested action.
Example: At first, Karen and her mugger struggled over her purse, but now that a giant wolf has descended upon them, they both run for their lives. The two race, because the slower of the two will be the wolf’s victim. The Storyteller decides that the race is an instant action — decided in the space of a turn. The wolf is satisfied with whoever is closest when it pounces. Dexterity + Athletics rolls apply for both. Karen’s Speed trait is two higher than the would-be thief’s, so the Storyteller awards two bonus dice, but she wears dress shoes that impose a -1 penalty. Karen’s player rolls, and the Storyteller rolls for the mugger. Karen’s roll nets four successes while the mugger’s gets three. The wolf has its victim, the slow thief.
Now, if the wolf holds back and allows its victims to run, judging which is the weaker of the two, the Storyteller could decree that the race is a contested and extended effort. He decides that whoever gets six successes first is allowed to escape — the wolf ignores the victor and chooses the loser as its prey. One roll marks a turn’s time and the loser is dinner. The Storyteller also decides that since this isn’t a measure of pure reaction time, but of endurance, Stamina + Athletics is rolled. Karen’s Stamina is 2 and her Athletics is 4, for a total of 6. The same modifiers above still apply, so seven dice are rolled for Karen each turn. The criminal’s dice-pool total is five. In the first turn, Karen gets one success to the thief’s three. He has the lead. In turn two, Karen gets three successes, while her opponent gets none. Karen is a step ahead now, but neither party has gotten away. In turn three, Karen gets a tragic zero successes while the mugger gets three, for the required total of six. Abject panic gives him a burst of speed, leaving Karen to fend off the beast that howls greedily and leaps in her direction.
If participants in an extended and contested action accumulate their required number of successes at the same time, no winner is determined. They could both finish their separate projects simultaneously with no clear leader. Both scientific teams present their successful findings at the same time, for example. Alternatively, the competition could continue until someone overcomes the other. Rolls continue to be made, perhaps to improve upon efforts that have already been achieved. Say, debaters both make valid points, so they continue their discussion to see who can get the last word.
If an extended and contested action is a tie, the Storyteller could rule that ongoing competition is worthless. Perhaps time has run out or the goal that both sides pursue is no longer available. Debating teams could refuse to quit, but the panel of judges has already decided that neither has won.
In addition to the instant, extended and contested actions that your character can perform are reflexive actions. These behaviors don’t qualify as any of the above, because your character doesn’t take time to perform them — or even think about them. They’re performed automatically, almost like the autonomic functions of your body. Accounting for them in a turn would be like rolling for your character’s heart to beat or lungs to take in air.
Reflexive actions are best considered defensive or reactionary activities that don’t intrude upon other behavior. They include resisting poison, seeing through a deception, defying social pressure and spending Willpower points. These activities do not preclude your character from taking his normal action in a turn; they are performed in addition to that action, and are resolved immediately after the instigating action or attack (when the poison is injected, when the threat is leveled or when your character decides to go for broke).
Various actions discussed in Chapters 2, 3 and 7 are termed “reflexive.”
Instant - Throwing a punch, controlling a vehicle
A one-shot chance of success or failure; success is determined by a single roll.Extended - Mountain climbing, tracking in woods
Task stretches over a period of time and each stage renews the chance for failure or success. You make several rolls with the goal of collecting a stated number of successes.Contested - Pickpocketing or sneaking by a guard
An instant action that pits two characters against each other. The two compare successes. He with the highest total wins.Extended + Contested - Chasing someone, a pie-eating contest
Players roll repeatedly in order to accumulate successes. The first to reach the total set by the Storyteller wins.
Sometimes your character performs a feat with amazing ease, flair or grace. In game terms, when you roll your dice pool for an action and get five or more successes, your character achieves an exceptional success. When that happens, the Storyteller is encouraged to elaborate upon your character’s accomplishments, allowing for even more than was intended to happen. Maybe an exceptional Drive roll not only allows your character to avoid a hazard, but he manages to swerve around it and resume his previous course without spilling his beer.
The significance of an exceptional success varies according to the kind of roll made and the circumstances of the task. For an instant action that happens in the space of one turn, such as the above driving example, the Storyteller typically decides what happens. Some extra benefit or reward is gained. If an exceptional success is gained in combat, the extra benefit is obvious. Each success rolled inflicts a point of damage on the target. See Chapter 7 for more information.
For a contested action that involves two characters in competition, the winner who has five or more successes — and more successes than his opponent — is the clear and obvious victor. He makes the contest look easy and his opponent look bad. Say, your character and a thug dive for the same gun. You not only roll more successes, but you get five or more. Your character gets the gun and points it in one motion, leaving the thug facedown with a handful of air and a mouthful of dirt.
For an extended action that occurs over a period of time, any single exceptional success catapults your character toward a quick completion of his task. You gain five or more successes toward the total that you need. Your character has a major stroke of luck or moment of inspiration that advances his project considerably.
If, by virtue of some extremely good luck, you accumulate five or more successes than the number required to complete an extended action, the Storyteller may bestow some extra effect or favorable result. Say that you need 10 successes for your character to research a shady councilman’s background. You currently have nine suc- cesses and make another roll. Incredibly, you get six more successes, for a total of 15. Not only has your character discovered a gold mine of information and wrapped up the investigation, but you have gained five more successes than you needed. The Storyteller decides that your character stumbles upon ledgers that implicate the councilman in blackmail. Normally, the Storyteller might not have allowed your character to have uncovered that much information, but your exceptional number of successes beyond those needed confer the bonus.
Examples of possible exceptional successes are provided throughout Chapters 2 and 3 for different Attribute and Skill tasks.