The Storyteller basically has two options when events need to be resolved in your story. He can simply decree that an action succeeds or does not, often based on your character’s trait scores. Maybe Strength 2 is required to lift a tire and throw it, and your character has Strength 4. This approach minimizes interruptions to the flow of the narrative, as previously discussed.
The Storyteller’s other option in exploring how a story unfolds is to call for a dice roll on your part. Your character seeks to accomplish a feat, there’s an element of chance that he could succeed or fail, and the Storyteller asks you to decide your character’s fate. Rolls are usually reserved for activities that involve an element of danger or threat if things go badly. You don’t have to roll to decide if your character can accomplish ordinary or day-to-day actions such as crossing the street safely. But when you add the unknown factor of trying to cross the street safely during a drive-by shooting, the ordinary becomes extraordinary — and dangerous.
The Storytelling System uses 10-sided dice, also known as “d10’s.” A handful of such dice rolled to resolve an action is called a dice pool. Ideally, each player should bring about 10 dice to the game so you all have enough.
As described in the preceding chapters, your character’s talents and capabilities are qualified and quantified with traits and dots. These values help measure how effective your character is at different activities. Attributes and Skills are rated 1 to 5 for ordinary people. One Attribute and one Skill are typically combined when your character performs a feat, and the total of the two traits is rolled in dice to decide how well she does.
The Attribute and Skill combined are the ones most appropriate to the task performed. The descriptions of all these traits in Chapters 2 and 3 help you decide which dots should be combined. The Storyteller often dictates which apply, too. So, if your character climbs a cliff, you look to her Strength + Athletics scores. If she seeks to pressure someone to do a favor for her, you use Presence + Intimidation. If your character climbs a cliff and you compose a pool based on 3 Strength and 2 Athletics, you have a total of five dice.
Sometimes various Attributes or Skills could apply to an activity, and there’s some gray area on just which two should be combined. If your character needs to climb a cliff quickly more so than safely, you might petition the Storyteller (or he might decide) that Dexterity rather than Strength should be combined with Athletics. If your character seeks to convince rather than pressure someone to do a favor, you might combine Manipulation and one of Persuasion or Socialize instead of Intimidation, whichever is most appropriate to the manner in which your character seeks to accomplish her goal.
Emphasis is put on these last words because you shouldn’t try to get traits combined simply because your character has several dots in them. The Storyteller shouldn’t allow you to roll Dexterity + Athletics to climb every cliff just because your character has a high Dexterity score. That might only apply when your character needs to climb quickly. Each situation should actually call for a specific combination of Attribute and Skill.
Chapter 3 also discusses Specialties that your character may possess in Skills. These are areas of expertise that give your character extra capability in an effort. His Specialty in Athletics might be “Climbing.” Possession of that Specialty adds one die to your dice pool. Once again, however, a Specialty must apply according to the action being performed, and the Storyteller must agree. If you roll Stamina + Athletics for your character to swim across a lake, his Climbing Specialty really doesn’t apply, does it?
Sometimes actions performed require no special expertise to perform. They’re activities that anyone can do, such as lifting or resisting poison. These efforts don’t necessarily involve any Skills. Indeed, they’re often based on your character’s inherent capabilities alone. These efforts are called Attribute tasks, many of which are detailed in Chapter 2 under the appropriate traits. When your character performs one of these feats, two Attributes — a primary and secondary — are combined to determine your dice pool. The primary is the one that contributes the most to the effort, such as Strength in lifting. A secondary Attribute plays a support role in the effort, such as Stamina when your character tries to lift something. In some cases, there is no secondary Attribute; only a primary determines success, as with Stamina in holding one’s breath.
When your character performs an Attribute task, your dice pool equals his dots in the traits involved. If your character lifts something and has 2 Strength and 2 Stamina, you have a dice pool of four. If he holds his breath and has a Stamina of 3, you make a Stamina roll with three dice.
As a rule of thumb, if an act can be performed without any expertise — without a Skill — it can be handled as an Attribute task.
For simplicity and game balance, your Storyteller should not usually allow you to combine more than two traits in a single roll. It’s probably an Attribute (inherent talent) and a Skill (learned capability), or an Attribute plus an Attribute (raw talent alone). Two Skills are never combined to form a single dice pool. Learned capabilities have to be based on some foundation of talent (on an Attribute).
If your character has no dots in an applicable Skill, the Storyteller may allow you to roll a dice pool equal to your character’s relevant Attribute alone. Say your character seeks to install a computer program. He has Intelligence dots, but no Computer dots. Your character’s innate Attribute, in this case Intelligence, still offers him a chance to succeed, albeit a small one. If your character attempts an action for which he is not trained (he has no Skill dots), he may attempt the feat, but at a penalty. That penalty is -3 for actions based on Mental Skills, and -1 for actions based on Physical and Social Skills. Thus, if your character has no Medicine Skill but he attempts first aid, you still form a dice pool based on his Dexterity and the roll is at -3. Likewise, if an effort calls for Strength + Athletics and your character doesn’t have that Skill, your dice pool is based on Strength alone and you suffer a -1 penalty.
Some traits such as Willpower have maximum ratings of 10, which is higher than individual Attribute and Skill dots go. Your Storyteller should not usually combine these special traits with others to produce your dice pools. For the most part, these high-rated traits stand alone. Often times, they’re not even rolled but provide points that are spent to influence other rolls.
Step 1: Start with a core dice pool. It’s usually Attribute + Skill.*
* For Attribute tasks, roll primary Attribute + secondary Attribute (if any).Step 2: Apply any dice bonuses or penalties. That is, add appropriate bonus dice to your pool and then subtract dice for penalties. Bonuses include a Specialty that your character might have in a Skill, or equipment that he might use. All bonuses to your pool should be added before any dice are removed for penalties. What remains are the dice you roll. If no dice remain, you’re reduced to a chance roll (p. 125).
Step 3: Roll your total dice pool against a target number of 8. (See p. 125.)
If we always knew just how an action was going to turn out, how all factors would apply, and just what events might contribute, we’d never make mistakes. Everything we’d ever try would come out perfect every time.
The world’s not like that, though. W e don’t always foresee the factors that will be involved in an event. Neither does your character. Sure, he can drive to work without undo threat. He might even be an alert driver and adept at avoiding accidents, but when you throw uncontrollable elements such as rain, fog, faulty steering and a violent, fanged passenger into the mix, emerging safe and sound is a challenge.
Sometimes the factors of an action work to your character’s benefit, such as using tools that facilitate her effort. O ther times, they work to her detriment, as in the case of the atmospheric, car-maintenance and monstrous-passenger problems posed above. As in life, so in the World of Darkness. The conditions that work against your character often seem to outweigh those that work in his favor. When complications arise, they’re not usually for the better — at least not as often as we’d like.
In the rules, circumstances apply as dice added to your dice pool before it’s rolled. These are called modifier or bonus dice. Modifier dice typically represent the tools, weapons or gear that your character brings to bear in an effort. He might drive a high-performance car, wield a knife or carry a set of precise lock picks. The Storyteller or these rules assign a fixed rating to the tool that your character uses. That rating dictates the number of modifier dice that you add to your dice pool.
So, if your character enters combat with a knife and that weapon is rated +1, you add one die to your combat dice pool.
Circumstances can involve more than just tools used, however. The Storyteller often decides what factors apply to your character’s actions. M ost times they’re self-evident, based on the scene that’s set or on the events that have led up to the moment. Y our character may be injured and has trouble acting. Weather plays its part. Your character’s opponent may be concealed or trying to avoid incoming attacks. Some of these conditions help your character’s effort, and add a number of dice to your pool as dictated by the rules or the Storyteller. O ther factors impede your character’s effort and reduce the dice in your hand.
Just as some factors may be known and obvious, others may be unknown to you and your character, and are announced but not explained by the Storyteller. He may know that your character was drugged in the previous scene, for example, and the effects kick in now. Her vision suddenly blurs and she feels dizzy. The Storyteller may reduce your dice pools for reasons currently unknown to you or your character.
In general, each bonus from a tool or situational factor adds one die to your pool. Each penalty subtracts one die from your pool. Say your character has 3 Dexterity and 3 Drive. He drives a high-performance car at high speeds at night and in bad weather. Your dice pool starts at six (3 Dexterity + 3 Drive). His car is rated +3 for maneuverability, giving you nine dice in your hand. The Storyteller decides that darkness and bad weather combine to impose a -4 penalty to your rolls, however, so your pool is reduced to five dice. Chapter 3 details many tools and their bonuses for Skills. This chapter and Chapter 7 list modifiers for weapons and other circumstances.
Be sure to add all the bonuses that apply to your dice pool before penalties are applied. That is, take your starting dice pool based on your character’s traits, add bonuses and then subtract penalties. The dice remaining, if any, are rolled to see if your character accomplishes his intended feat. Yes, it’s possible for extreme penalties to reduce your pool to one or no dice. See “The Chance Roll.”
These rules — or your Storyteller — decides the value of modifiers applied to rolls. This book strives to detail and codify as many different possible situations and permutations as possible, from the quality of tools used to environmental effects to character disabilities, all with factors that you can apply as bonus dice or penalties during play. Not every contingency can be foreseen here, though, so the Storyteller always has final say on what modifier dice are added to — or taken away from — a player’s pool. That combination allows you to play a game that simulates the world as closely as possible, with all kinds of factors taken into account.
Another approach to dice rolling is more freeform. Your troupe can play a fast-and-loose game that doesn’t involve counting “official” modifiers to such a degree. The Storyteller simply looks at the overall circumstances of an activity and decrees a challenge rating to it. He essentially eyeballs the situation as a whole and makes a general call, potentially speeding up the pace of the game.
In general, players are quick to calculate all the bonus dice that add to their pools (say, for lock picks used), and may propose others (a lock has previously suffered damage — another +1 bonus). Assuming the Storyteller agrees to all these variables, he can focus mainly on what penalties are levied (say, two deadbolts have been installed by the building’s occupants — a -3 penalty).
By this intuitive approach, slight bonuses or hindrances are rated one. Moderate ones are rated three, and exceptional or extreme situations are rated five. The first might apply to a Dexterity + Drive roll in the rain. The second might be for a roll in a flood. The third might kick in when your character tries a hairpin turn during a tornado, when his car’s engine is on fire.
As a rule, a single modifier never exceeds five, whether as a bonus or penalty. That means all tools and situational effects are each rated one to five. A knife may offer a combatant one bonus die, while a halberd might give him five. A light rain might remove one die while a monsoon might remove five. Troupes may look up official values so that modifier dice for, say, tools, weather and character disabilities stack. That is, they’re all cumulative.
Or your Storyteller may simply consider all the factors at work in terms of a one-to-five range and come up with one total that applies for an effort. He might allow players to calculate some bonuses, but he summarily decrees that weather and character disabilities make an effort “a trying task,” and three dice are removed from a player’s pool.
Here are some general suggested modifiers.
Bonus Degree of Challenge
+1 A helping hand
+2 A walk in the park
+3 Nothing to it
+4 Easy as pie
+5 You can do it in your sleep
Penalty Degree of Challenge
-1 A minor obstacle
-2 A hard time
-3 A trying task
-4 It’s demanding
-5 Sorely tested
Sometimes your character tries to do something under conditions with which you and she are unfamiliar — and you’re not meant to know what those conditions are. The Storyteller wants to keep you as ignorant as your character is about the circumstances surrounding the effort. Maybe the effects of the aforementioned drug added to your character’s drink are gradual and subtle. They kick in before your character even feels them. Or your character tries to do some research, but she doesn’t know that the book she uses intentionally provides false information.
Under these circumstances, the Storyteller assembles your dice pool for you, applies all modifiers, and makes the roll on your behalf, without showing you the roll or the exact results. You don’t know what factors apply or why, and your character is none the wiser. All she knows is that her effort succeeds or fails, and you must abide by the Storyteller’s roll. That way, you’re as much in the dark about what’s going on as your character, and you can enjoy the story just as she does.
A wise Storyteller avoids enforcing such authority too often. “Executive rolls” are best reserved for situations in which characters and players must be kept out of the loop about unfolding events. Yet there’s nothing more frustrating to players than having control of their characters’ actions — and dice rolls — taken away too often.
Okay, so you have all these dice in your hand. How do you use them? Almost all rolls made in the Storytelling System have a target number of 8. You want to roll 8 or higher on each die.
For each die that turns up 8 or higher in a roll, your character achieves a success at the action he performs. Sometimes the number of successes is counted to determine results, such as in combat. Other times a single success is all that’s required for an action to be fulfilled, such as rounding a corner in a speeding car.
Example: Your character tries to identify the kind of vehicle from which a part comes. His Intelligence + Crafts is 6, and he has a Specialty in engines, offering a +1 bonus. You form a pool of seven dice. The Storyteller decides, however, that the wear and tear that the old part has suffered makes it difficult to recognize (he imposes a -1 penalty). You remove one die and are left with six to roll against a target number of 8.
You get a 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9, for two successes. Since only one success is required to pull off the feat, your character recognizes the part from a military truck.
When you’re hot, you’re hot. Extremely good rolls can lead to extremely positive results for your character. Anytime you get a 10 on a die roll you earn a success and you get to roll that die again. That’s called “10 again.” If the re-roll results in a success, you earn an extra success in the effort. If the result is another 10, you get to keep re-rolling and you add another success to your character’s action for every 10 that you get. If multiple dice in your pool turn up 10’s, you re-roll all of those dice and keep accumulating extra successes and keep making any extra rolls. The results can be exceptional successes, in which your character performs stunning or near-miraculous feats.
Example: Your dice pool consists of seven dice. You get 2, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10. That’s three successes, but one die got a 10, which you get to re-roll. Say you get a 5. That’s not a success, so your total successes for the roll remains at three. If you got an 8 or 9, however, you would have gotten an additional success, for a total of four. Now, if you had rolled another 1o, not only would your total successes for the action have risen to four, you would have rolled that die yet again. If it got another success, your total would have increased again. If it resulted in yet another 10, your successes would have increased by one and you would have kept re-rolling.
The rule of re-rolling 10’s applies to everything from gathering information on the street to determining the effectiveness of a punch.
A 10 rolled on a die always calls for a re-roll, even on a chance roll (see below). Of course, a 10 is required to achieve any success on a chance roll. If you keep re-rolling 10’s, you keep accumulating successes.
Any time a dice pool is reduced to zero dice, usually due to penalties applied to your pool, you may still make a chance roll. It’s a “Hail Mary,” desperate, last-ditch effort that your character would seem to have no right to achieve. Maybe he squeezes off what seems an impossible shot or he tries to win the favor of a mob determined to kill him.
Roll one die, called a chance roll. It has a target number of 10. Rolling 10 gets you a success and your character amazingly performs the feat attempted. Almost any roll other than 10 indicates failure. As always, you get to roll 10’s again. You have a chance to perform a stunning success if you keep re-rolling 10’s and accumulate successes.
Example: Your character tries to fire a shot at a target who is concealed and at long range. The penalties for those circumstances reduce your dice pool to zero, leaving you with a chance roll if your character attempts the feat at all. He goes for it. You roll a single die and need a 10 to get a success. You roll 10 for one success. The “10 Again” rule allows you to re-roll 10’s to hopefully accumulate successes, so you get to roll again. Another 10 turns up, so you have two successes and get to keep re-rolling. Your third roll produces an 8, for a total 0f two successes on the chance roll. Your character hits his target against all odds.
Notice in the example that the roll of 8 was not a success on the chance roll. Whenever you make a chance roll, no matter how many times you roll 10 again, the target number remains 10. Rolls of 8 or 9 do not count as successes, not even on re-rolls.
Sometimes actions go catastrophically wrong. Your character has the best of intentions, but he slips, makes a mistake, something gets in the way or an environment change leads to tragedy. These developments are called dramatic failures. A dramatic failure occurs only when you’re reduced to making a chance roll and you get a 1.
Take the previous example of the unlikely shot. If your character took it and your first chance roll produced a 1, a dramatic failure would have occurred.
For a dramatic failure to occur, no other successes can have been achieved in your chance roll. So, a catastrophic result may occur only on your first chance roll. If you get a 10 on your first roll, which is a success, and get a 1 on your re-roll, your character has one success and you stop re-rolling. No dramatic failure occurs because you’ve already achieved one success on the chance roll.
Dramatic failures do not occur when you still roll any part of your normal dice pool. If penalties to your character’s action reduce you to few or as little as one die in a pool, your character is not at risk of suffering a dramatic failure. A roll of 1 here is just an ordinary failure, not an extraordinary one. A dramatic failure occurs only when you are reduced to a dice pool of zero and you get a 1 on a chance roll.
When one of these horrific developments occurs, your character loses control of his own fate. The Storyteller decides how your character’s action goes terribly wrong. He may slip and fall or loses self-control. Maybe something goes wrong regarding your character’s weapon or tool. His baseball bat cracks or his computer locks up.
The precise nature of a dramatic failure is up to the Storyteller. He could be lenient and decide that your character’s gun jams and needs to be cleared, or he could be cruel and decide that the gun explodes and does damage to your character, or that an ally or bystander is hit by the shot. If your character seeks to seduce someone, a dramatic failure could mean that he outrages her, instead. If he conducts research, a dramatic failure can indicate that documents are accidentally lost or destroyed, or that completely erroneous “facts” are taken as truth.
The Attribute, Skill and Combat chapters suggest possibilities when dramatic failures arise. They don’t necessarily mean your character has to die, only that fate has thrown a gigantic monkey wrench into the works. A clever Storyteller uses a dramatic failure to raise tension a notch and to introduce new opponents or to provide impetus for character development. How does your character come to terms with accidentally shooting an innocent child, for example? Dramatic failures make for exciting scenes.
If penalties levied against your dice pool reduce you to a chance roll, the Storyteller might allow you the choice of going through with the action or not. You might want your character to make a desperate effort. But if the risks of a dramatic failure outweigh the potential gains of a success, you might not want him to go through with the feat. The Storyteller may allow you to abandon an effort if your character could reasonably assess his situation and recognize that the odds are stacked dangerously against him.Trying to cross a busy highway on an injured leg might be obviously suicidal. If, however, your character is unaware of or couldn’t foresee the factors (the penalties) that interfere with his intended effort, the Storyteller may decree that the intended action must proceed.