Warning: Pre-Alpha
This game is currently in pre-alpha, and at this time, I do not recommend running a game in it yet. Every single game mechanic and piece of lore is subject to potentially breaking changes.
Thank you for your interest in this game! You can follow its development at https://www.youtube.com/@trekiros
-Trek
Calling for Rolls
Attribute rolls are the most common type of roll players will make throughout the game, both inside and outside of combat. This section will give you some healthy guidelines for how to make those rolls more interesting as the Plot Twister.
When to call for a roll
Some players like narrating what their character is doing and then expect you to decide if that requires a roll. Other players will ask you "can I make a Grit roll to break this door open?"
Either way, your role as the Plot Twister is to decide whether or not a roll is to be made, and what type of roll to call for.
Skip trivial/impossible rolls. An attribute roll is a good way to resolve what happens when the players attempt something difficult enough that the outcome isn't certain. If you think a task would be trivially easy (such as opening a door or turning a light switch on) or completely impossible (such as bringing someone back from the dead or lifting an entire house), then a roll is not necessary.
Important: The Push your Luck mechanic
If a player rolls below their Luck, they can "Push their Luck" to turn their failure into either a mishap... or a success.
This is why it's especially important not to call for rolls on tasks you want to be impossible: no matter how hard you make the roll, there is always going to be a chance for the players to succeed once dice get involved.
No repeats. Outside of combat, which inherently introduces a time pressure, consequence for failing a roll should never be "you fail this time, but you can try again", otherwise the players will just try again and again until they succeed. If you can't come up with a meaningful consequence for failing the roll, skip it altogether and just let your player succeed without having to roll.
The lockpicking example
If a player fails to pick a lock, it's not just that they couldn't do it this time, and can try again. Instead, the consequence for failing the roll could be either:
- Try something else: You couldn't understand the make of this lock, and no amount of re-tries will change that. That door is staying shut and you will need to find another way in.
- Tradeoff: You accidentally jammed the lock. You can still kick the door open (it won't require a roll), but that will make a lot of noise if you do.
- Wandering enemies: You opened the lock, but took so long that an enemy patrol stumbled upon you!
- Alerting enemies: You accidentally triggered an electronic alarm - the security robots are coming for you, you can see a red light coming from the corner!
- Trap: You triggered a trap some scav left here - you take 3d6! damage!
- Tools broke: Your tools broke! You can't lock-pick anything until the next rest.
- etc...
Multiple Players Rolling. There are two scenarios where several players are likely to attempt the same task:
The first scenario is that each character must attempt the task individually, and something bad happens if too many of them fail. For example, the characters are all trying to sneak past a guard.
This is called a group roll: each player makes the same roll, and if more of them fail than succeed, then the overall task is failed. Critical successes and failures count double.
This method represents how one character's good result can compensate for another's poor result. In that example, if one character is bad at sneaking, another character who is good at it can show them the way.
The second scenario is that the task is successful if just one character succeeds - but multiple characters are good at it so they want to help one another. For example, two characters are hackers, and they need to get past an electronically locked door.
This is called a roll with help: one player must take point, and the others must use the help action to try to grant them advantage.
Difficulty Classes
A Difficulty Class (DC) is the number the player needs to meet or beat, in order to succeed on the roll. You decide on the DC based on how hard you perceive the task to be. Below is a table showing the chances of success for four characters:
- Expert: A character with the highest possible score of +5 in the attribute for this roll, as well as a skill which lets them reroll once.
- Trained: A character with a high score of +4 in the attribute for this roll, but no skill
- Amateur: A character with an average score of +2 in the attribute for this roll
- Idiot: A character with a low score of +0 in the attribute for this roll
| DC | Interpretation | Expert (+5, reroll) | Trained (+4) | Amateur (+2) | Idiot (+0) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Easy | 97% | 75% | 58% | 42% |
| 10 | Medium | 89% | 58% | 42% | 25% |
| 12 | Hard | 75% | 42% | 25% | 8% |
Optional: Degrees of Success. If you can come up with more than just two outcomes, those additional outcomes can be mapped to other difficulty levels, or to critical successes or failures. Adventures use the following terminology:
- Easy success: any result of 8 or higher
- Medium success: any result of 10 or higher
- Hard success: any result of 12 or higher
Coming up with additional degrees of success in this way can be difficult and should only be done if you can think of interesting additional outcomes. Usually, this happens for especially important rolls with a lot of relevance to the story or to the characters, as those rolls have more material for you as the Plot Twister to be inspired by and bounce off of.
For example, if a player is trying to hack a computer to retrieve some information, you as the Plot Twister could think up the following results:
| Result | Interpretation | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Critical Failure | "No, and" | An alarm is raised: some security robots are unleashed on the players! |
| Failure | "No" | The computer's firewall activates and wipes the data |
| Easy Success | "No, but" | The player character learns some of the details before the data is wiped |
| Medium Success | "Yes, but" | The player character learns more details |
| Hard Success | "Yes" | The player character downloads all of the relevant information before the data is wiped |
| Critical Success | "Yes, and" | The player character also downloads a blueprint of a useful tech 3 item, that happened to be on the computer as well. They can now craft this item, even without a perk! |
Plot Twisting Advice
Mixed results tend to be the most interesting: if you can't improvise the full list of 6 possible outcomes on the spot, prioritize coming up with the "yes, but" and "no, but" results!
Giving your players an out
The only thing your players have to work with to create a mental image of what the world looks like, is a 10 seconds long description you probably improvised on the spot. For this reason, the players and you will often end up having different ideas about how difficult or risky a task might be.
So if a player asked to do something which you think should require a roll, take a moment to make sure everyone's mental images are aligned: without spoiling any secret information the characters shouldn't be aware of, tell your player how difficult their character would think the task is, and what their character thinks they would risk by attempting the task.
Then, if the task ends up being harder than what the player thought it would be, they should be given an opportunity to take back their word and not attempt the task after all.
Sometimes, you will want to force your players to make a roll, such as when an enemy attempts to grapple them or when a building is collapsing on them. The players don't get to opt out of those force rolls - only the ones they initiated themselves.
Note: no "perception" rolls
When exploring a new location, your players will often ask questions about what they can find in this location.
These questions usually shouldn't result in a roll, or you might accidentally encourage your players to ask less questions, and be less active in exploring your world: resolving rolls is slow, and always comes with a risk, after all.
If what they're asking about could realistically be there, but you simply didn't prepare for the eventuality, you can always ask for a luck roll. But otherwise, if what the players are looking for is there, they find it.
Hidden passages, traps, camouflaged enemies - if your players are asking about those, it means they are engaging with your game! So keep that dynamic going by simply answering their questions without a roll!