Actions

Actions compare a character's ability to perform tasks and accomplish their goals against the difficulty of the challenges they need to overcome.

Actions are performed by a character, based on their stated intentions, during the Action phase of a round. Character actions are performed as part of the activities permitted by the Standard Turn. All actions begin with the director determining the difficulty of a challenge.

Difficulty

The difficulty of a challenge is determined by the director and is relative to the character performing the action. If the challenge is easy, with no risk of failure, the action should succeed automatically, and the director (or in some situations, the player) should narrate the successful outcome.

If the action does contain risk, the director proceeds with assigning the challenge an appropriate difficulty rating. The minimum difficulty rating for any challenge is Challenging (d4).

Dice	Difficulty
d4	Challenging
d6	Very Challenging
d8	Hard
d10	Very Hard
d12	Extremely Hard

Difficulty is represented in an action roll by a difficulty dice pool and contains the die for the selected difficulty rating. Additional dice may be added to the difficulty dice pool based on a character's position.

Position

Fictional positioning refers to the specific circumstances, context, and narrative elements surrounding a character's actions or decisions within the game. It involves determining how feasible a character's intended action is related to their current situation.

In simple terms, a character's position can either give them an advantage or disadvantage in relation to a challenge they are facing. These advantages or disadvantages can affect the character's chance of success and the impact of their actions.

The character's position is represented in an action roll by adding an additional position die to the difficulty dice pool. The position die should be the same size as the difficulty die selected for the roll. If the character is determined to have an advantage on the action roll, the player rolls the difficulty dice and takes the lowest result. If the character has a disadvantage on the action roll, the player takes the highest die result.

The director considers all aspects of the situation to determine the character's position and then advises the player of the difficulty rating, their position, and any potential risks and consequences.

Teamwork

If another player has indicated they wish to provide assistance through teamwork, the character who is providing assistance goes first. Assistance can be narrated as providing an extra set of hands, holding tools, or offering advice. In combat, assistance might be flanking the enemy or creating a distraction.

To perform teamwork, a character sacrifices performing an action on their own turn by performing a quick action roll against a difficulty rating set by the director. By definition, providing assistance in a challenging situation is never easy. The default difficulty associated with providing assistance is Challenging (d4). The director may increase the difficulty based on the type of assistance and the situation.

If the action succeeds, the assistance was helpful and the character receiving the assistance can add an additional ability die to their ability dice pool. The character providing the assistance earns 1 grit point. If the action fails, the assistance is not helpful, the action roll proceeds without any added benefit, and the character providing the assistance receives nothing.

Quick Action Roll

Quick Actions are used when a director only needs a simple comparison of a character's raw ability against the difficulty of a challenge. The dice roll is not subject to character boosts or fictional positioning, and the outcome is a simple success or fail with the level of effect being ignored.

Ability

A character's ability refers to skills, boosts, and gear that support performing a specific action. Ability is represented in an action roll by an ability dice pool that contains ability die added for skills, boosts, or teamwork.

Determining ability starts with the player selecting the most relevant skill set or specialization for the action and adding an ability die to the ability dice pool. If none of a character's skill sets provide a suitable ability, the character will perform an unskilled action roll.

Unskilled Action Roll

The lowest level of difficulty in the game system is Challenging (d4). When an individual with no training or experience attempts to do something challenging, the most likely outcome will be failure.

Unskilled action rolls are made using a Novice (d4) ability die against a difficulty set by the director. Unskilled rolls are always made with a disadvantage. Unskilled actions can still be improved using applicable boosts, or with teamwork.

If the character's ability can be improved using boosts, the player should identify the boost and describe how it will be invoked. The description should include details on satisfying constraints and any provided benefits. If the boost provides a mechanical benefit that can increase the odds of success on an action roll, the player can add an additional ability die to the dice pool as required.

Dangerous Encounters

The dice system uses opposing rolls with a tie on an action roll favoring success for the player. To make the world feel more dangerous, refer to the Dangerous Encounters game option under the Toolkit section.

Action Roll

Action Rolls are performed using an opposed roll between a character's ability, and the difficulty rating and position of the character relative to the challenge. All rolls are performed by the player who rolls both dice pools.

• Ability Dice Pool: The ability dice pool should contain an ability die representing the character's skill set or specialization (or a d4 for an unskilled roll), as well as any additional dice from teamwork or boosts. The ability dice are rolled, and the player takes the highest result.

• Difficulty Dice Pool: The difficulty dice pool should contain a difficulty die representing the selected difficulty rating of the challenge, and optionally, an additional position die. The difficult dice are rolled. If the character has an advantage on the roll, the player takes the lower result. If the character has a disadvantage on the roll, the player takes the higher result.

Action Roll with Ability and Difficulty Dice Pools

The final result is determined by subtracting the difficulty dice result from ability dice result.

Dice Pool Probability

Each die added to a dice pool is roughly equivalent to a half-step relative to the selected die size of the dice pool. For example, an ability dice pool with two d6 ability dice would be the rough equivalent of rolling a d7 (if such a dice existed). An ability dice pool with three d6 ability dice would be roughly equivalent to a d8.

Outcome and Effect

The result of the action roll determines both the outcome and the effect. The outcome is simply whether the overall action succeeds or fails. If the result is 0 or greater, a success (a tie goes to the player), otherwise a failure.

The effect is a level rated from 1 to 3 that represents the impact of the relative success or failure.

Level	Effect
1	Marginal
2	Complete
3	Critical

To determine the level of effect, take the absolute value from the result and add 1, then divide the results into levels as follows:

• If the result is between 0 and 3, it has a marginal effect.

• If the result is between 4 and 6, it is a complete effect.

• If the result is 7+, it is a critical effect.

The director will use the outcome and the level of effect to determine the consequences of the action.