Success Rolls

Success Rolls

Whenever a character attempts to perform an action (e.g., use a skill), roll three dice to determine the outcome. This is called a success roll. The task in question succeeds if the total rolled on the dice is less than or equal to the number that governs the action – most often a skill or an attribute. Otherwise, it fails.

Example: If you attempt to pick a lock with a Lockpicking skill of 9, you must roll 9 or less on 3d to succeed. On a roll of 10 or more, you fail.

Regardless of the score you are rolling against, a roll of 3 or 4 is always a success, while a roll of 17 or 18 is always a failure.

In general, the player makes the die rolls for his character’s actions. However, the GM may always choose to roll the dice in secret – see When the GM Rolls, below.

When to Roll

To avoid bogging down the game in endless die rolls, the GM should only require a success roll if there is a chance of meaningful failure or gainful success. In particular, the GM should require success rolls when...

• A PC's health, wealth, friends, reputation, or equipment are at risk. This includes chases, combat (even if the target is stationary and at point-blank range!), espionage, thievery, and similar "adventuring" activities.
• A PC stands to gain allies, information, new abilities, social standing, or wealth.

The GM should not require rolls for...

• Utterly trivial tasks, such as crossing the street, driving into town, feeding the dog, finding the corner store, or turning on the computer.
• Daily work at a mundane, nonadventuring job. (To evaluate job performance, make monthly "job rolls"; see Jobs)

When the GM Rolls

There are two sets of circumstances under which the GM should roll for a PC and not let the player see the results:

1. When the character wouldn't know for sure whether he had succeeded. This is true of all rolls to gain information, whether through skills such as Detect Lies, Interrogation, Meteorology, and Search, advantages like Intuition and Oracle, or supernatural divinatory abilities. In this situation, the player declares that he is using his ability and the GM rolls in secret. On a success, the GM gives the player true information – the lower the roll, the better the information. On a failure, the GM either gives no information at all or lies (the higher the roll, the more severe the lie), as appropriate.

2. When the player shouldn't know what's going on. This includes most Sense rolls, rolls to use Danger Sense, etc. Suppose the party is walking along a jungle trail. A jaguar is on a limb ahead. The GM should not say, "There’s a jaguar ahead of you. Roll to see if you notice it." Neither should he say, "Everybody make a Vision roll. Does anybody have Danger Sense?" Either of these approaches gives too much away. Instead, the GM should roll for each character in secret. If anyone succeeds, the GM can say, "You notice a jaguar on a branch 20 yards ahead!" If nobody succeeds ... they're in for a surprise.

Modifiers

The rules often specify modifiers for certain success rolls. These bonuses and penalties affect the number you are rolling against – your "target number" – and not the total rolled on the dice. Bonuses always improve your odds, while penalties always reduce them.

For instance, the Lockpicking skill description states, "-5 if working by touch (e.g., in total darkness)." This means that if you are working in the dark, you must subtract 5 from your Lockpicking skill for that attempt. If your Lockpicking skill is 9, you roll against 9 minus 5, or 4, in the dark.

A specific scenario might provide modifiers to allow for the relative ease or difficulty of a particular situation. For instance, an adventure might state that a lock is +10 to open due to the fact that it is primitive and clumsy. If your Lockpicking skill were 9, you would roll against 9 + 10, or 19. Since the highest roll possible on 3d is 18, it would seem that success is assured. This is almost true, but not quite – see Critical Failure.

Modifiers are cumulative unless stated otherwise. For instance, if you tried to open that primitive lock in the dark, both modifiers would apply, and you would roll against 9 - 5 + 10, or 14. See Culture, Language, Tech-Level Modifiers, Familiarity, Equipment Modifiers, and Task Difficulty for discussions of common modifiers.

Base Skill vs. Effective Skill

Your base skill is your actual level in a skill, as recorded on your character sheet. Your effective skill for a particular task is your base skill plus or minus any modifiers for that task. In the Lockpicking examples above, base skill is 9 in all cases, while effective skill is 4, 19, and 14 in three different situations.

The terms "base skill" and "effective skill" apply to all success rolls, not just to skill rolls. When you make an attribute roll, defense roll, self-control roll, etc., your base skill is your unmodified score, while your effective skill is your final, modified target number.

You may not attempt a success roll if your effective skill is less than 3, unless you are attempting a defense roll.

Default Rolls

When a task calls for a skill roll, you must have some ability with the required skill in order to attempt the task. Ideally, you want points in that skill ... but an untrained person can take a stab at most tasks. For instance, anyone can swing a sword – although only a trained warrior is likely to have much success at it.

A skill that anyone can attempt without study is said to “default” to an attribute or another skill. This means you can attempt the desired action by rolling against one of your attributes or other skills at a penal- ty. This “default roll” is just an ordinary success roll.

Example: Lockpicking skill defaults to "IQ-5"; that is, anyone can open a lock, without training, by making a success roll against 5 less than his IQ. If your IQ is 10, you can open an ordinary lock on a roll of 5 or less on 3d. The smarter you are, the better your chances – but training is always preferable!

The description of each skill shows what skills or attributes it defaults to, and at what penalties. If a skill offers multiple defaults, always choose the best one.

Example: Interrogation defaults to "IQ-5, Intimidation-3, or Psychology-4." If you're not a trained interrogator, you can still get answers out of a prisoner by outthinking him (IQ-5), frightening him (Intimidation-3), or playing "mind games" with him (Psychology-4). If you had IQ 12, Intimidation at 14, and Psychology at 13, your defaults would be 7, 11, and 9, respectively. Roll against 11, the highest of the three.

The Rule of 20

If you have a basic attribute over 20, treat it as 20 for default purposes. For instance, if you have IQ 25, your default Lockpicking skill (IQ-5) is 15 – not 20. No such limit applies to defaults to other skills.

"No Default"

Some actions are impossible without training. Skills like Alchemy, Karate, and magic spells have no default. If you lack the proper training, you can't attempt these things at all.

Complementary Skills

In action stories, there's no such thing as too much talent. Whenever it makes sense, the GM may allow one skill to aid another. The assisting skill is the complementary skill while the skill actually needed for the task is the master skill.

To encourage teamwork, the person using the complementary skill doesn't have to be the one using the master skill, unless splitting up these rolls would make no sense, even in an action story. For instance, an infiltrator using Stealth to sneak through a door might benefit from a face man using Fast-Talk to distract guards. In that example, Fast-Talk would be complementary to Stealth.

To use a complementary skill, simply roll against it. The result gives a modifier to the master skill: +2 for critical success, +1 for success, -1 for failure, or -2 for critical failure. This modifier is cumulative with others, such as equipment bonuses and BAD (Basic Abstract Difficulty).

Unless explicitly noted, though, the complementary skill roll isn't subject to BAD. Its purpose is to empower the heroes to offset the bad guys' numbers and teamwork – which BAD abstracts – using their own. Thus, applying BAD twice would rarely be fair!

Many specific tasks in Exploits name complementary skills. Players are encouraged to suggest others. If the GM agrees, a master skill might sometimes be able to benefit from several complementary skills! A skill can never serve as complementary skill and master skill at the same time, however

Teamwork!

These next two rules apply to group efforts, when the entire team gets only a single success roll or other attempt at an action.

Got You Covered

In a situation where everyone must look out for himself but some heroes lack a vital skill, skilled PCs can sometimes cover for unskilled ones. When making a single roll for the entire team, start with the group's best skill level, add a bonus equal to the number of people who know the skill (no defaults!), and subtract a penalty equal to group size. Most uses of Soldier work this way, making it possible for a military squad to "carry" a few civilians.

Pulling Your Weight

For things like Forced Entry, the GM must first decide how many sets of hands can contribute; e.g., two heroes could probably operate a small ram, while four could carry a stretcher. If combining ST for a ST roll or to cause damage (e.g., with that ram), use the highest ST plus 1/5 the total of the other ST scores (round up). If working together to lift a weight, add together everybody's Basic Lift.

Social Engineering

These tasks often work as complementary skill rolls that whittle away at penalties to rolls to precipitate major plot breakthroughs, much like the feats listed under Gathering Intelligence. They can also achieve important goals of their own; e.g., distracting or deceiving a guard. Either way, the GM rolls in secret when the objective is to obtain information.

There are two common ways to improve your odds with these activities.

Bribery

In the movies, everybody has a price. The base bribe is a C-note ($100), which gives +1 to one social engineering attempt against someone of average means. Bigger is better: $500 buys +2, $2,000 nets +3, and $10,000 grants +4.

Multiply the bribes needed for these bonuses by the mark's Wealth factor: 1/5 for Poor, 1/2 for Struggling, 1 for Average, 2 for Comfortable, 5 for Wealthy, 20 for Very Wealthy, 100 for Filthy Rich, and then another ×10 per Multimillionaire level. Thus, +3 against a crime boss with Multimillionaire 1 costs $2 million.

A bribe less than the amount required for +1 – or an inappropriate bribe – is insulting. Treat the ensuing social engineering attempt as a failure. Success against the applicable Savoir-Faire specialty (see Fitting In) will warn you if you're about to do this. If you're sure that bribery is appropriate, tossing in something extra never hurts.

If the bribe is illegal, make a Streetwise roll. Failure means you lose the money but get no bonus. Critical failure means a chase, combat, robbery, or sting operation!

Making an Impression

Numerous skills are complementary to social engineering attempts, including Administration when dealing with bureaucrats, Carousing at a club or a party, Dancing as a prelude to Sex Appeal, Gambling at a casino, and Merchant if money is changing hands. Connoisseur can aid both Sex Appeal and transactions, if the specialty would impress your mark. Sex Appeal itself can complement other skills. You can claim a bonus for several skills if they're all applicable.

Contacts and Contact Groups

Contacts and Contact Groups can provide information (only), much as if you went out and got it yourself. You must first succeed at an appearance roll for a connection the GM agrees would know something relevant. Then roll against your associate's social engineering skill instead of yours. This yields the usual results for that skill. Only bribes can help this roll.

Word on the Street

If you have a lead, you can ask around casually to discover more. This uses a suitable Current Affairs specialty for legitimate info, or Streetwise for underworld tips. Either can benefit from bribery (at no Wealth multiplier) and/or a complementary Carousing roll, which represent the expense and effort of informal socializing. Critical failure on the latter roll customarily means an impromptu barroom brawl!

Manipulation

Slick heroes – especially face men – like to play mind games with people. Below, roll a Quick Contest of skill against the mark's Will. Mooks and henchmen alike have an effective Will of 10 + absolute value of BAD, reflecting their respect for (or fear of) their superiors. Victory acquires the information, distracts a mook, etc. To finagle active aid requires victory by 5+. When these Contests act as complementary skill rolls, victory by 0-4 counts as a success (+1) and victory by 5+ counts as a critical success (+2). Any loss, however, gives a penalty equal to the margin of loss!

Diplomacy: Diplomacy can convince neutral (not hostile) NPCs to share information, or defuse a situation turned bad by failure at another roll. Victory by 5+ can gain minor aid from a neutral party – or negotiate the release of hostages. Bribery helps in situations where "peace offerings" or cash tips are apropos. Administration and Streetwise act as complementary skills when dealing with officials and crooks, respectively.

Fast-Talk: Fast-Talk can distract a guard while friends sneak past, or con some mook into letting you glimpse sensitive info. Victory by 5+ can convince a guard to admit you, or trick an NPC into giving you files, a key, etc. Bribery isn't effective – the whole point is that this doesn't look like a scam. Administration complements this roll vs. officious types, Gambling aids confidence scams, and Sex Appeal helps if the goal is distraction.

Public Speaking: Public Speaking can stir up a crowd of neutral folk enough that the noise and shoving screen suspicious activities. Roll against effective Will 12. The full margin of victory is the penalty to rolls to observe or follow the squad – and a victory by 5+ means an actual riot! Calming a riot also requires victory by 5+. Bribery works when causing trouble; just scatter enough cash to bribe everyone. Few skills complement these feats, but face men may employ Carousing or Dancing to help rouse partiers – or to turn a riot into less-violent activity.

Savoir-Faire: Each Savoir-Faire specialty works like Diplomacy when dealing with its target group, or like Fast-Talk if the goal is to convince someone that you belong to that group. Savoir-Faire (High Society) is almost the only way to talk one's way past an Indomitable butler or maître d', while Savoir-Faire (Servant) can induce the high-and-mighty to overlook you. Bribery is fine when posing as a higher-up and tipping a lower-down; otherwise, it always insults. See Fitting In for complementary skills.

Sex Appeal: Sex Appeal can distract, convince the doorman at the club to let you in, etc. Victory by 5+ can convince someone to leave his post to appreciate your charms up close, set up a Pickpocket attempt, or even get clothes on the floor for the investigator to search or the wire rat to bug. Bribery insults unless your target is a "pro" who expects to be paid for the encounter. Carousing, Connoisseur, Dancing, and Gambling all have cinematic precedent as complementary skills.

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Interviews

Interviewing a friendly or neutral individual to learn what he knows is an uncontested Interrogation roll. This isn't a hostile attempt to squeeze out information – the roll is to channel the discussion productively. If bad guys reached the interviewee first and made threats, BAD applies (the GM can instead treat this as a Quick Contest against the thug’s Intimidation skill, if known). A Psychology roll is complementary; success also reveals whether the subject was menaced. In the movies, bribery helps, too, but peeling off $100 bills will insult most honest citizens – buy a meal or bring a gift instead.

Making Them Talk

A hostile individual won’t volunteer information when asked. He must be put on the spot. The GM rolls for interroga- tions and shakedowns in secret, keeping any resulting comple- mentary skill modifier to himself. Bribery (of GM or NPC) is rarely useful!

Interrogation: Respectable interrogators isolate the subject, make him uncomfortable, and maintain the pressure until he cracks. Handle the session – not each question – as a Quick Contest: Interrogation, penalized by BAD, against Will (or unmodified skill vs. effective Will figured from BAD, for NPCs without character sheets). If this is a generic information- gathering attempt early in an adventure, BAD should be low (0 to -3) and the outcome gives a complementary skill modifier for later feats: loss by 5+ counts as critical failure (-2); loss by 1-4, as failure (-1); victory by 0-4, as success (+1); and victory by 5+, as critical success (+2). If the interrogation is the gate- way to the story’s next chapter, BAD should be high (-4 to -10) – possibly doubled, for high-ranking henchmen – so that over- coming it practically demands complementary skill bonuses for previously gathered information. Victory, however, reveals a major new plot development.

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Two interrogators – one antagonistic, one sympathetic – can cooperate. Each must roll against Act- ing or Psychology. Both rolls are complementary skill rolls. Polygraph: Security agents may be called upon to give a polygraph or “lie detector” test as part of interrogation. Their employer provides the equipment; make an Assistance Roll if it’s needed but absent. The GM rolls a secret Quick Contest of the operator’s Electronics Operation (Security) vs. the sub- ject’s Will. Treat the full margin of victory or loss as a bonus or penalty to Interrogation. The interrogator need not be the operator.

Truth Serum: While Action 1: Heroes lists a price for “truth serum,” anybody but a secret agent will likely have to impro- vise; this requires a Pharmacy roll (defaults to IQ-6) and access to a dispensary. Administration calls for a Physician roll (defaults to IQ-7). The serum works in about 30 seconds, sapping 1d FP from the subject and forcing a HT-1 roll, with failure meaning he has -2 to Will during the interrogation. Interrogators without suitable skills can roll at default, but fail- ure on either skill roll above renders the subject unconscious before he can talk (or worse, in reality – but this is an action movie).

Shakedown: The streets handle things differently. Throw your mark against the wall, stick a gun in his mouth, and tell him to talk. Handle this as interrogation, except that the oper- ative skill is Intimidation and critical failure on the roll means a violent response. If you have the upper hand when things go bad, your only option is “waste him,” which is messy and means you’ll never learn what he knew (if this was crucial, the GM may assess a -2 complementary skill modifier).

Torture: Some movie “heroes” use this villainous method. Cinematic consensus seems to be that torture makes people talk, but they might say anything! Torture can give up to +6 to Interrogation – assume that Knife, Surgery, Wrestling, and quite a few other skills are complementary, and cap the total bonus at +6. Details of how each skill works are left to the imagination.

Liar, Liar: Unlike most complementary skill penalties, those resulting from botched interrogation can be erased. After grilling someone, any member of the crew can ask to try Detect Lies. The GM will roll a secret Quick Contest against the best of the subject’s IQ, Acting, or Fast-Talk (if unknown, use 10 + absolute value of BAD). Victory erases any penalty. A tie has no effect. Loss casts doubt on the truth or confirms a lie: Adjust the modifier by -1!

Brainwashing: Action heroes rarely do this – it’s villainous and takes too long – but brainwashed NPCs are common. Some are hostile when they shouldn’t be, others follow the bad guys’ cause (BAD applies to the team’s social engineering rolls), and still oth- ers simply can’t recall something vital. It’s possible to “break” such conditioning with the Brainwashing skill. This is a Quick Con- test against the brainwasher’s skill. Each attempt takes a day. The deprogrammer can keep trying until he succeeds, but if he ever critically fails, the subject has a cinematic seizure and won’t be useful any more.

Fitting In

Action movies aren’t known for their realistic treatment of human interaction, but generally, cops get along with fellow cops, soldiers with other soldiers, and so on. This can affect social engineering.

Cop Land: The Savoir-Faire skill for dealing with police and security officers is Savoir-Faire (Police). This can act as a complementary skill for any social feat for which it isn’t already the master skill – but Law (Police) comple- ments social engineering when you’re a cop dealing with a judge or a DA.

Corps and Cubes: Administration is the universal com- plementary skill in a corporate environment – but use Mer- chant around sales and marketing staff. High and Tight: The Savoir-Faire specialty for military settings is Savoir-Faire (Military). When that isn’t the master skill, it can complement social engineering attempts with other skills.

Scumbags: When dealing with organized crime, Savoir- Faire (Mafia) serves as the master skill when a social engineering task requires Savoir-Faire, and as a comple- mentary skill otherwise. When dealing with street crooks, Streetwise replaces Savoir-Faire as a master or comple- mentary skill, and Intimidation is the complementary skill whenever Streetwise isn’t.

The Big Desk: As a master skill, use Savoir-Faire (High Society) on “generic rich folk,” crime lords encountered in polite settings, and anybody whose job brings Status 2+ – including executives, civic officials, and Rank 5+ military or police officers met socially. However, only use it as a complementary skill if the target isn’t of a type who would be susceptible to the other skills above.

How to Game Fact-Finding

he reason for asking questions, bugging phones, and stealing data might be to accumulate enough complementary skill bonuses to act suc- cessfully, but that doesn’t mean the GM should drone, “You got a success at Dumpster-diving, so take +1 on Computer Hacking. You win – you’re in. Now try Computer Operation to steal data. Critical success! The team gets another +2 for clues.”

That’s boring, boring, boring.

The players should describe their efforts dramatically. The GM can encourage this with a small skill bonus or even an extra character point. Then the GM ought to present the results movie-style, using really bad rolls (or plans) as excuses for chases and fights!