Dice & Difficulty Grades

Intro

The Dice

Whenever playing a TTRPG, the dice are typically integral to the game, and it is as such with this one. Dice are used to determine the success of certain actions, skills, and how well a character responds/handles/survives to/against something. Examples of this could be when a player moves to attack an enemy, attempt to successfully craft a dagger, decipher an advanced lock or puzzle, notice something in the room, reacting to an ambush, shielding from a spell, or even enduring and outlasting a power which physically changes/shocks the body.

NOTE: The Keeper should not have to tell the players to roll for everything! Players are encouraged to take initiative and describe their actions freely. Thus when entering a new room, the Keeper should NOT tell the players immediately to make an awareness or investigation check, but instead give a general description of the room, and allow the players to choose whether they look more closely, or if they choose to ignore the contents of the room and move forward.

While players can succeed in a task simply by rolling and applying modifiers, they can increase their chances by describing how they attempt to succeed in their tasks in detail (i.e. roleplaying). Example: Instead of simply stating that you'd like to roll to dismantle a trap, the player can ask the Keeper what mechanism it seems to be made of, or even use an investigation check to first determine the segments of the trap (like the trigger, transmission, power source, payload and reset device, making it easy to identify where they should dismantle the trap and increasing the chances of success).

Types of Dice

There are seven types of dice in the game. Each have their own reason for existing, and six out of seven of them are meant to be rolled high, with the percentile rolled low. Below are the following dice and for every reason they might be rolled in the game.

Four Sided Die (d4)

A Tetrahedron shaped die.

Hit Dice
Spell Damage/Effect
Weapon Damage

Six Sided Die (d6)

A Cube shaped die.

Ability Score Generation (character creation)
Hit Dice
Spell Damage/Effect
Weapon Damage

Eight Sided Die (d8)

A Octahedron shaped die.

Hit Dice
Spell Damage/Effect
Weapon Damage

Ten Sided Die (d10)

A Pentagonal Trapezohedron shaped die, single digits.

Hit Dice
Initiative
Spell Damage/Effect
Surprise
Weapon Damage

Twelve Sided Die (d12)

A Dodecahedron shaped die.

Hit Dice
Spell Damage/Effect
Weapon Damage

Twenty Sided Die (d20)

A Icosahedron shaped die.

Ability Checks
Chance to Hit
Proficiency Checks
Saving Throws
Spell Damage/Effect
Turn Undead

Percentile (d100)

Two Pentagonal Trapezohedron shaped dice, one with single digits, one with double digits. Instead of wanting high rolls, players want low rolls with this set of dice. The reason for this is there is a set percent chance of success, meaning if you roll within that percent chance of success (for example, 1-50 for 50%) then you succeed. Whereas if you roll outside that chance of success (51+) then you would have failed.

Critical Severity
Psionic Point Generation (character creation)
Spell Effect
Thieving Skills

Checks & Saves

Aside from specific type rolls such as combat rolls, thieving skills, etc. there are checks and saves players will need to roll. Checks (often ability score checks or proficiency checks) typically are rolled when they are attempting a certain skill or action. Saving throws occur then the player is attempting to evade, endure or otherwise survive an undesirable outcome.

Checks

Strength Checks
Prowess Check
Stress Check
Dexterity Checks
Constitution Checks
Intelligence Checks
Investigation Check
Wisdom Checks
Spiritual Attunement
Charisma Check
Intimidation Check
Persuasion Check

Difficulty Grades

When rolling general checks and saving throws the game can get too easy or hard far too quickly if the number to roll was always the same. As such the Keeper is given a range of difficulty grades to choose from depending on the circumstances which the player must meet and/or exceed to succeed their roll.

Trivial: The player must roll a 1.51 or higher (they roll a d20, then roll a percentile if they rolled a 1) to succeed.
Easy: The player must roll a 6, 7 or 8 or higher to succeed.
Standard: The player must roll an 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13 or higher to succeed.
Hard: The player must roll a 15, 16 or 17 or higher to succeed.
Very Hard: The player must roll an 18 or 19 or higher to succeed.
Trying: The player must roll a 20 or 21 or higher to succeed.
Master: The player must roll a 22, 23, 24 or 25 or higher to succeed.
Legendary: The player must roll a 26, 27, 28, 29 or 30 or higher to succeed. This cannot be reduced in grade.

Saves

Poison/Paralysis: The body's reaction, resistance and rejection to poisons, venoms, gases and various forms of temporary paralysis (including magical if specified). Note that more often than not venoms will be what a player character has greater immunity to than poisons.
Low Grade Poison: Typically Easy or Standard difficulty.
Standard Grade Poison: Typically Standard difficulty, sometimes Hard depending on the poison.
High Grade Poison: Typically Hard difficulty, though sometimes Trying depending on the poison. It's uncommon for Hard Grade's to be reduced in difficulty.
Extreme Grade Poison: Typically Trying or Master grade difficulty. Depending on the poison it can't be reduced in difficulty and the exceedingly rare poisons are legendary difficulty.
Death/Petrification: The body, and possibly spirit's reaction, resistance and rejection to instant death powers, or the supernatural effects of petrification (being turned into stone via gaze or spell). Additionally if you successfully roll a death save against magical damage that deals 25% of your maximum hp that would have killed you, you retain 1 hp.
Instant Death Power: Typically Trying or Master when surviving Instant Death power from a Supernatural force such as demons, deva, and other such cosmic forces.
Instant Death Magic: Typically Hard or Very Hard when cast as a spell, sometimes Trying if it's an extremely powerful being like a titan, ascended, shade, archfae or elemental lord.
Petrification: Typically Hard or Very Hard when cast as a spell. Otherwise it's either Very Hard or Trying if ejected by a creature with natural petrification capabilities.
Cleric/Magical Power: The body and spirit's reaction, resistance and rejection to incoming spells cast by clerics, druids, warlocks, wizards, illusionists, bards and even runes of power. A successful save typically either nullifies or halves the effects of the magic.
Clerical: Most clerical spell saves are at Very Hard to resist or dispel, but can be increased or decreased based on the conditions seen below. They are Standard if cast at another cleric, or dispelled by another cleric.
Druidic & Warlock: Most Druidic and Warlock spell saves are at Hard to resist or dispel, but can be increased or decreased based on the conditions seen below. They are Standard if cast at a cleric/druid/warlock, or dispelled by a cleric/druid/warlock.
Phantasmal: If the onlooker has reason to suspect the phantasm is not real, their saving throw is typically a will save of standard, however this can easily be any other difficulty depending on the state of their mind, the evidence against the phantasm, and the situation overall.
Magical: Most Wizard, Illusionist and Bard spell saves are at Standard to resist or dispel, but can be increased or decreased based on the conditions seen below.
Difficulty Adjustment Conditions: If the target is surprised, weakened or helpless, and if the caster has a power advantage (i.e. cleric on holy grounds, wizards near leylines, etc.), the difficulty grade goes up. It also goes up for every 10 ranks the caster has over the target. For every 5 ranks the caster has over the target, the target gets a -1 to their save. Alternatively, if the target has a power advantage, or are magically protected via spell or magic items, the difficulty grade goes down. It also goes down for every 10 ranks the target has over the caster, and for every 5 ranks they have over the caster they get a +1 to their roll.
Breath Weapons/Elemental Power: The body and spirit's reaction, resistance and rejection to any form of breath weapon or supernatural/magical element. Most of the times this save halves the damage, but for certain elemental attacks it could nullify them.
Lesser: Breath Weapons ejected by Dracon, Magical Animals and the like, as well as lesser Elementals are typically Easy or Standard.
Standard: Breath Weapons ejected by monstrosities, constructs and other creatures, as well as Moderate Elementals are typically Hard.
Greater: Breath Weapons ejected by powerful beings such as Dragons, as well as Greater Elementals are typically Very Hard or Trying, depending on the specific breath weapon.
Concentration: The body and mind's physical ability to maintain focus and concentration on certain tasks, actions and/or powers when strained by physical impacts, mental distractions, etc.
Minor Concentration: Typically Easy difficulty unless the circumstances are different.
Moderate Concentration: Typically Standard difficulty unless the circumstances are different.
Major Concentration: Typically Hard difficulty unless the circumstances are different.
Willpower: The mind and spirit's reaction, resistance and rejection to any form of mental influence, invasion, interference, possession, fear, etc.
Fear: Typically Easy difficulty with average scares and fears. Standard against magical fear. Hard against supernatural fear.
Charm: Typically Standard difficulty with charms and suggestions, hard difficulty against mind control, and very hard difficulty against domination.
Possession: Typically Very hard difficulty.

Modifiers

There are a great many ways to increase and decrease the chances of succeeding in a roll, and likewise there are many ways that one's chances of success are reduced. The three greatest methods are bonuses & penalties, decreasing & increasing grade of difficulty, and favor & burden.

Bonuses & Penalties

The most simple and straightforward of the modifiers, bonuses add to your roll and penalties take away from your roll. There are too many things in the system that provide both bonuses and penalties which is why each list is contained within spoilers below. (wip)

Bonuses

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Penalties

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Decreased & Increased Grades

Even with many bonuses to one's skill, rolls can still go amiss. As such it can be very useful to reduce the difficulty grade of a roll. That said there are ways to increase the difficulty grade as well. Below are the different methods of decreasing and decreasing difficulty grades.

Decreasing:

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Increasing:

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Favor & Burden

This mechanic is very rare for it can quickly unbalance the game if used recklessly. Instead of adding or subtracting to a role, or shifting the level of difficulty of the roll, the player rolls the dice twice, applies their modifiers, and uses the higher rolled number if in Favor, or the lower rolled number if Burdened.

Favor:

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Burden:

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