Action Rolls

An Action Roll is something the GM will present when they are attempting to determine an Outcome. If this is something you were trying to do, you can instead choose not to do it. However, sometimes there are active threats, you're about to be punched in the face or something, and you have no choice but to roll something or that bad thing is going to happen.

When the GM tells you to make an Action Roll, they will generally propose an Action that seems to make sense for what you are trying to do. If that doesn't seem like the correct Action, describe things in more detail. Ultimately, you have the final call on what Action you use, although the DM decides how efficient that Action will be.

Outcomes

Each Action Roll will have one or more Outcomes, which can be divided into benefits, the things you're trying to do, and consequences, the things you are trying to avoid, but they are the same thing mechanically.

The GM might not have you roll for a benefit, just consequences, if it's something that is trivial for someone of your character's skill, or if you have unlimited time to do it, or sometimes just if failure would break the plot badly enough. They know you can do it, you are going to do it, they just want to know if anything bad happened while you successfully did that thing. Alternately, the GM might not have you roll for any consequences, just a benefit, if it's something that seems very unlikely to backfire in any way, such as attempting to Find some  information on the internet. They just want to know if you found anything.

For an Action Roll, you start with a 1d for each Outcome. Then you add a 1d in each dot you have in that Action, if any. Then you add any bonus dies that might apply, either from Abilities or situational. Then you roll.

Assigning results to outcomes

Each die is interpreted:

1-3 - Failure - You have failed. Whatever you were trying to do has not worked, or whatever you were trying to avoid has not been avoided.

4-5 - Partial Success - You succeeded, but not perfectly. What you were attempting did mostly work, or you partially avoided the problem.

6 - Success - You succeed perfectly. You have done what you were trying to do, or avoided completely the bad.

After you roll, take each Outcome and assign a different result die to it. Let's see how that works.

Lucas: I want to take the knife from the guy waving it around.

GM: That's tricky from where you are, so I'm going to make you roll for that. You also might cut yourself in the struggle. That feels like Assault.

Lucas: Sounds good. I have 1 dot in that, two outcomes, so rolling 3d. And got 3, 1, and 5. Two failures and a partial. That's not good. I do need to disarm him, so a partial success in that, and failure in the 'not getting hurt'.

GM: You grab at the knife and get the blade, cutting yourself badly. Give yourself level 2 harm of 'cut hand'. You do get the knife out of his hand, but can't keep hold on it it slides away on the floor, away from everyone.

This fact means it can be worthwhile to get the DM to add back in the benefit, in situations where you were not going to have to roll for that, if failure is better than getting caught.

Lucas: I want pickpocket her phone.

GM: You can do that easily, you saw her put it in her pocket earlier, but roll me Grasp to see if that gets noticed, and if so, that's going to cause problems.

Lucas: Um…I'd rather fail than have her notice me, can I roll for success on the pickpocketing?

GM: Sure.

Lucas: d3, and...rolled 1, 3, and 4. Whew. Good thing I did that. Let's do partial success in not being noticed, failure in taking the phone.

GM: Okay, you bump against her, but she turns right as you do that and you can't get to her pocket. Luckily, she seems think it was her fault, and apologizes.

If Lucas hadn't added the Goal in, he would have automatically gotten the phone, but would not have a partial success to put into 'not being noticed', so would have been.

Conversely, if you really need to succeed at something, you can add consequences. Because that means you can put a failure on the consequence and a success on the benefit.

Minerva: I want to fly a drone over the museum to look for information about possible added roof access.

GM: That airspace isn't monitored, so there's no consequence. Just roll me Locate to see if you locate anything interesting on the roof.

Minerva: I only have one dot in that. I think we really need to find something for our plan to work. Can I fly the drone lower and run the risk of being seen?

GM: Yes, you can fly lower for a better look. I was going to start a 'Security is suspicious' clock anyway, I'll do that now. Add the limited consequence 'Security will hear about this'.

And now she's rolling an additional die, for a total of two. She's twice as likely to find something, but if she gets a bad roll she will have to use that to increase a clock that could cause a problem later. You can suggest more consequences, or the GM may sometimes offer additional ones, but allow you to reject them.

Remember if you're going to suggest things, all Outcomes succeed or fail independently, so they need to not impact each other. If two things are dependent on each other, they will be the same Outcome. In fact, the situation can be so high risk that it gets a little blurry if something is an benefit or a consequence.

GM: He very clearly does not trust you walking in at this moment, and thinks you are a cop. He's about to order his people to grab you and tie you up unless you talk your way out of this. Or fight. Or do…something, anything.

Greg: Um….let's try talking. Try to convince him that I'm the buyer and I was trying to check out the security, and the actual buyer is the fake.

GM: Okay, on success, he's going to believe you for at least a little bit, hopefully long enough for you to get out of there. On a partial success, he's going to keep waving his gun around while he checks, and on a failure, they're going to grab you.

Is that Outcome a 'benefit' or a 'consequence'? Doesn't matter. It has to be one Outcome, though, because 'believe Greg' and 'avoid being grabbed' cannot be independent, Greg cannot succeed at one and fail at the other.

Also, Greg might want to start suggesting other possible consequences. Or figure out how to add dice.