Dice Mechanics

Rolling Dice

When your character attempts something risky, you roll dice based on the Gift + Skill pairing chosen by the GM and player:

• Gift only (no relevant Skill): Roll 1d6, evaluated against your Gift value.
• Gift + Skill: Roll 2d6. The first die is evaluated against your Gift value; the second is evaluated against your Skill value.

Gifts are rated 1–5 dots. Skills are rated 0–5 dots.

Evaluating Each Die

Each die is evaluated independently against the Gift or Skill value it corresponds to. The formula is straightforward:

• Roll is less than or equal to the value: successes = value - roll + 1
• Roll is greater than the value: 0 successes

Higher values reward low rolls more generously. A roll of 6 scores 0 successes like any other miss — unless it is part of a fumble, described below.

Fumbles

A fumble occurs only when every die in the pool shows a 6. It applies a flat −1 to the success total. Fumbles do not stack — at most one fumble per roll, no matter how many sixes appear.

• 1 die: fumble if that die shows 6.
• 2 dice (Gift + Skill): fumble only if both dice show 6.
• 3 dice (prepared): fumble only if all three dice show 6.

A lone 6 in a larger pool is not a fumble. It simply contributes 0 successes, the same as any other miss.

Skill reduces fumble risk. A character rolling only their Gift (1 die) fumbles on any 6. A character with a relevant Skill (2 dice) must roll double-sixes. Prepared characters (3 dice) almost never fumble. Getting better at something makes catastrophic failure genuinely rare.

Expected Successes

The table below shows the average (expected) number of successes per die at each Gift or Skill value:

Each additional Dot makes a meaningful difference. Going from 4 dots to 5 dots adds about half again your expected output per die — a substantial gain at every step.

Resolving Opposed Rolls

When two characters act against each other, both sides roll simultaneously and follow these steps:

1. Roll and evaluate each die using the rules above.
2. Sum all successes on each side.
3. When a side's total is negative, that negative value is added as a bonus to the opponent's total, and the negative side's total becomes 0.
4. The side with the higher total wins. The difference between the two totals is the degree of success.

Worked Example

Alia (Gift: Body 3, Skill: Melee 2) attacks a Guard (Gift: Body 3, Skill: Melee 3).

Alia rolls 2d6

• Die 1 (Body 3): rolls a 2. Calculation: 3 - 2 + 1 = 2 successes.
• Die 2 (Melee 2): rolls a 5. Since 5 is greater than 2, the result is 0 successes.

Alia's total: 2

Guard rolls 2d6

• Die 1 (Body 3): rolls a 6. Since 6 is greater than 3, the result is 0 successes. The other die is not a 6, so this is not a fumble.
• Die 2 (Melee 3): rolls a 1. Calculation: 3 - 1 + 1 = 3 successes.

Guard's total: 0 + 3 = 3

Resolution

Alia scored 2 successes; the Guard scored 3. Neither total is negative, so no bonus transfer occurs. The Guard wins by a degree of success of 1.

What a fumble looks like

Suppose both of the Guard's dice had shown a 6. Every die in the pool is a 6 — that is a fumble. The Guard's total becomes 0 + 0 − 1 = −1. That negative value transfers as a bonus to Alia, giving her 2 + 1 = 3, while the Guard's total is set to 0. Alia wins by a degree of success of 3.