2. Challenges & Checks

CHALLENGES & CHECKS

RESOLVING UNCERTAINITY

CHECKS

When you attempt something whose outcome involves proficiency, uncertainty, luck, or fate, you simply compare your most relevant Attribute value to the Difficulty of the task. If your Attribute meets or exceeds the Difficulty, you succeed – barring any interruption from fate.

You will Cast Lots to see if fate interferes.

Terms

• Attribute – a Discipline, Stat, etc.
• Difficulty – a target number that corresponds to a required proficiency.

Tiers

It may be useful to think of your capabilities, the difficulty of challenges, or the quality of things in terms of numeric tiers.

In Thaeborn, all of these things normally range from 0 to 10 and are therefore directly comparable.

• Proficiency Tier – How capable is the character?
• Difficulty Tier – How demanding is the task?
• Quality Tier – How well-made or effective is something?

CAST LOTS

DICE

Use two, four-sided dice with a different appearance.
Choose one of them to be the WEAL Die. The other becomes the WOE Die.

CRIT

If both dice land on a 4, you have rolled a CRIT (“critical” or “critical success”).

For most types of Checks, this means automatic and spectacular success that also grants you heightened benefits of a WEAL result. However, it most cases – attacks not included – you are unable to automatically succeed at anything whose Tier exceeds yours by 4 or more.

FUMBLE

When you roll double 1’s, the roll is a FUMBLE (“critical failure”).

For most Checks, this means an automatic and horrendous failure that also bestows on you the heightened consequences of the WOE result.

Like CRITS, you are typically unable to automatically fail at anything whose Tier exceeds your own by 4 or more. Sure, something may take longer, or a tool may break, but you’re just way too competent to completely fail.

WEAL

Whenever the WEAL Die lands on 4, you gain a positive benefit called a WEAL, regardless of whether the Check is a success or failure.

WOE

When the WOE Die lands on a 1, you suffer a negative consequence called a WOE, regardless of whether the Check is a success or failure.

WASTE

If the WEAL Die is a 4 (normally creating a WEAL benefit) and the WOE Die is a 1 (normally causing a WOE detriment), the action is lost. You neither succeed or fail, you simply stutter and stall – wasting your time and effort.

Tip

We love using twelve-sided dice that repeat the values 1-4 three times. d12’s roll so much better than those little polyhedral caltrops.

LOTS

Together, all of the special results possible from casting lots – CRIT, WEAL, WASTE, WOE, FUMBLE – can be referred to as a Lot.

RULE OF FOURS

If the Tier of a Check exceeds your Proficiency by four or more, you simply won’t be able to succeed at it. You can still try it, but even rolling a CRIT won’t allow you to succeed – although you could gain useful information, and possibly a Story Point or two.

The same is true when your Proficiency is four or more above that of your Check – you can’t automatically fail, but a tool could still break, or the information you gain be misleading.

You should always be allowed to roll – especially since their could be benefits or detriments from WEAL and WOE, or a time-sync of rolling a WASTE.

ONLY PLAYERS ROLL

Only players roll – usually.

The GM will typically only make rolls if they feel something should remain random and should not be revealed, yet, to the PCs. See EMBRACKING UNCERTAINTY.

For example:

• When you perform an attack on an NPC, you Cast Lots to see how your attack is affected; there is no NPC roll for defense.
• When you are defending against an attack from an NPC, you Cast Lots to see how your defense is affected; the NPC does not roll for their attack.
• If an NPCs tries to break-out of a restraint or effect you have placed on them, you exert effort and Cast Lots to try to keep them restrained or affected.
• If an NPC’s Intuition is high enough to successfully catch you sneaking, you Cast Lots to see how fate affects the situation.
• …etc…

ASSESS

To Assess something is to judge its quality or difficulty Tier, or special qualities.

Compare the Proficiency of your most relevant Discipline to the target’s Tier.

If your Proficiency meets or exceeds the target’s, you accurately determine its Tier and any obvious special qualities.

If the target’s Tier is higher than yours, the GM gives you a descriptive sense of the gap instead. A small gap might sound like “this seems just beyond your current skill, but success is possible.” A large gap might mean “you did not know this was even possible.”

COMMITMENT

You must at least observe a target to Assess it, but closer interaction improves the accuracy or your assessment.

• Observation only – treat your Tier as 1 lower.
• Cautious touch or basic inspection – use your Tier normally.
• Aggressive prodding, poking, prying, or tool use – treat your Tier as 1 higher, though this may involve risk.

This is useful when you want to judge whether you could do something without fully committing to it, such as unlocking a lock, disarming a trap, operating a device, or challenging someone’s Prowess.

A normal Check can also count as an Assessment. After the Check is resolved, the GM compares your Proficiency to the target’s Tier and gives you the appropriate information.

TIME

The time required to Assess something depends on the type of thing being assessed. Most assessments take several minutes, especially when the target’s Tier is higher than yours.

The baseline for assessing non-living things is 4 minutes, plus 2 minutes per Tier, minus your Proficiency.

EXAMPLES

**Prowess – ** You can assess someone’s Prowess by watching them fight. A single remarkable maneuver may be enough, though several exchanges may be needed. This usually takes only a few moments.

Survival, Subterfuge, and Ingenuity. These usually require watching someone work for several minutes, or studying the results of their work: a shelter they built, a trap they made, or a blade they forged.

Willpower. You might assess someone’s Willpower by seeing how they endure pain, pressure, fear, temptation, or interaction with the Thae. To assess how much Willpower something would require of you, you may need to experience it directly.

Intuition. Assessing someone’s Intuition is rarely straightforward. You would need to know their assumptions or gut feelings, then compare them to what is actually true. Since people may misrepresent what they felt or believed, this may not always be feasible.

GM NOTE

The GM should ask how long you are willing to spend assessing. Being willing to spend 30 minutes does not mean the assessment will take that long, nor does it prevent interruption.

You might consider granting an additional Tier to their effective Proficiency when a character is willing to spend more time on their assessment than its tier normally requires.

Likewise, rushing an assessment, or one performed under pressure or duress should absolutely decrease the PC’s effective Proficiency.

TRY, TRY AGAIN

When your Proficiency is sufficient to succeed at a task, but fate had other plans via a WOE, WASTE, or FUMBLE, you may try again – assuming that the circumstances allow, e.g. you have the time and resources to do so. A Lot can give you modifiers to your next attempt.

SPECTACULAR SUCCESSES & HORRENDOUS FAILURES

When you roll a special outcome when Casting Lots – such as a CRIT, WEAL, WASTE, WOE, or FUMBLE – you have the option of self-prescribing the results. If the GM agrees that they’re appropriate, then that’s what happens. If the GM thinks they are entertainingly spectacular or horrendous, they may award you with Story Points.

Examples are provided for each type of Check to help determine if your self-prescribed results are appropriate. Optionally, you can use our examples as-is, or to serve as inspiration for your self-prescribed results.

EARNING STORY POINTS

A player whose self-prescribed results are entertaining and help create great memories can earn Story Points from the GM. Story Points can be converted to either Development Points (used to develop your Disciplines), or Portents (which can be used to alter the outcome of Checks).

SHARING IN FAILURE

If you can feasibly work your way into another PC’s horrendous failure, you can do so for a chance at earning Story Points.

Examples:

• friendly fire on a fumbled ranged attack
• being tripped up by an ally who slips and falls when they’re near you
• being caught in the blast of their failed attempt to make a concoction

PORTENTS

When you use a Portent, you get a glimpse of the future and are given the power to affect it. Portents can be spent to affect an outcome any time Lots are Cast.

There are two ways to use them: Blot-out or Re-tell.

They can be used on your own roll, another player’s roll, or an NPC’s roll.
The number of Portents required is:

• Your Own Roll – 1 Portent
• Another Player’s Roll – 2 Portents
• The GM’s Roll – 3 Portents

When a Portent is used, no one in the story is aware that it was used, or that the original action ever would have occurred, except the character who used it.

BLOT-OUT

You can completely erase an Action or Check. Any effort spent is lost. It’s as if the act was just skipped – it never happened.

RE-TELL

When you choose to Re-tell an Action or Check, it’s as if the first attempt never happened, but the Check must be completed again. The second outcome is the only one that is kept.

If you don’t like the second result, and have enough Portents remaining, you may Re-tell a Re-telling again, and again, and again… Only the last attempt actually happens.

Important

On a Re-telling, only the outcome is being affected. The effort exerted to get to the Check does not have to repeated; it still counts.

EMBRACING UNCERTAINITY

The role of Checks is usually to resolve uncertainty. However, rolls can sometimes be used to increase tension or anticipation by creating uncertainty.

The GM may ask you to Cast Lots without giving you a reason, Proficiency, Discipline, Stat, a target number, or any explanation.

Some common reasons might be:

• to see if you are altered by exposure to the Thae.
• to see if you notice the creature sneaking up on you, or hear the horn in the distance.
• to determine the weather or some other environmental event.
• to check for a random encounter (though we’re not a huge fan of these… it’s your game…)
• just to make you wonder why they had you roll.

We recommend that the GM not tell you what the roll is for, so that you are never able to assume what may be happening – since you may find yourself in areas of high Thae intensity or in possession of Thae-touched items and not realize it, and can no longer assume that every “secret roll” is related to whether you perceive something.