To participate in this game, you will frequently find yourself stating what your Character wants to do. On these occasions, the GM can ask you to prove that this actually happens the way you planned it in your head. This means that dice will be rolled.
Rolling dice is the most central mechanic to almost every Pen & Paper game and it solves multiple problems.
Introducing the element of surprise and uncertainty to the story, making it take unforeseen twist and turns.
Keeping the story in fluid progression. Rolling eliminates the need for constant discussion of events and their likelihood.
<aside> 🪶 Shape the world, and let the world shape you.
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Keeping every player on the same level. When multiple people are creating a story together, there is bound to be social friction involved. Maybe one player is more demanding, while others are more cautious in their taking part in the game. The rules and at their centre rolling the dice, work towards resolving this friction and keeping a fair environment at the table.
For rolling the dice, these concepts are central. I’ll introduce them here shortly, so you roughly know what they mean. Their full extent is explained in the Concepts.
Successes - Dice that show 5 or 6. This is what you want.
Lost Causes - Dice that show 1. Can’t be re-rolled.
Attributes - Every Character has 4 Attributes:
Power [PWR] Volition [VOL] Finesse [FIN] Wisdom [WIS]
These have values attached that define what the Character is good at. Every time the dice are rolled, the GM selects one of the four Attributes as the discipline in which the Task takes place. The player uses the attached value to re-roll all non-successes.
Skills - they are a Character’s expertise in a certain area and are improved when you fail a roll. Level 1 Skills can be used to re-roll a single die. The bonus increases the more proficient you are with a Skill. (Examples: “Rhetoric”, “Archery”, “Climbing”)
Advantages and Disadvantages - These are granted by the GM for good descriptions and narrative circumstances. Re-Roll a success or add a die. Examples: “high ground”, “time pressure”
<aside> 🪶 To give you a feeling for Attributes and which of them is used for what, most examples will from now on carry the [tag] of the Attribute that fits best.
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Rolling in Satisfiction is done with five six-sided dice. To be a success, a single die needs to show a 5 or 6. Dice that show less can be re-rolled - unless they show a one. Dice that show a one are Lost Causes. In the end, we need as much successes as the GM says (she sets a value called Risk for this). A roll is evaluated when all available re-rolls have been made.
<aside> 🪶 Many things are uncomplicated and don’t need to be rolled for.
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Start with the story. When you see an opportunity, tell the others at the table what you want your Character to do and how you want to achieve it.
Listen to the GM. The GM will tell you how difficult your Action is by giving you a Risk value between 1 and 5. This is the number of successes you need to roll. She will also tell you what Attribute your roll is based on. This is important for re-rolling the dice.
Lobby for yourself. See if you can bargain for any Advantage to your roll. Is someone owing you a favour due to past events or do you have gear with you that helps with what you want to do? Is there an appropriate Skill you can use? Make your point in one or two sentences.
<aside> 📜 Magena decides to get even with the mayor. She won’t accept that these creatures are toiling like slaves! Magena’s *player Emma says: “She wants to trick the major’s subordinate into setting the goblins free. She will do this by fabricating a fake story about an order from the mayor.” [FIN]
GM: “Fair enough. You’ll be using Finesse for that. This will be dangerous though, so I’m saying risk 3.”*
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Then, take the dice in hand - It’s time to roll! To maximize your successes, you need as many 5’s and 6’s as you can get.
Once the dice have fallen, you can re-roll any number of dice up to two times, once for every point you have in the Attribute chosen by the GM. Lost Causes can’t be Re-Rolled with Attributes.
Following that, Disadvantages & Advantages are applied. For each Disadvantage, Re-Roll the highest die. After that, for every Advantage, add a die to the pool and roll it once.
Lastly, an appropriate Skill can be used to re-roll single dice. One Die Re-Roll is awarded per Skill level, making Skills more powerful the more they progress. Starting at level 2, a Skill can even Re-Roll a Lost Cause.
In the end, all successes are counted.
<aside> 📜 *Magena rolls the dice and they show 5, 2, 4, 4, 1. That’s one lost cause and one of three successes she needs.
But she can roll once again, because she has a finesse attribute of 1. She takes three dice and re-rolls them. Oh, Fortuna! She’s left with 5, 3, 6, 6, 1 - three successes, one lost cause.
(Any suitable skill would allow her to re-roll the 3 as well. A Skill of level 2 could even be used to re-roll the 1 and one additional die)
Try rolling for Magena now, if you have 5 dice at hand.*
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And further on! When evaluating the roll, scoring successes equal to the Risk level means you have succeeded in your endeavour. You might find that you have even more successes. These excess successes further improve the outcome of the roll by enhancing your performance or awarding you extra time to act. They can also count as Advantage for a follow-up roll.
If you don’t have enough successes, you don’t get what you want exactly. Maybe you get more than you wanted, or you have to pay a nasty price. Welcome to failing fantastically.
Failing feels bad, we all know this. And the fact that in this game, you can improve an appropriate Skill every time you fail, does little to comfort you. So let’s see how we can make failing a fun thing to do!
We’ll have a look at an example first. Let's get back to Magena and her goblins and pretend that she has failed her roll by two successes. First, she gets two progression points to spend for an appropriate Skill she can choose herself. This could be “Deceive”. Skills gain a new level each time they reach 5 progression points.