When your character attempts something uncertain, you roll five six-sided dice (5d6) and keep some of them based on your skill level. Add the kept dice together. Compare to a target number the GM gives you.
The Five Skill Tiers
You have a tier in each of six domains (we'll get to those in Your Character). Your tier in the domain you're rolling determines which dice you keep:
| Tier | What you do with 5d6 | Average result |
|---|---|---|
| Impaired | Keep the lowest 2 | ~4 |
| Untrained | Keep the lowest 3 | ~7 |
| Trained | Keep the highest 3 | ~13 |
| Proficient | Keep the highest 4 | ~16 |
| Expert | Keep all 5 | ~17.5 |
You always roll five dice. What changes is which dice count. A skilled character throws away the bad ones and keeps the good ones; an unskilled character is stuck with whatever turned up; an actively cursed character is stuck with the worst of what turned up.
This means rolling the dice itself shows your competence. Spectators at the table can tell who's good at something just by watching them physically pick which dice to count.
Target Numbers
The GM sets a difficulty for each roll. Difficulties are written with a T:
| Difficulty | Target | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | T8 | Routine — you'd usually only roll if failure is interesting |
| Standard | T11 | The default for most uncertain actions |
| Hard | T14 | Genuinely difficult — Trained characters sweat |
| Heroic | T17 | Beyond ordinary skill |
| Legendary+ | T20+ | Once-in-a-campaign feats. Even Experts struggle. |
Most rolls in play will be Standard or Hard.
What Your Roll Means
Compare your total to the Target. The result lands in one of five outcome bands:
| Result vs. Target | Outcome | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Beat T by 7 or more | Critical Success | "Yes, and..." — you do it, plus a bonus, gift, or momentum shift |
| Meet T or beat by 1–6 | Success | "Yes." — you do the thing |
| Miss T by 1–4 | Mixed | "Yes, but..." or "No, but..." — partial success with a cost or trade |
| Miss T by 5–9 | Failure | "No, and..." — you fail, and something gets worse |
| Miss T by 10 or more | Catastrophic Failure | "No, and EVERYTHING gets worse" — disaster |
Crits are rare and special. A Trained character on a Standard task crits about 1 in 28 times — once or twice per session across the whole party. When it happens, the table feels it.
Most rolls are Successes or Mixed results. Mixed is the storytelling sweet spot — it's where complications and texture come from. "You climb the wall, but you tear your sleeve and someone notices." Embrace Mixed outcomes; they make the best stories.
Example: Your character is trying to climb a wall to escape pursuers. The GM says "T11, roll Body."
You're Trained in Body, so you roll 5d6 and keep the highest 3.
The dice come up: 6, 5, 4, 2, 1.
You keep the 6, 5, and 4 = 15. That beats T11 by 4 — a clean Success. You're up the wall.
If you'd rolled 6, 6, 5, 5, 1 = 17 (or higher), that's a Crit — you'd be over the wall and you've spotted a hidden alley to escape into.