Action

Heroes face action and danger at every turn, and challenge rolls are the mechanic that drives it all. This section explains how they work and how the rest of P&P builds from them.

Challenge Rolls

You can automatically do anything a normal person can do without difficulty. Simply tell the GM and describe what happens. However, any time you try to perform an action whose outcome is uncertain, you have to make a challenge roll to determine who earns narrative control and gets to describe what happens in the game world. Things work a little differently in combat, but out of combat, challenge rolls generally determine who gets to narrate the outcome of an action.

Making a Challenge Roll

1. Roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to the Trait that applies to the action attempted. If you are not sure which Trait to use, the GM can make the call.
2. You earn one success for every 2 and 4 rolled, and two successes for every 6 rolled.
3. If penalties ever leave you with less than one die, you nevertheless roll one die, and you must roll a 6 to earn just one success. Anything else means you fail the roll completely.
4. To speed play, you are always free to take 1 automatic success for every 2 dice you choose to not roll (although the GM can veto this option).
5. Apply any modifiers. The GM can apply a modifier of anywhere from +4d to -4d to either or both rolls to account for conditions like lousy weather, unstable footing, and so on.
6. Determine your threshold. If you are acting against an opponent, they make their own roll and you use their successes as your threshold. If you are not acting against an opponent, the GM assigns a static threshold (see below).
7. Subtract the action's threshold from your successes to determine your net successes.

Narrative Control

Once you determine your net successes, check the table below to see who describes what happens. As used on this table, the Actor is the person making the roll and the Opponent is the one resisting it. If two or more characters are trying to accomplish the same goal, whoever rolls the most successes is the Actor, and whoever rolls the next most successes is the Opponent. Because actions like cracking a safe or scaling a wall do not involve an Opponent, the GM acts as the Opponent in cases like these (although GMs are encouraged to accept player input when the Actor is an NPC).

Example

Citizen Soldier and Gatecrasher are putting on an arm-wrestling exhibition for charity. Both have 12d Might. Citizen Soldier doesn't roll, and instead takes 6 automatic successes for his 12d. Gatecrasher, meanwhile, rolls 12 dice and gets a 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6, and 6, for a total of 7 successes (one for each 2 and two for each 6). Because both characters are trying to do the same thing - win the contest - the one who rolls more successes is now the Actor. That would be Gatecrasher. Subtracting the Soldier's 6 successes, Gate ends up with 1 net success. Gatecrasher gets to describe how the arm-wrestling contest plays out, but Citizen Soldier can embellish his narration.

Thresholds

Whenever you perform an action opposed by another character, they make a challenge roll to resist your efforts and their successes become your threshold. If no one is resisting your efforts, the GM assigns a threshold based on the difficulty of your action and the conditions under which you are operating.

Setting Thresholds

Use the Thresholds table below as a guide. Challenge rolls against a static threshold are typically referred to by their difficulty and threshold followed by the name of the Trait use. For example, an Average (1) Might roll.

Thresholds Table

Embellishments

Whenever an embellishment is allowed, the party who doesn't have narrative control can add to the other person's narration in some small but meaningful way. An embellishment should be a clarification or additional detail that expands on the original narration without contradicting it. Embellishments can't render the original narration untrue or true but effectively meaningless. Assume you roll -1 net success when trying to leap across rooftops, so the GM narrates you onto a scaffolding thirty feet down. You can't use your embellishment to say you make it across after all, because that renders the original narration untrue. You also can't say you land on the scaffolding and then bounce back up to the roof because that makes the original narration meaningless.

Compromises

When someone else has the right to embellish your narration, you can offer a compromise. This means you describe a less-than-perfect outcome for your action in exchange for them giving up the right to embellish your narration. To have a compromise, both sides must agree on the final narration. Opponents are never obligated to accept a compromise.

Describing the Action

The point of this system is to pave the way for creative and unexpected outcomes. Players and GMs are expected to narrate interesting results.

Creative Narration

Although we expect players to slant things in their favor and GMs to slant things against them, narrations should usually involve something more than a simple I win or you lose. For example, if you fail a challenge roll while trying to leap from one rooftop to another, the GM should come up with something more interesting than just having you fall to your death. Maybe you stop short at the edge of a building and drop something you were carrying. Maybe you almost make it across and end up dangling by your fingertips, ready to lose your grip at any moment. Maybe you drop onto a scaffolding some 30 feet below, as described in the previous example. Be creative and make your descriptions interesting.

Keeping the Game Moving

Conversely, not every roll is created equal. While every challenge roll should be important, some rolls will have a clear either/or outcome. Don't be afraid to narrate a simple success or failure if that's enough to keep the game moving. This system is supposed to make the game more exciting, not to bring the action to a crashing halt every time someone makes a challenge roll. If an interesting or exciting result doesn't immediately present itself or isn't necessarily appropriate for the roll, then let the dice tell you whether you succeeded or failed and move on. Never let this slow you down.

Traditional Results

Not everyone is comfortable narrating their actions. Some players find this intimidating. Others feel it kills immersion by making them think like an author or a narrator instead of a character. And there are players who don't want to come up with a narration for every challenge roll - when the dice hit the table, all they want to know is whether or not they succeed.

Using Traditional Results

If this describes you, that's fine too. While these rules are designed around the idea of rolling for narrative control, you can just as easily apply a more traditional framework of rolling to determine success or failure by using the Traditional Results table. When using this table, the GM determines the nature of all silver linings and complications. You can even mix and match these systems, with some players using narrative results and others using traditional results.

Traditional Results Table

Checking Your Swing

The game's dice mechanics are meant to be swingy. An especially good roll with lots of 6s can yield a surprising number of successes, occasionally letting an underdog do much better than expected. While that suits comic book style action perfectly, you might want something more realistic or predictable when playing a grittier game. If so, use this alternate rule when reading the dice: all even numbers are worth one success; 6s don't provide extra successes but they explode if you spend 1 Resolve (you decide whether or not to spend Resolve after rolling the dice). Making 6s explode means you get to roll those dice again to try for extra successes, and you can keep rerolling them as long as you keep rolling 6s. Using this method, extreme results are less common and often require you to spend Resolve. There are a few other instances in these rules that allow you to spend 1 Resolve to make your 6s explode. When using this rule, those situations provide no extra benefit.

Assisting

Some actions are easier to accomplish with help.

Getting Help

In such cases, the person helping you makes their own challenge roll against a Hard (2) threshold and you gain a +1d bonus to your challenge roll for every 2 net successes they roll (rounding up as always). When working with multiple helpers, use the bonus provided by the one who rolls best.

Group Actions

Occasionally, you and your allies must perform individual actions as a group, like climbing a mountain or sneaking into a Villain's lair. In cases like these, everyone makes their own challenge roll, but characters who earn more than 3 net successes can distribute these extra net successes among their allies to help them succeed as well.

Contests

Some challenges are more dramatic and interesting when broken up over multiple rolls. These challenges are contests, and they are broken down into a number of exchanges.

Running a Contest

Each exchange covers a separate part of the overall task and requires its own challenge roll. Most contests should involve 3 exchanges, but especially arduous ones can have 6 or more, assuming the GM can make each exchange interesting. For example, a foot race with 3 exchanges could be broken down into sprinting through darkened alleys, scrambling up building facades and fire escapes, and bounding across moonlit rooftops. The winner of each exchange is allowed to describe something that happens during that exchange - think of this as an embellishment - and earns a +2d bonus on their challenge roll in the next exchange.

Winning Contests

Whoever wins the final exchange gets to describe the overall outcome of the contest.

Defining Moments

Whether you're a solo act or part of a team, there are times when everything rests on your shoulders. When that happens, you always have the option of declaring a Defining Moment.

Declaring a Defining Moment

This does two things:

1. Any 6s you roll explode. As noted above, that means you get to roll those dice again to try for extra successes, and you can keep rerolling them as long as you keep rolling 6s (and each 6 still counts as 2 successes).
2. Every point of Resolve you spend on that challenge roll ears you 3 extra dice instead of the usual 1 extra die (see Chapter 5).

Despite the name, Defining Moments can last longer than an instant. For example, a Hero with super strength might declare a Defining Moment when they need to hold up a collapsing building long enough for the civilians inside to escape, even though the building would normally be much too heavy to lift. Similarly, a Defining Moment could involve attempting to defuse an impossibly complex alien bomb or negotiating a peace treaty between militant factions that have been at war for centuries.

Restrictions

You can only declare one Defining Moment per story. Additionally, because these are instances when everything rests on you, only one Hero can declare a Defining Moment per scene (although Heroes in different scenes - different locations, different times, whatever - can declare Defining Moments that just happen to occur at the same time).

The Cost

Most importantly, Defining Moments take their toll on you. Once a Defining Moment is over, you must permanently reduce one of your Abilities by id. If your Defining Moment involved a physical task, you must reduce Agility, Might or Toughness. If it involved a mental task, you must reduce Intellect, Perception, or Willpower. Although the reduction is permanent, this doesn't prevent you from spending Hero Points to raise that Ability in the future.

When to Use Them

Putting these mechanical considerations aside, Defining Moments should be rare and special. Don't expect to have one every issue, or even every story. Heroes are constantly fighting the good fight, challenging supervillains, protecting civilians, and doing what they can to make the world a better place. None of that rises to the level of a Defining Moment. It's only when you find yourself in a truly critical situation that rests entirely on your shoulders that a Defining Moment is appropriate.

One-Shots

When playing a convention game or any one-shot game where you don't expect to use your Hero again, the idea of reducing one of your Abilities by id doesn't mean very much. Accordingly, Defining Moments are even more debilitating in one-shot games.

After you resolve your Defining Moment, your Health drops to O and you fall unconscious. You regain your wits at the end of the scene, but you suffer a -2d penalty to all challenge rolls for the rest of the story. GMs may let Heroes in ordinary games choose this option instead of reducing one of their Abilities by id, but that's entirely optional.

Judging Thresholds

If you don't know what threshold to make a particular action, remember this general guideline, which is especially applicable to Standard Heroes: difficult actions are usually Hard (2), heroically difficult actions are usually Brutal (4), and super-heroically difficult actions are usually Superhuman (6).

Guidelines

If that doesn't help, review the examples on the Sample Thresholds table and remember that it's perfectly okay to just wing it and go with whatever feels right.

Sample Thresholds Table