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Rolling stats and skills, and what the numbers mean

posted by Inaya

Inaya
Posts: 62
Rolling stats and skills, and what the numbers mean 1 of 3
March 17, 2024, 9:07 p.m.

I'm having a hard time coming to grips with how rolls work, and what the numbers mean in a roleplay context. When someone rolls a 26, or a 75, or 115, these numbers don't mean much to me. Is my roll good, or bad? I mean clearly a 5 is probably quite bad. And 115 is probably very good. But in relation to what standards? Are they relative to your own ability? Is it 1d10 for every point in a stat or a skill? Does that mean the cap is higher when rolling a stat + a skill, rather than a stat alone? Is the rough scale 1-100, and anything above 100 is "superhuman?" What is an "average" roll, by an average human with an average stat or skill?

What are the thresholds of difficulty in rolls? What is required to pass an easy roll? Medium? Hard? Legendary?

Would it perhaps be possible to echo your number roll and the threshold privately when rolling vs a difficulty?
e.g., something like:

"You rolled strength and intimidation at hard difficulty, and the result was a pass
Your roll: 98
Hard difficulty threshold: 70"

It's just difficult to know precisely what any given roll means, in any context, and how to roleplay accordingly. If someone rolls a 26 on magnetism, am I... listening but not compelled by their argument? Bored? Actually enraged by how bad they are at talking to me?

Any guidance would be much appreciated!

March 17, 2024, 9:07 p.m.
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Zahir
Posts: 19
Re: Rolling stats and skills, and what the numbers mean 2 of 3
March 17, 2024, 9:18 p.m.

Tips for when one should roll would be welcome too

March 17, 2024, 9:18 p.m.
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pilgrim
Posts: 272
Re: Rolling stats and skills, and what the numbers mean 3 of 3
March 17, 2024, 11:41 p.m.

Thanks to the conversation over GameHelp earlier, I've done some updating of dice checks (both the help file and the code) tonight.

 

Here are some quotes from the new help file that should hopefully answer a few questions!
---------------

Dice rolls can be used when you're not sure what your character would do, and you want to leave it up to chance. One example might be if something very frightening occurs, and you want to decide whether your character manages to be brave, so you roll the will stat. A storyrunner may also request a dice roll from you when it comes to event activities, to see how well your character performs at a specific task that is not mechanically coded.
...
The roll takes the average of 3 randomly-generated numbers in a range from your stat value to your stat value times 10. Skill points are weighted similarly. It's essentially a 1D10 dice for every point.

Here are the threshold of difficulty for rolling only a stat:

  • Easy: 5
  • Medium: 10
  • Hard: 20
  • Legendary: 80

And here are the thresholds for rolling a stat and a skill together:

  • Easy: 15
  • Medium: 25
  • Hard: 45
  • Legendary: 110
March 17, 2024, 11:41 p.m.
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