Dice Rolls
Most things that characters do in Fayrewood happen without any specific rules governing them and are achieved with ease, just like if someone in our world did them. However, even mundane tasks might need dice rolls when performed under pressure. Activities that are stressful, hasty, or overcoming some obstacle will be more likely to require a roll.
When you tell your Storyteller what you would like your character to do, they may decide that your character automatically succeeds with no need for a dice roll. This might be because the action is simple or wouldn't be challenging for your character. It could also be that failure on a roll wouldn't be narratively interesting, or the action just suits the ongoing story.
In other cases, the action you want to attempt might be harder than usual, or outside the skillset of your character. This is when a Storyteller will likely ask for a toss.
Making a toss goes something like this:
- You describe what your character is trying to do and how they are going to do it.
- The Storyteller tells you which of your dice to roll and if you have any boons or banes.
- The Storyteller sets a difficulty, which may be kept a secret from you depending on context and playstyle.
- You roll your relevant dice, add their totals together and note any 1s, then roll and add or subtract any boons or banes given to your total.
- If your total meets or exceeds the difficulty you win the toss and accomplish your intended action.
Aspects
Aspects are the defining innate, learned, and earned traits and resources of a character. Most aspects are ranked between the levels of zero and five, with five representing the upper limits of potential and skill in that aspect.
The innate aspects of a character are called pillars, of which there are three. These serve as the foundations of a character's potential and hold up the rest of their aspects. Hence the name pillars. Contrastingly, skills are the ways in which characters apply their potential and they broadly fall into three categories in line with the pillars.
Dice
When making a toss, you assemble a pool of dice based on the combination of aspects requested by the Storyteller. A pool consists of two main dice and an optional modifier die, although in some cases, a character might not have a die to roll for one of their main dice. While most of the time this pool consists of dice from a pillar and a skill, sometimes only a pillar is used to make a pool.
Which dice are used in the pool is determined by the level of the aspect. Fayrewood uses a die-ladder, or step-dice to determine which die is cast in a given roll.
| Level | Die |
|---|---|
| 0 | None |
| 1 | d4 |
| 2 | d6 |
| 3 | d8 |
| 4 | d10 |
| 5 | d12 |
Difficulty
The Storyteller determines the difficulty of the action your character is attempting. It is a number that serves as a target to meet or beat with your roll. This number can be set as the Storyteller thinks is appropriate but the following table can act as a rough guide:
| Difficulty | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Routine | |
| 5 | Straightforward | |
| 7 | Moderate | |
| 9 | Challenging | |
| 11 | Hard | |
| 13 | Very Hard | |
| 15+ | Near Impossible |
Modifiers
There are two ways that a toss can be modified in Fayrewood: stepping or modifier dice.
Stepping refers to moving up or down on the die-ladder. This usually happens based on equipment or talents, not circumstance. On the other hand, modifier dice come into play based on contextual factors. There are three:
- A boon die is 1d4 that is added to the total of the roll. It represents some advantage.
- A bane die is 1d4 that is subtracted from the total of the roll. It represents some disadvantage.
- A frayed die is rolled at the cost of a wound to a character in place of either a boon or bane while frayed. It is 1d8 that is added to the total of the roll.
Sweeps
If half of a player's maximum roll on their pool meet or beats double the difficulty then the Storyteller may opt to award a sweep. This means that the action succeeds without needing to actually roll the dice.
The Storyteller should look to award sweeps liberally, especially outside of combat or for tosses with uninteresting outcomes for failure. Sweeps are not intended for use in combat but a Storyteller might employ them to quickly move through weaker enemies not meant to be a challenge to the troupe.
Help
Sometimes two or more characters can conceivably work together to achieve the same goal. When assistance is provided by performing the same task, the player with the strongest pool gets to roll with a boon. If multiple people are assisting on the task, the Storyteller may opt to instead step-up a relevant die for an involved skill for each assisting player with some level of that skill.
In cases where the help is provided by performing another task, the Storyteller might call for a toss to see if help can be effectively provided, granting a boon on a win. The other task should be provide a reasonable benefit to the person performing the main task.
Results
Once a pool is rolled, the main dice are added together, noting any 1s. Then any modifier dice in the pool are added or subtracted from the total as appropriate. If the final total meets or beats the difficulty, then that is a win. Otherwise, it is a fail.
A fail doesn't necessarily prevent a character from attempting an action again, however, there should be some contextual justification for repeating a failed action. Conflict scenes, for example, are a context where actions are frequently repeated, outside of conflict your character might need more justification to be able to try again.
Margin
The amount by which a toss exceeds the difficulty is called the margin. The margin is important for determining damage or degree of success. A sweep typically has a margin of zero.
Criticals
A critical occurs when the margin of success is equal to or exceeds the difficulty set for a given toss. A critical implies that the action was performed much more quickly, more stylishly, or more thoroughly than normal. The Storyteller might award some additional mechanical benefit, such as dealing an additional wound in combat scenes.
Fumbles
If one of the main dice lands on a 1 but you still meet or beat the difficulty of a toss, that is called a fumble. When you fumble, your character still managed to perform the action they set out to do, but there is an unexpected cost or consequence to your action. The severity and impact of a fumble should be negotiated with all players and the Storyteller; it should generally scale with the margin of success.
If you roll two 1s on main dice, that is a catastrophic fumble: the toss automatically fails and you suffer a consequence determined by the Storyteller.
Clashes
Not all rolls are made against a flat difficulty, sometimes another character opposes or competes against the action you are trying to make. These are called clashes. In a clash both the acting character and their opponent build pools and roll against each other. The pools built by each character do not have to be the same.
A clash goes something like this:
- Describe what your character wants to do and how to the Storyteller.
- The Storyteller decides that someone or something opposes your efforts and tells you what dice to use to build your pool.
- The Storyteller chooses the dice for the opponents pool.
- If the acting character's roll meets or beats the roll of their opponent, they win the clash.
Player characters can engage in clashes between each other too. In these cases, the Storyteller is still responsible for determining which dice are to be used in the pool.