Dice Rolls, Skill Checks and Modifiers

[Akirapryde]

Skill Rolls and Modifiers

I wanted to take some time to help all the players understand the different kind of skill rolls and how to use them.

For those of you whom have the main book, page 10 covers most what I am about to go over.

First and foremost, what does a roll mean and how do you read them?

In life, chance of luck and use of a skill plays in to just about everything we do. From making a cup of coffee to driving a car. While some skill checks are simply not necessary (such as making a cup of coffee) some checks, while mundane, are necessary. The situation will dictate what rolls are needed and what rolls are not. Regardless of skill level, the chance of luck will always play a factor.

If you roll and your result is a 2 (or snake eyes) than this result is an automatic failure. Lady Luck simply wasn’t on your side during this effort. The result could lead to a catastrophic mistake. Such as stepping on that branch right before you carried out your surprise attack against a guard or cut the wrong wire leading to the bomb going off. While you made a critical mistake, your character did learn something from the mistake (should they survive the encounter or situation). To reflect this, you will be awarded a skill point for that roll.

If you roll and your result is a 12 (or box cars) despite what the book says, this is not an automatic success. There are some situations (such as impossible attacks or surviving impossible situations) that no matter how good you are, are simply not possible. However, it must be said that this is not the rule to hard or difficult situations. More so, this becomes null and void for those characters who have specialized in a given task or have a natural aptitude (see the advantage) in a given skill. Those characters that have taken the extra steps in a given field/skill, can take all natural 12’s (box cars) and count them as automatic successes.

Even in failure, success can be drawn from it. For all characters who don’t have a specialization or natural aptitude, a roll result of a natural 12 (or box cars) can draw a measure of success from the impossible situation. As you taste that bitter flavor of failure, a glimmer of wisdom or information could be given. Maybe that shot went wide, but in your scope you spotted a mysterious character in the car near your target.

I will determine the factors that define an impossible situation and just a hard or difficult situation. So even the odds are stacked up against you, it might be worth your while to toss those dice anyway. In all cases, a natural roll result of 12 will award the character with a Skill Point.

How do you make a Skill Check?

Skills are directly affected by the character’s characteristics. This relationship is very important to understand. Let us look at Chris, who has a Physical Characteristic of 7 (18 - Intuition score of 5 – Reflect score of 6 = 7). Chris has a Mech/Gunner Skill at a level of 3. This makes his base target (without modifiers) of 4. It is the character’s skill level minus the supporting characteristic. It is possible to have a negative base target number!

Modifiers will take this base target number up or down depending on the modifier. Bonus are reflected as negative numbers to the base target, where penalties are reflected as positive numbers to the base target.

Here is an example:
Chris is looking at targeting an enemy mech at medium range. The enemy mech didn’t move enough to grand a movement modifier and Chris careful aimed during his movement phase.

This is how the numbers play out. Chris’ base target number is raised by 2 for the range modifier bringing his to hit target to 6. Chris careful aimed for one round, and this will drop his target number by one per round of careful aim. At the moment of firing, Chris’ target number will be 5 on 2D6.

Here is another example:
Jess is a computer specialist. She is attempting to bypass the security lock outs on a dropship. Her mental characteristic is 6, her skill level is 4. This gives her a base target of 2. She is using Cryptography (Skill Level 4) as a supporting skill (see supporting skills below) to make her effort easier. After her successful prep and use of Cryptography, she gets a bonus of 2 to her skill check. This lowers her target number to 0. She knows that the dropship is protected by a military grade security system so she uses Security Systems (Skill Level 4) to help her effort. Another successful roll lowers her target number to -2. The modifier of the dropship’s security (Military Grade: Medium = 8) is added to her target number of -2. This gives her a final target of 6 or better on 2d6. Keep in mind because of the supporting skills, this check took considerable in game time to complete.

Some expert pilots have negative base numbers which makes them scoring hits so much easier. Even if your target number is 2 or lower, a roll of 2 on 2D6 (or snake eyes) will always be a miss regardless of the target number. Some modifiers will take the target number beyond the range of success (13+) Even if the target number is greater than 12, consider making the roll anyway. Remember that even in failure, some success can be gained!

Opposed Skill Checks:
This is the most common kind of skill check between characters (PC’s and/or NPC’s) that will be made in the game. An example of an opposed check could be something as simple as one character trying to hide something and the other characters trying to see what is being hidden. Opposed Skill Checks can be even more involved than this. But for this post, let us keep it simple.

Let us take Bob. Bob is the party guff ball that found a shiny new toy. He wants to hide this new toy from the rest of the party. Bob uses the skill Stealth to hide his new toy. He rolls a 9 on two dice. His target number was 4 to hide this new toy. This gives Bob a measure of success of 5.

His party knows Bob is up to no good and asked for a chance to see his new toy. Each party member there rolls their Perception Skill. While they have to beat their target score, they also have to beat Bobs measure of success. Mike rolls a 5 on two dice with a target of 6. Chris rolls a 9 with a target of 5 and Jess rolls a 11 with a target of 5.

The results would be.

Mike failed his roll completely. Not only does Mike not know what Bob is hiding, he doesn’t know that Bob is hiding anything. Mike doesn’t have a measure of success because he failed his Perception check.

Chris on the other hand, did roll higher than Bob. Because Chris made his Perception check, Chris knows that Bob is hiding something. But because Chris didn’t beat Bob’s measure of success, he doesn’t know what Bob is hiding. Chris measure of success would be only 4.

Jess, however, not only knows that Bob is hiding something because she made her Perception Check. She also knows what it is that Bob is hiding because she beat his measure of success. Jess’ measure of success would be 6. Now rather Jess wants to let Bob’s secret out of the bag would be completely up to her.

This brings me to my next topic, Behind the Screen Check

There are times when a skill check will be required to be made behind the scenes and out of sight of the players. These checks will be made by the Narrator on the dice roller. While the results of the roll will be known, the reason behind the checks do not have to be disclosed. Nor can the players ask for subsequent checks in support of the behind the scene check (unless that first check is a success).

Requested Skill Checks

While the narrator can call for a skill check at any time. The Character can request a skill check as well. When doing so, please make sure that you word your request for information carefully.

Examples:

Bob, “I would like to quickly go over the room and see what I find.”

Skill Check: Perception

Jess, “I would like to thoroughly search the room for any secret compartments”

Skill Check: Perception Check + Stealth Check (used uncover possible hiding places)

While both of these examples could result in discovery. Each are worded for something specific. The Player can elect to use both skills to complete a very thorough. However outside of combat, please understand that most searches/request for information come at a time investment. In this case, it is possible to conduct a quick search of the room (>30 minutes). It is also equally possible to conduct a more detailed search (one roll = one hour passed)

Modifiers to Skill Checks

There are times when the character will be awarded skill check modifiers. These modifiers can come from special equipment, special situations, Skill Specializations, use of supporting skills or clever use of skills.

Some equipment in the game are considered exceptional in construction. These items, known as Master Crafted Items, afford a character with modifiers to their skill checks. Master Crafted Items comes from a character who has eight plus levels in the field the item is meant for plus eight levels in engineering and Tech. Generally, a Master Crafted Item will give the character a bonus between 1 and 3 on their skill checks. These items are very rare and when discovered should be guarded carefully.

Special Situations come when a character has found themselves in a situation where the skill check is either harder or easier than it would normally be. Such has searching a room that is in the middle of a burning building. Smoke, heat and time have now made searching the room very difficult. Trying to sneak through a room that is completely silent and filled with observers. These are examples of the extreme situations that could make using a skill harder. Other situations can make using a skill easier. Having the access code for logging on to a computer would make hacking the system that much easier. It would be impossible to discuss all of the possible situations that could arise, but it is important to understand that the characters do not exist in a vacuum where their actions are not effected by outside factors.

Skill Specializations make using a skill easier even in harder situations. A character with computer could elect to buy a Skill Specialization level for ten skill points (this is a house rule that differs from the rules found in the Mechwarrior Companion, page 13). The Skill Specialization grants the character a bonus of 1 to their rolls for each level of Specialization (up to lvl4, see Skills for more about specializations). While there are some examples of Specializations found in the Mechwarrior Companion, please feel free to work with the Narrator to create specializations that are tailored to your character.

Supporting Skills can afford the character a bonus at critical times. However, supporting skills can only be used when time affords it. Supporting Skills CAN NOT be used in combat situations. To use a supporting skill, the supporting skill must be in some way linked to the main skill check. An example of this would be using Tinker or Engineering to help repair a weapon (using the skill Tech/Weapon). The supporting skill must be rolled first with no modifiers. If the skill roll is successful, then half (rounded up) of the supporting skill levels will be added to the main skill check as a bonus. You can use as many supporting skills as you like, however know that each supporting skill roll equals two (2) hours’ worth of set up time before the main skill check is made. A prefect use of this would be communications, computers, cryptography and security systems. In general situations, these four skills can support each other. If you have questions about the use of supporting skills in a given situation, please make sure that you ask BEFORE you roll your dice.


ALWAYS REMEMBER: IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS PLEASE ASK!