What are these strange symbols? What do these different colors mean? How do I tally damage? Or Critical success and failures? Where is the D20? Our friend Seth Glenn will reveal the mysteries!
If you’ve ever played a tabletop role-playing game, most likely you are used to the D20 system. It is, after all, what started it all, beginning with Dungeons and Dragons. Now, there are so many games that use the D20 system that when something different comes along we are often left scratching our heads in confusion. Such is the way of Fantasy Flight Games’ dice system. Today we are looking specifically at the Star Wars RPG dice mechanics used in Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny. While the system is not overly complicated, I will attempt to explain it in a way that is easier to understand.
In Fantasy Flight’s RPG system, like most other systems, players must roll checks based on their characters skills and abilities. Fantasy Flight uses 8-sided, 12-sided and 6-sided dice with custom symbols on them for these checks. While I will explain these symbols in a moment, they basically determine if a check passes or fails. The WAY in which the check passes or fails is determined by comparing the positive dice (green, yellow, blue) to the negative dice (purple, red, black). Positive dice represent the player character (PC)’s chance of success based on their skills or abilities; versus the negative dice which represent the difficulty of the check. To understand the results of a roll, you needs to know the dice and their symbols.
DICE:
The green Ability Die is the basis for every skill, ability and check a player makes. If a player has greater skill or gains a rank through experience, they may use multiple green dice and/or upgrade a green ability die to a yellow Proficiency Die, giving them a greater chance of success. The purple Difficulty Die is the primary means of determining the difficulty of a check. The more purple dice added to a roll, the harder it is. An average difficulty check is two purple Difficulty dice. If a check is especially hard, a red Challenge Die may be added to the roll. Blue Boost Die and Black Setback Die are circumstantial dice used as a bonus on a roll. These can be added through actions and rolls performed by the PCs or added by the GM. The white Force Die is used for Force abilities and for determining the Destiny pool, although we will not cover those mechanics here today.
SYMBOLS:
Each symbol on the positive dice, has a corresponding symbol on the negative dice that cancels each other out. Success and Failure are the most obvious pair, and they determine whether a check passes or not. After a roll, the total number of Success symbols are compared to the total number of Failure symbols. If there are any Success symbols left un-canceled, then the roll was a success. If there are more Failure symbols, or if all symbols are canceled out, then the roll fails.
The other four symbols are useful for adding narrative elements to checks and combat. Triumph and Despair are rare and only found on the Proficiency and Challenge Die respectively. The Triumph symbol counts as a Success, but also can be used to add a powerful positive consequence. The Despair symbol counts as a Failure, and can be used to add a powerful negative consequence. These consequences can be applied to the character that rolled, a party member, or the enemy NPC respectively. The GM and players have great flexibility when it comes to narrative elements and consequences. Advantage and Threat are the final symbols, and are mostly narrative, however the GM can allow players to also spend extra Advantage they roll, while the GM can spend any extra Threat on a player’s roll. Spending Advantage as a player can earn recovery of strain, critical hits with weapons, and also add boost (blue) die to the player’s or their party member’s next roll. In the same manner, the GM can choose to make things difficult for players by using Threat. Having a successful roll with Threat, or a failed roll with Advantage points, can make for fun narrative story points by the players or GM. Be Creative!
EXAMPLES:
So let’s look at a few examples shall we?
Here we have an example of an average difficulty check. The player had above average skill, so they rolled two green Ability dice and one yellow Proficiency die, against two purple difficulty dice. The total roll was six success and one Advantage, compared to three failure and one threat. After canceling out three success and one advantage to match the three failures and one threat, there are three success left. This makes the roll result successful.
Here we have another example of a successful check, but this time there was an advantage left un-cancelled as well. As we discussed earlier, Advantage can be spent for positive consequences. The core rule books and many of the supplemental materials give examples of consequences and their advantage costs. One common example is that a player can spend one advantage to remove one strain from their player character.
Here we have a roll where all successes have been canceled by failures with only advantage remaining. This means the check failed, but the player can still choose to spend the advantage. Remember, the GM can use advantage and threat to help move the Narrative along: “Tarrast missed with the swing of his lightsaber, but caused the mercenary to leave himself open to an attack. Kavari Ra is granted one Blue Bonus die on her next check.”
This last example shows how a check can be successful, but generate a negative consequence due to the results including a Threat: “Sarenda swings her lightsaber at the hunters rifle, aiming to slice it in two; however her aim is off, and she cuts off the hunters hand instead, doing damage and taking one strain.”
Positive and negative consequences are a fun way to add to the narrative, and the Fantasy Flight RPG Dice are great at doing just that for new and experienced GMs and players alike. I hope this explanation provides you with more understanding and a desire to try out Fantasy Flights Star Wars RPG system for yourself.
May The Force Be With You!