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Dice Against All Odds - Mechanics, Rules and Tables

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KamiKahzy

Tectonic Nomad
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Basic Genesys Mechanics


  • The Genesys dice system is simple but unique in that it uses custom dice and custom symbols in order to convey what's happening during a check. The base system is very easy: whenever you need to roll a check you build up your dice pool and roll everything at once, then count out the results. You only ever need one 'success' in order to succeed at your check, but the dice may have rolled extra symbols that affect the nature of your result. Each dice also has at least one blank face as well, so if you roll no successes then the check counts as a failure.

    First, let's learn the dice themselves. There are two sets of dice and symbols, one set for good effects and one for bad effects.
    These are the symbols:
    genesys symbols.png

    Let's break them down individually:

    Success: The check succeeds. Multiple successes make the result that much more beneficial to the character.
    Failure: The check fails. Multiple failures make the result that much worse for the character.
    Advantage: Something slightly good happens as a result of the roll, regardless of success or failure. Multiple Advantages stack for greater effects.
    Threat: Something slightly bad happens as a result of the roll, regardless of success or failure. Multiple Threats stack for greater effects.
    Triumph: Essentially a 'Super Advantage'. Something truly amazing or spectacular happens as a result of the roll, regardless of success or failure. Also counts as one additional 'Success' result.
    Despair: Essentially a 'Super Threat'. Something truly horrible or dangerous happens as a result of the roll, regardless of success or failure. Also counts as one additional 'Failure' result.

    And these are the dice:

    genesys dice names.png

    As you might have guessed from the names; Blue, Green and Yellow are good dice, and Black, Purple and Red are bad dice.
    I'll post the number-result charts below for reference, so for now let's learn how these symbols work in practice.

    The opposing top/bottom symbols on the symbol chart cancel each other out during a roll. I.E. One Failure cancels a Success, and one Threat cancels an Advantage. Triumph and Despair are the only exceptions to this, as their effects are particularly potent and cannot be mitigated through simple dice effects.

    So, for example, say you rolled the dice and you got 2 Success, 1 Failure, and 2 Threat. The one Failure cancels out one Success, leaving you a net 1 Success from the roll. This means that you've succeed at the check, well done! But there are still 2 Threat to resolve, which means that although you've succeeded at your task, something bad still happens that you will have to deal with. An example of this would be if you were trying to pick open a lock and succeeded, but your lockpick broke in the process.

    Another example is if you rolled 1 Failure, 2 Advantage, and 1 Triumph. The Failure technically cancels out the bonus 'Success' effect of the Triumph, so that leaves you with a net zero Successes for the check. However, you still have 2 Advantage and the almighty Triumph effect to spend. So while you may not have succeeded at what you were attempting to do, something else truly miraculous may have happened because of the Triumph that allows you to advance anyway through different means than you originally intended.

    And that's the basics! The next tab will talk about how you build the dice pool using your character stats and through roleplay.
 
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Reference Tables

  • Boost Die
    1 - Blank
    2 - Blank
    3 - Success
    4 - Success/Advantage
    5 - Advantage/Advantage
    6 - Advantage

    Setback Die
    1 - Blank
    2 - Blank
    3 - Failure
    4 - Failure
    5 - Threat
    6 - Threat

    Ability Die
    1 - Blank
    2 - Success
    3 - Success
    4 - Success+Success
    5 - Advantage
    6 - Advantage
    7 - Success+Advantage
    8 - Advantage+Advantage

    Difficulty Die
    1 - Blank
    2 - Failure
    3 - Failure+Failure
    4 - Threat
    5 - Threat
    6 - Threat
    7 - Threat+Threat
    8 - Failure+Threat

    Proficiency Die
    1 - Blank
    2 - Success
    3 - Success
    4 - Success/Success
    5 - Success/Success
    6 - Advantage
    7 - Success/Advantage
    8 - Success/Advantage
    9 - Success/Advantage
    10 - Advantage+Advantage
    11 - Advantage+Advantage
    12 - Triumph

    Challenge Die
    1 - Blank
    2 - Failure
    3 - Failure
    4 - Failure+Failure
    5 - Failure+Failure
    6 - Threat
    7 - Threat
    8 - Failure+Threat
    9 - Failure+Threat
    10 - Threat+Threat
    11 - Threat+Threat
    12 - Despair
 
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'AAO' Setting Rules

Below is a list of all the setting-specific rules that will be implemented in-game. Any rules that are variations on the standard Genesys rules will be labeled with 'AAO' in the name. AAO rules are specifically built to make the game harder, and all rules may be adjusted as necessary. Feedback is always welcome, as it is with every aspect of the game.


AAO Starting XP: Any Archetype that is brought over directly from the core rules will automatically have 20 less Starting XP during char-gen. This will remain in effect until the players can develop their supplies enough to properly nourish and train new recruits. It will also be waived if a new character has adequate story reasons for being a healthy and skilled individual during char-gen.

Exhaustion: The Calamity has caused much of the land to become inhospitable to mortal life, and as such basic resources will need to be foraged or found daily in order to keep the characters alive. Thus the Exhaustion rating will be used to represent the trials of surviving in an unforgiving wasteland.

  • 1-3 = Add 01 'Setback' dice to every check the character makes.
    4-6 = Add 02 'Setback' dice to every check the character makes.
    7-8 = Add 01 'Difficulty' dice to every check the character makes.
    9 = Add 01 'Challenge' dice to every check the character makes.
    10 = The character dies from exhaustion.

AAO Magic: As stated in the lore, magic is inherently dangerous in the Calamity. The connection with the Veil has been strained to its limit, and spellcasters of all stripes are just as likely to hurt themselves as those around them if a spell fails. To represent this, any character casting a spell will gain 1 Exhaustion from the stress of casting instead of the normal 2 Strain, regardless if it succeeds or fails. Also, all spell checks will automatically start at the 'Average' difficulty (2 Difficulty die), regardless of the nature of the spell.

AAO Death: The Genesys rules state that once a character has had their would threshold reduced to zero they are technically at jeopardy of dying given the nature of their injuries. However, to keep things more structured, I am going to institute a set rule that governs when a character instantly dies due to damage. If either your wound or strain threshold reaches zero, your character goes unconscious and can no longer continue. During combat the character is removed from initiative until they are healed by at least 1 above their threshold, and any initiative slots in combat that cannot be filled by active PCs are simply left empty and unused. However, the character will instantly die if they take enough wounds to equal double their wound threshold minus their current exhaustion rating. If your exhaustion rating is greater than your wound threshold, then your character dies once they reach their wound threshold.

Retirement: It may come to pass that your character is a bit more resilient than you anticipated, and you really want to start over with a new character. Whenever the characters are back at base they can elect to pay 50XP and 'retire' their character back to base, or otherwise send them out into the world. This will free you up to make a new character using any of the new options that have been unlocked through gameplay. However, retiring a character will turn them into an NPC and they will then become subject to any story elements that I deem appropriate. They will not have plot armor, and horrible things can (and probably will) happen to them. So, buyer beware.

AAO Story Points: The Genesys rules state that, at the beginning of each session (or 'chapters' in the case of this story) there is one Story Point per player available in the player's pool and one Story Point in the GM pool. However, as long as there are at least four active players in the game the GM's pool will always automatically start with two Story Points per session instead of one.

Dice Checks: Whenever it's necessary to roll dice I'd like everyone to use this website to do so: Genesys (FFG) | RPG Dice Roller
Then once you get your results I would appreciate if you could take a quick screen capture of the results and then attach that picture into your post so we can all see the results ourselves. You can do this through standard keyboard commands, or most computers have something called a 'Snipping Tool' that lets you select a certain portion of your screen to convert into a PNG. Or if screen capturing is too much then simply list the results and we'll take you at your word, but I will be watching for people that seem to be getting too many successes in a single roll.

Also, if multiple wish to perform the same action (as determined by the GM), then the roll will be performed by only one character with an appropriate number of Boost dice added to the dice pool. The players may decide who makes the roll, though depending on the circumstances of the story I reserve the right to force a particular player to make the group roll being proposed.
 
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