Test (Dice)

In T13 if you want to rapidly Test something, but want some manner or degree of measuring how successfully they have passed (or failed) the Test, then a Dice Roll is the way to go.

Dice Rolls can be made for any Boon, in fact many Boons have multiple dice available to them, and you can choose any dice from any smaller Boon as well. To accelerate play many games set a table rule that you must select the die used for any specific roll, to alter it you may have to pay to alter the Annex or Facet to change the roll, other games may allow you to pick which die to use every time you roll. Referees will usually allow you to change die under exceptional and narrative circumstances. Yarn-Tellers may insist on a change of Dice if a Character travels to a new universe.

Refs can ask for all sorts of different things as a Test, but what they are actually after is usually a Facet Test. Facet tests are based on Testing a single Facet, although often the Player decides the Facet they use to try and pass the Test the Referee should know the Test involved to know which Facet is Trump and which Facets are Misfits. Trump Facets receive a +5 Score bonus when you Test the same Facet, and a Success Level, Misfit Facets suffer from Failure Levels that may colour the nature of the Success.

Generally though you don’t just make Facet Tests in T13, Characters have more powerful abilities than just their native attributes, they have Skills, Talents and even Powers to help them accomplish their goals. But how do you decide if an Annex or Descendant can be used to make a Test?

• It is literally named that — You’d be surprised how often the Yarn-Teller might say, “Okay, everyone make a Spot Hidden test,” or perhaps say “Listen Tests, everyone.” well those are both probably Key (or maybe Quiet) Facet Tests, but if one Character has an Annex called “Superior Senses” then it makes sense to roll that for both.
• Channelling Facet — If your Annex has the same Channelling Facet as the Facet being Tested then you should normally be able to use it, unless there is some reason the Ref disagrees. Perhaps when the engine of you Space Fighter fails, the Ref calls for a “Spacefighter Mechanic roll” with a Craft Trump to assist in repairs, while you may have a Craft Channelling Facet on your “Origami” Annex, it’s unlikely that a tiny paper crane is going to be much use, then again if the Space Fighter is an Origami Kite fighter made from folding nanotechnology, then maybe it would be perfect.
• Root Facet — If asked to perform a Test to decide how much the Character knows about the King’s Guard (which is an Orthodox Trump), it is unlikely that their “Scientific Method” Annex is going to be helpful at all, even though it is made from an Orthodox Root. If the Player insisted on using it, then the Referee would be justified in adding up to 3 Failure Levels automatically to this Test.
• It may be useful — Just like individual Facets can sometimes be used that aren’t the Trump Facet, an Annex with only a peripheral association can be used (but may incur Failure Levels). “Military Training” can be useful in many situations that aren’t Trial or Orthodox Trump Facet Tests, but sometimes that training will work against you a little, or a lot.

What Dice To Roll

For free a Character can Roll the following Dice:

Boon Dice (Facet or Annex) + Proficiency Dice + Descendant Dice (if you have an applicable Descendant Annex). You note what each Pool rolls (its Score) and what the Total Score is.

Simple right? We better talk at least a little about Proficiencies and how they work. In fact, it is so important that I think we better have a header.

Proficiency Dice

When a Character in T13 makes a Dice Roll they also must look at how many Proficiencies you have that are applicable to the task being attempting. If a Proficiency is particularly applicable it may count double for this Test. So if you have a Proficiency in Repairing Swords and you are asked to repair a sword then you effectively have 2 Proficiencies.

Proficiency Crisis

If your Proficiency Dice roll maximum or minimum (all 6s or all 1s normally) then you are experiencing a Proficiency Crisis. A Proficiency Crisis has a number of effects, which vary depending on whether the roll has passed or not.

• Automatic Stalemate — Regardless of the roll involved the action was not successful, or a failure, a Crisis has occurred and the action remains unresolved.
• Reversal of Success — Whatever the result of the roll as well as the rolled result you will also experience the opposite level of failure. So if you roll Boxcars on a Superior Success you’ll also experience a Serious failure.
• When a Crisis occurs each player may elect to keep one Wyrd Tarot or Yarn card from their hand or in play (note that Ordeal Pools are not affected). The rest of the Wyrd Tarot Cards (including the deck, the discard pile and any cards in play) are gathered and shuffled. Then all hands are re-dealt once more (to full).
• A Proficiency Crisis automatically creates a new ‘Save’ Chronolith.
• A Proficiency Crisis automatically lets a Character combine the Proficiencies and Annexes being rolled into a new Skill, Talent or Power, assuming they have the free slots. A Character with no free Annex slots may opt to create instead a new Descendant, but the Descendant must be non-physical (such as an idea) and must be purchased (at half price though, which is nice), although it is created as though it is a new Annex (so all Facet Boons, Values, etc. are treated as the Character’s Facet Boons).

Descendant Dice

You may have noticed that in addition to the Boon and Proficiency Dice you are also allowed to add Descendant Dice. This Die comes from an applicable Annex on one of your Descendants. Perhaps for example you are making a Perception based Key check and own a pair of binoculars, it would be totally appropriate to add the Binoculars die to the roll.

Deciding whether a Descendant is appropriate should never be too difficult, just use the same rules as deciding if an Annex can be used, but the Ref will, as ever, act as final arbitrator on what is allowed in a roll. For example, if a Character has a Reputation (a Lore Descendant) for being a great swordsman, then it would make sense to add that during a Fencing match.

Difficulty

The Yarn-Teller or Referee sets the Difficulty of the Test, and the way they do it is no mystery. Everything in T13 can easily be assigned a Difficulty by looking it up on the Sway table. However, there are several different ways that the Ref can arrange Difficulties and calculate pass and failure.

Difficulties are looked up on the Sway Table, but you might notice that there are actually 4 columns that claim they can be Difficulty, and the numbers are wildly different between them. This is because in T13 the setting can change how effective a Facet (or anything else) is at doing something in the universe. For example, creating a Flesh Wound can have wildly different Difficulties depending upon the how you are creating it.

• Stakes — The Stakes of a situation can wildly affect how Difficult it is to create a Flesh Wound (see the Rules on Stakes), with a Low Stakes Flesh Wound starting at 15 Pips/Chi, but a High-Stakes Flesh Wound is only 5 Pips/Chi. For this reason it is fairly common to ignore Stakes when using the Sway Table.
• Potency — How potent the Facet (or character or the technology used) is then effects how those Pips/Chi are converted into actual Difficulty. Low Stakes Flesh Wound in a Banal Facet/technology would have a Difficulty of 83, but a the same Low Stakes Flesh Wound with an Intrepid Facet or tech would be a Difficulty of 30, and a Bold technology or Facet would make that Diff 15, under rare circumstances a Monster might be able to create a Low Stakes Flesh Wound with a Diff of 4 or Higher. High Stakes would give Difficulties of 16/10/5/2 for the same Flesh Wound in each circumstance.

Because of this variation it is generally wise to calculate Difficulty for Pips/Chi or Bold and then adjust from there as required, as each other Difficulty can be calculated from that. With Monstrous being Bold Reduced as a Value Reduces to a Boon, Intrepid being twice Bold and Banal being the Value of the Bold as a Boon.

• Single Roll — The crunchy way to go about setting and passing the Difficulty is to add all the pieces up to find a Total Difficulty. You do the same with the Dice that you roll, totalling them together. This determines whether you beat the Difficulty and Succeed, or don’t beat it and fail. You determine additional Success Levels by rolling multiples of the Difficulty, or by rolling specific numbers (see below). Which makes extreme Successes or Failures unlikely. Example: If you wish to create a Flesh Wound (Diff 10) on a Vex Extra (Diff 4) means you need to beat a Difficulty of 14. Want to Flesh wound the whole Omniverse at once? That’s Diff 652 instead. Perhaps you want that Vex Character to remember meeting you some years ago. That would usually be a Minimal Retcon, which would add 12 to the Difficulty.

  The Ref can add modifiers to this Difficulty, such as trying to do modify the Vex’s memory without anyone else spotting what is going on would add an extra 16 Difficulty.

• Pools — Pools are a faster, rougher system for calculating levels of success. Each Dice Pool is kept separate, Proficiency Dice, each Annex or Facet Die, and each Descendant Die. The Difficulty of each Dice Pool is equal to the Pips/Chi Cost that the action is attempting. So when affecting a Vex (Pip 2) with a Flesh Wound (Pip 5) the Flesh Wound is the highest Difficulty and sets the difficulty of each Pool at 5. If one die beats the Difficulty then it is a success, each additional die that beats the difficulty adds a Success Level. If all dice are below the Difficulty then a Failure has occurred with each die below the Difficulty creating an additional Failure Level. If one die exactly matches the Difficulty, one passes and one fails then you would have a Stalemate. Kind Referees may allow Pools to be added to try and beat the Difficulty if all rolls are too low.
• Card Draw — The third way of resolving a simple Test is to use cards (much like during an Ordeal). In this case the Average Draw (or Rolled Score Reduced for Proficiency Dice) is used to draw cards from the deck. Cards can then be played (usually between 1 and 4 depending on the Annex being used) to beat the Difficulty (Calculated from the Reduced Addition Difficulty or as a Score as the Yarn-Teller prefers)

I Need To Roll Higher

Okay, so maybe the Difficulty is higher than you can possibly roll, (perhaps you are trying to effect too many people at once or something) even with all the Proficiencies, and your Power being rolled. You want to be able to add more Dice to the roll and increase that Score, right? Well, you can! Assuming the Ref agrees that you should be able to add in your “Eagle Eyes” Talent as well as your “Animal Senses” Power then why not? All you have to do is pay a little extra cost.

If you have already added a Die and would like to add it again, that can be done with Stress. Stress is a lot like Chi, only available to every Character, and small amounts add Score or Pips exactly like Chi can, but it can be spent to Strain Dice, letting them be rolled again and added to their previously rolled Score (see the rules pages on Stress and Strains and Straining Dice). If you do not have enough Stress, or just have too much Chi then you can spend that instead. However the Chi cost is not related to the Stress costs, instead it is based on what sort of roll the Character wishes to make.

Optional Rule: If a Character spends Chi to roll additional Dice from the Table above then the Die that is rolled will automatically Gain 1 Strain. This is because Chi is being used to Strain Dice without Stress being spent (see the Stress and Strains rules pages for details)

Hang on a minute though, you might be asking, why would I want to add another die that can’t roll high enough to beat the Difficulty? Well, when you pay to add extra dice you can actually add those dice to any one of the Pools you have already rolled, or create a new Dice Pool, this means you can improve a Score that doesn’t beat a Difficulty or add a new Pool that does as you prefer.

It should be noted that characters who have many Artefacts and Monoliths within their Province and Real Estates can spend enormous amounts to produce extremely high scores. Beware when storming that Vampire Lord’s Castle atop the mountains beyond the forest. And Refs should note the potentially world shattering experiments possible in a Province Laboratory with an Artefact Particle Accelerator, and Monolithed Computers…

Result Of The Roll

The dice roll Score is compared to the Difficulty of the test, or to an opponent’s Score. Or the number of

Whichever side rolls higher (or rolls higher than the set Diff) has succeeded although by how much depends on how high they roll, or how many dice beat the Difficulty.

If both sides roll the same (or exactly roll the Diff) then they have reached a Borderline/Stalemate, where they have not failed, but haven’t really succeeded either. 

• Borderlines can be considered a “Yes, But…” Statement, where the Character succeeds, just barely, but also incurs some penalty (a Failure Level) at the same time. This is generally the preferred choice as it moves on the story, but is not always feasible.
• Stalemates can be though of as a “Nearly There…” , where the Character is stuck, not failing, but not yet Succeeding. This should not be the preferred option unless the situation is already Tense or Dramatic (climbing up a cliff would be a good time to use a Nearly There, or a competition that then moves into the Sudden Death round after).

A Proficiency Crisis (caused by rolling maximum or minimum on your proficiency dice) causes you to take both the level of success that you have rolled and the equivalent failure as well, or the failure, you rolled and the equivalent success).

The following table governs levels of success based on how much you defeat the Difficulty, or opponents Score. To find out more on Success and Failure Levels see their RulePage.

Roll / Passes	Result Name	Result Description
> Diff x3 / 3 Passes	Superior Success	Better than you wanted (see Extra Success Levels)
> Diff x2 / 2 Passes	Complete Success	You succeed as you wanted
< Diff x2 / 1 Pass	Moderate Success	You wanted more, but you succeed. Or perhaps you Succeeded but have a Failure Level.
Diff	Borderline Stalemate	Borderline Success, but also take a Failure Level. Neither Success or Failure… yet
> Diff /2 or 1 Failure	Moderate Failure	You have failed, but only just, you should be able to try again. Or perhaps you failed, but have a Success Level
< Diff /2 or 2 Failures	Complete Failure	You have failed, and ruined any chances of trying again.
< 0 or 3 Failures	Serious Failure	You failed, and things got worse (see extra failure levels)

Criticals and Fumbles

Criticals are an optional rule that can apply to any roll. They are usually used for rolled combat, although can be used elsewhere. Criticals are something extra powerful that happens when a certain number is rolled. The Numerology method of adding digits larger than 13 can be used to crunch the number down to compare it. For example, rolling a 17 would become an 8. If the Character rolling has a Perfect Harmony of 8 then they have rolled a Critical, if they had a Nemesis Dissonant of 8 then they would have rolled a Fumble. A Fumble is where something has gone wrong with an action, such as losing a Descendant you were trying to use or similar.

Fumbles and Criticals are based on the Facet being rolled, or the Channelling Facet of an Annex, or on specific cards and specific Nimbeds, Umbrals or Tangles. Fumbles are inherent to Gossamer Tangles and Failures. Criticals are inherent to Key’s Sharp Nimbeds as well.

Or Ordeals

Sometimes these simple Tests are not enough to make a Story fun.

If you want to craft a sword during an adventure, it makes sense to just roll a Test most of the time, but if this sword is meant to end a particular threat — such as killing the Vampire Prince, piercing Ghul-flesh, or exploiting a noticed weakness in a dragon’s scales — then the Yarn-Teller may prefer to use an Ordeal instead.

Ordeals break the Test down into multiple smaller Stages that create a more detailed Narrative. It is worth noting that if you are in an Ordeal, you might still be asked to Roll Tests. Perhaps, during that sword creation Ordeal our Smith-Adventurer’s hammer breaks, the Ref could make our hero repair it, or craft a replacement during the next Stage, or they could just make a roll to buy a replacement hammer. It is common for Purchase Rolls and so called “Summoning” Rolls like this to be rolled even during Ordeals, although they can be replaced with Ordeal Obstacles and the like.

To find out more about Ordeals and how they work, read the Ordeals Rules Page.