The Power Score and the Two Rolls
Every Shot resolves through one unified engine: a Power Score, two simultaneous d20 rolls, and a comparison the Director makes silently. You never need to do this math at the table — the digital sheet and the Director's tab handle it — but understanding it makes your descriptions sharper.
The Power Score (PS)
The Power Score is the universal metric of the system. A character's ability to perform a given action combines their attributes, training, physical scale, and current stamina:
PS = Stat × Skill × (Size / 1.5) × (Current Energy / Max Energy)
Notes:
- Size is height in meters; 1.5 is the baseline divisor. For stealth, evasion, or any action where being small is an advantage, the Size multiplier is inverted: (1.5 / Size).
- Stat is the most relevant Final Stat for the action.
- Skill is the Skill Modifier of the most relevant Feature (1.00 baseline at 0 points, tier-scaled as points are invested — see Features and Leveling Up). With no applicable Feature, a character operates Untrained at 0.75.
- Current Energy / Max Energy ties effectiveness directly to stamina: a drained character is a weaker character, in every arena.
Shot Resolution
A&E uses dynamic Difficulty Classes generated by comparing the active force against the opposing force to find the Relative Power Score (RPS):
- RPS = PS(key) / PS(op) — your Power Score against the opposition's.
- RPM = 10 × (RPS − 1)
- The Director derives the target numbers for the two rolls from the RPM.
The Two Rolls
Every Shot features two simultaneous dice rolls — one roll per Shot, two dice:
- The Action Die (you roll d20). Target: 10 − ARPM. Distance from the target dictates the degree of success. A positive result indicates the level of success; a negative result indicates the level of failure. Exact effects are applied narratively.
- The Risk Die (the Director rolls d20). Target: 10 + RRPM. Distance from the target dictates the severity of the consequences — both narrative and mechanical. A positive result indicates the severity of incoming consequences; a negative value indicates the level of concessions. Exact effects are applied narratively.
These two dice are the universal balancers of the system. Note that they are independent: you can succeed your action spectacularly and still take a beating, or fail outright and get lucky about it.
Success vs. Risk
Success is strictly narrative. You adjust your action's description in context of your die result, so the Director's final narration fits both the character and your intent.
Risk — the consequences — are both narrative and mechanical. Risk applies mechanically to your Energy and Morale pools, but the source of those costs is narrated. It can also include significant long-term effects, like injury, which the Director may reflect as circumstantial modifiers on future actions and Risks.
The Waiting Game
The Director will not reveal what either die did until the Sequence Narrative, because other characters' actions can still modify your outcome. Stay in the scene, keep describing, and trust the Sequence Narrative — that is where the story catches up to the dice.