Actions and Uncertainty

Lifeborn does not require a check for every action. The GM first asks whether the action is possible in the established situation. Impossible actions fail without a check. If the action is routine for the character and circumstances, it succeeds. A check is appropriate only when meaningful uncertainty remains.

When uncertainty matters, the GM weighs the relevant Character Skill together with experience, difficulty, environment, physical and mental condition, equipment, preparation, opposition and uncertainty. Possible outcomes include exceptional success, success, success with a cost or complication, failure, and severe failure when the situation genuinely supports it.

Skill is competence, not plot armor. An elite driver can still crash in extraordinary circumstances, but ordinary driving should not suddenly become dangerous just to manufacture drama. Likewise, being untrained does not make physically simple everyday actions impossible.