How Actions Resolve
Everything you attempt with an uncertain outcome goes through one roll — the 1–100 roll. Your numbers set the odds; a single roll made behind the scenes settles the outcome. There are two kinds of roll: skill checks, for anything you do with knowledge and training, and attacks, for combat.
Skill checks
When you try something with a real chance of failure — crafting, investigating, hacking, tracking, talking your way past a guard — the GM sets a Difficulty (D). Difficulty uses the same 1–100 scale as your skill proficiency: think of it as the proficiency a task stops being a coin flip at. Then the GM rolls 1–100 behind the scenes:
Chance = 55 + (Skill proficiency − Difficulty) × 2
Roll 1–100; at or below the Chance → success
| Difficulty | Band | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | Effortless | Change a tire, break a cheap lock, catalog a crime scene |
| 11–25 | Easy | Pick a standard lock, patch a wound, hotwire an old car |
| 26–40 | Moderate | Crack a corporate console, print a standard part, calm a panicked witness |
| 41–60 | Challenging | Disarm a bomb, counterfeit gear, precision micro-work |
| 61–80 | Hard | Break a sealed network, elite-level craft, rebuild an engine |
| 81–100 | Extreme | Jailbreak a city-war reactor, engineer something brand new |
You don't roll against the same difficulty forever. The formula hands success back to you as your skill grows:
Skill proficiency − Difficulty ≥ 25 → automatic success. No roll.
The task that took a 41% gamble at proficiency 8 is simply done at proficiency 40, and is never checked again once your skill maxes out — everything up to Difficulty 75 succeeds automatically. As you grow, the GM raises stakes, not old difficulties: the starter lock stays a starter lock, and no longer needing to check it is the reward for investing in the skill. That's not a loophole — that's the point of growing a skill.
Modifiers shift how hard a roll ends:
| Situation | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Proper tools | +10 |
| Ideal conditions | +10 |
| Each helper (max two) | +10 each |
| Blueprint, recipe, or reference | +10 |
| No tools | −30 |
| Rushed | −20 |
| Under fire / hostile conditions | −20 |
Rolls clamp at 5% low and 95% high — the ceiling is what a roll looks like right before the auto-success rule takes over. When two characters oppose each other — a debate, a chase, a tail — both roll, and the higher success wins; ties go to the defender.
What the roll means
The GM totals the chance and rolls in secret. You hear the outcome, not the DC — you learn how good you are by succeeding, not by reading the table.
- Success by 10+ — clean. Extra detail, faster work, a useful byproduct.
- Success — the attempt completes.
- Failure within 10 — recoverable: time spent, materials half-used, the trail cold.
- Failure by 10+ — a setback: an alarm, spent materials, a mark made suspicious.
A failed attempt usually can't just be rerolled the same way — the world moved. A retry needs a new approach, a new tool, or a changed situation.
Attacks
Ranges and movement at the table are in feet — abilities reach in feet, bursts spread in feet. Only the domain changes the travel scale: miles/km on land, nautical miles and knots at sea and in the air, meters of depth underwater, km and AU / light-minutes / ly / parsecs in space, meters and decks aboard stations.
An attack resolves in two gates:
- Hit check. Attacker accuracy (base 70 + DEX scaling + weapon bonus) minus target evasion (DEX scaling + speed bonus − armor weight penalty + position). The result is your hit chance, clamped between 5% and 95%. Roll 1–100; at or below the threshold, you hit.
- Dodge gate. A target who can see the attack rolls their evasion again. At or below it, they dodge entirely — no damage.
A target who doesn't know you're there cannot dodge. Attack targets unaware of you add +50% to +100% damage and auto-crit if they connect.
Damage
When a hit connects:
1. Base damage = weapon/ability base + stat scaling
2. Range roll = base × random between Min% and Max%
3. Crit = if your crit chance triggers, damage becomes full base × crit multiplier
4. Vitals = called shots to vital spots multiply further
5. Armor = final damage × (1 − armor reduction)
6. Resistance = elemental resistance applies last
7. Minimum = you always deal at least 1 damage
Stat scaling follows your attack type: melee adds STR, ranged adds DEX, magic adds INT and WIS, mutant powers add the stats that govern them.
Damage ranges — risk vs reward
Every weapon and ability deals between a minimum and maximum percentage of base. This is combat's only real randomness, and it's a lever you control:
| Modification | Min% | Max% | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 50% | 100% | The baseline |
| Calibrated | 65% | 95% | Consistent, lower ceiling |
| High-Power | 35% | 110% | Higher ceiling, risky floor |
| Focused | 70% | 90% | Very consistent, low ceiling |
| Volatile | 25% | 115% | Massive crit synergy, terrible floor |
The pairing rule: a critical hit always deals full base damage at the base line before the multiplier — so wide-range weapons shine when your crit chance is high (40%+), and narrow-range weapons suit low-crit builds. Wide range with few crits means you eat the floor; narrow range with high crits wastes consistency.
Crit chance comes from DEX and gear. Crit multiplier starts at 1.5× and increases with STR, DEX, and weapon mods — never below 1.5×.
Armor & position
Armor reduces damage by a percentage: the value over value + 100, e.g. 50 armor cuts a third; 150 cuts 60%. Each armor piece covers a specific location — a shot to an unarmored arm uses that arm's armor.
Where you stand matters. Flanking is coming at a target from the side or rear: +15% damage and evasion −15% from the side; +25% damage from the rear and the target's evasion −30%. Each extra attacker surrounding a target costs 5% more evasion.
Status effects
Status effects are a contest of potency vs resistance. If your potency beats the target's resistance, the effect lands with a duration and intensity scaled by the gap. Common harmful effects:
| Effect | What it does |
|---|---|
| Burning | 5% max HP per turn; spreads at 3+ stacks |
| Bleeding | 3% max HP per turn until bandaged |
| Poisoned | 2% max HP per turn plus a stat penalty |
| Chilled → Frozen | Slowed, then immobilized if it escalates |
| Shocked → Stunned | Can't act |
| Rooted / Slowed | Can't move / half speed |
| Feared / Charmed / Confused | Forced movement, wrong targets, or a friend turned enemy |
Beneficial effects work the same way in your favor: Haste (+1 action, then a stun when it ends), Shield (absorbs damage), Regenerate (5% max HP per turn), Blessed (+10% accuracy), Stealthed (enemies lose you).
The golden rule
Know your numbers and the world is predictable. Stack modifiers — position, armor pierce, crit, elements — and you'll turn a fair fight into a foregone conclusion. That's not a cheat. That's the game.