Roleplaying game

13
Chapter 1: Playing the Game
Step 2: Determine Skill, Ring, and 
Target Number of Successes
A check is resolved through rolling dice and selecting results from a dice 
pool; a number of Ring dice () and Skill dice (

). Follow the process 
below to determine which skill and ring the character will use:
1. Determine Skill Group: First, the GM and player determine the 
activity the character is trying to accomplish, which determines the skill 
group used. See Skill Groups on page 79 of Chapter 3: Skills for 
more guidance on the activity each skill group governs.
2. Determine Skill: Next, the GM and player determine the body of 
knowledge that applies to the specific activity—this provides the specific 
skill to use. The player can propose a skill, or the GM can call for a par-
ticular skill based on circumstances. As with all matters, the GM is the 
final arbiter over appropriate uses of skills. See Chapter 3: Skills for a list 
of individual skills.
3. Determine Approach: Next, the player provides a brief description of 
their character’s methods to overcome the challenge using the chosen skill, 
as well as the outcome they desire to achieve through their check. Then, 
the GM selects which of the five elemental approaches corresponds to the 
methods the player described. This determines which of the Five Rings the 
character uses for the check. See page 19 for more details on Rings, and 
Chapter 3: Skills for a detailed list of approaches, which correspond to the 
general set of concepts for each ring described below:
•  Air: The Air Ring represents grace, perceptiveness, cunning, and precision.
•  Earth: The Earth Ring represents resilience, memory, patience, 
and discipline.
•  Fire: The Fire Ring represents passion, invention, candor, and ferocity.
•  Water: The Water Ring represents adaptability, awareness, gregarious-
ness, and power.
•  Void: The Void Ring represents mysticism, wisdom, intuition, 
and instinct.
Sometimes, multiple approaches are viable for the same task; in these 
cases, the GM can offer the player a choice of which approach they want 
to use (see Multiple Approach Options, on page 178, for more guid-
ance). Note that at other times, the ring a character uses will be specified 
by an ability, effect, or stance. In these cases, the character uses the indi-
cated ring rather than one specified by the GM.
4. Determine Target Number of Successes: Finally, the GM selects 
a target number of successes (“TN”) between one and eight. This 
target number should be based on the innate difficulty of the task, the 
complexity of the outcome the player described, and the appropriateness 
of the methods the character is using. This is the number of successes 
the character must achieve to succeed. For some common checks, such 
as combat checks, there are preset base TNs and recommended modi-
fiers that apply to many situations. Except in special circumstances, the 
GM should announce the TN of the check to the player at this point (see 
When to Reveal or Conceal Target Number of Successes, on page 178).
Guidelines for difficulties break down as follows:
•  TN 1: An easy task, such as carrying half one’s weight or finding a 
misplaced item.
•  TN 2: An average task, such as jumping a ten-foot ditch or recogniz-
ing someone in disguise.
•  TN 3: A difficult task, such as scaling a cliff without a rope or finding 
a well-hidden object.
•  TN 4: A very hard task, such as diving safely from a waterfall or re-
membering someone’s exact words.
•  TN 5: An extremely hard task, such as stirring a demoralized army 
with rhetoric alone or hurling a person across a room with one hand.
•  TN 6: An extraordinarily challenging task, such as discerning some-
one’s whereabouts from the kind of mud on their sandals or felling a 
tree with a single axe blow.
•  TN 7: A heroic task, such as outwrestling a troll or naming all of one’s 
ancestors in order.
•  TN 8: A legendary task, such as shattering stone with one’s bare hands 
or outwitting a Fortune.
Step 3: Assemble and Roll Dice Pool
The player assembles the dice pool. The player picks up a number of 
Skill dice equal to the character’s ranks in the selected skill and a number 
of Ring dice equal to the value of the ring associated with the selected 
approach. Then, the player rolls all of these dice. All of these dice are 
rolled dice.
Then, any effects that modify rolled dice (such as the resolution of 
advantages and disadvantages) are applied.
Step 4: Apply Advantages and Disadvantages (If Applicable)
After the player rolls dice, the player and GM have a chance to decide 
which (if any) of the character’s advantages and disadvantages (see 
Advantages and Disadvantages, on page 60) apply for this check. 
Each advantage and disadvantage can only be applied once per check 
by any character. Often, no advantages or disadvantages will apply to a 
check—in which case, skip this step.
Choosing a Skill from a Different Group
After selecting the skill group that governs a particular type of task, 
the GM and player determine the specific skill the character uses. 
However, sometimes the skill that reflects the most relevant body of 
knowledge is actually in a different skill group.
When this happens, use the more fitting skill; it behaves as if it 
were a skill of the group already selected for resolving the check, 
and it uses that skill group’s approaches instead of its usual ap-
proaches. For more details on this topic, see Using Approaches 
from Other Skill Groups, on page 80.
Target Number 0
TN 0: There are no TN 0 checks in the game. In theory, such a 
check would be a simple task, such as carrying one quarter of one’s 
weight or remembering a cousin’s name. Of course, a task this 
trivial should not require a check—the chances of failure are low, 
and the consequences of failure are usually minor and uninterest-
ing. However, specific circumstances might modify the difficulty 
of such a task to a TN of 1 or higher. If the consequences of failure 
would be interesting and the circumstances make failure possible, 
the GM can call for a check to perform a task that would normally 
be TN 0.

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