A skill test is a method of resolving an action you want your character to attempt. You roll some dice, and the results tell you whether you succeeded, failed, or complicated the situation.

When the gamemaster asks you to attempt a test, they’re asking you to check your character’s attributes, roll a pool of 2–5 twenty-sided dice (d20s), and get more successes than the gamemaster needs for you to pass the test.

Rolling the Dice

1. Choose Attribute + Skill: The gamemaster chooses which attribute and skill from your character sheet are appropriate for your test. Add together the attribute and the skill chosen: this is your target number for each d20. You can suggest which attribute + skill might apply, but the GM has the final say.
   • Your target number is the number each d20 must roll equal to or under to generate one success.
2. Set the Difficulty: The gamemaster sets the difficulty for the test, normally between 1 and 5. The difficulty is the number of successes you must generate with your d20s to pass.
3. Roll the Dice Pool: Assemble your dice pool. You start with two d20s, but you can buy up to 3 more d20s by spending Action Points. After you’ve added any extra dice from spending Action Points, roll the entire dice pool.
4. Check for Successes: Each d20 that rolls equal to or less than your target number scores one success. Any d20 that rolls a 1 is a critical success, which is worth two successes.
   • If the skill you’re using is a Tag Skill, then you score a critical success for each die which rolls equal to or less than your skill rating.
   • Each d20 that rolls a 20 generates a complication
5. Check Successes Against the Difficulty: If the number of successes you scored equals or beats the difficulty of the test, then you have passed. If the number of successes scored is less than the difficulty, you have failed.
   • Each success above the difficulty becomes an Action Point.
6. Get the Result: The gamemaster describes the outcome, and if the test was successful you can spend Action Points to improve the result further. After that, the GM introduces any complications.

Example: Nate needs to find out if Codsworth is okay, as he’s been on his own for 200 years. His test is difficulty 1, and he must use CHA + Speech (7 + 2 = 9). Nate’s player rolls 2d20, checking the results separately, and rolls a 5 and a 19—because the 5 is equal or below Nate’s target number, he scores 1 success, and passes the test. Codsworth describes how hard it’s been to try and keep the house clean for two centuries…

Skill Test Summary

1. Add up your Attribute + Skill combination
2. Check the difficulty
3. Want to buy d20s using Action Points?
4. Roll the dice
5. Count your successes. Did you get enough compared to the difficulty?
6. Any extra successes become Action Points to spend or save

Target Number

When your gamemaster asks for a skill test, you agree to an attribute + skill combination from your character sheet that best applies to the action you’re trying to achieve. That target number, made by adding your chosen attribute and skill, gives you the number each d20 must roll equal to, or under; if it does then you generate one success.

Successes and Difficulty

The number of successes you need to generate with your d20s to pass a skill test is called the difficulty. Only needing 1 success describes a routine task, while needing 5 successes reflects a difficult task that can only be completed with guts and determination.

Total up the number of successes you roll and compare them against the difficulty—if you equal or beat the difficulty you pass the test. Any extra successes over and above the difficulty become Action Points (see Action Points).

Test Difficulty Examples

Critical Successes

Whenever you attempt a test, any d20 that rolls a 1 is a critical success. Each critical success you roll generates two successes.

If the skill you’re using is one of your Tag Skills, then you score a critical success for any d20 that rolls equal to or less than your rating in that skill. For example, if your Sneak skill is 3, and it’s a Tag Skill, any d20 that rolls a 3 or lower will be a critical success.

Default Attribute + Skill

The skill list on your character sheet lists a default attribute associated with each skill. Some tests may prescribe a default attribute + skill combination to work out your target number, but at the GM’s discretion you can suggest a different combination.

Complications

When attempting a test, each d20 that rolls a 20 causes a complication—a new detail in the scene that makes things more difficult that comes into effect once the test has been resolved. A complication could introduce a new problem—like a gun jamming or breaking a lock pick—or it could make specific skill tests more difficult in future, like insulting a merchant so CHA + Barter tests with him in future are increased in difficulty by 1. Complications do not prevent you from succeeding, but they do introduce something new to the story that makes things more difficult.

If you and the gamemaster cannot come up with a complication for you, in the scene you’re in, the GM can instead gain 1 Action Point to use for their non-player characters and creatures later.

Dice Pool

Normally, you roll 2 d20s and check their results individually against your target number and count the number of successes you generate, but you can buy more dice to roll! With Action Points you can buy up to 3 more d20s to roll on a test. This means you can roll a total pool of 5d20 at any one time. Action Points are covered on page 19.

Difficulty Zero Tests

Some tests may be difficulty 0, or your character’s perks or gear may reduce a test’s difficulty to 0. If a test is difficulty 0, you don’t need to roll—your action is automatically successful. At your GM’s discretion, you can still choose to roll the dice against a difficulty of 0. Because zero successes are required, every success becomes an Action Point, but you can still suffer complications by rolling a 20, as normal.

Opposed Tests

Sometimes you’ll face situations that are not difficult because of the task itself, but because of an opposing force trying to prevent your success. In these cases, you, and the opposing player (normally the GM) will both roll a dice pool and compare results to see who wins.

When another character opposes you in a test, their player rolls their d20 dice pool and the number of successes they generate becomes the difficulty of your test. If you equal or beat your opponent’s number of successes, you win the opposed test, and any extra successes become Action Points. If you do not generate enough successes to meet the difficulty, you fail, and your opponent could generate AP.

Action Points in Opposed Tests

In an Opposed Test, the opposing characters spends AP first and then rolls. The active character then may spend AP to add dice to their pool (if they wish) and then rolls.

If two player characters are making an opposed test, then both players must generate AP for the GM to buy additional d20s (see Action Points). The group pool is for team players!

When you succeed in an opposed test, you generate Action Points by comparing your result to your opponent’s. When you are rolling against an established difficulty, any excess successes generate AP as normal. When you are the one to roll first, establishing a difficulty for your opponent, each success of theirs less than your number of successes generates you 1 AP.

Assistance

To assist a fellow player, describe how you are helping and decide with the GM which attribute + skill combination you’re using; it doesn’t have to be the same combination as the person you’re helping. Then, roll 1d20 and add any successes you generate to theirs, providing they score at least 1 success of their own. If they didn’t generate any successes, then you cannot add your success to the total.

You cannot buy additional d20s if you are assisting—you can only roll 1d20—but your d20 doesn’t count towards the limit of 5 that the player attempting the test can roll in their dice pool.

While assisting, you can score critical successes or complications as normal.

Group Tests

When your whole group is attempting a single large activity, like sneaking through an area together, or travelling through a hazardous area, you make a special kind of assisted test. Once the GM has set the difficulty, you must decide who is going to lead the test, while the rest of the group assists.

The leader of the group test rolls a normal dice pool—2d20 plus up to 3d20s they buy through Action Points. Everyone else rolls 1d20, using their own attribute + skill. So long as the test leader achieved 1 success, everyone assisting adds any successes they generated to the leader’s score. If those accumulated successes equal or beat the difficulty, the group has passed the group test.

Any complications generated by anyone in the group rolling a 20 can be applied by the GM after resolving the test and its consequences.

Complication Range

When tests are riskier, the GM can increase the complication range of the test, so you generate complications on more results than just a 20.

Complication Range Table

Success at a Cost

At times, the GM may allow you to succeed at a cost when you fail a test. In these situations, you achieve whatever it was you were trying to accomplish with your skill test, but you may not spend Action Points to improve the outcome… in exchange, the GM causes you to suffer one or more Complications, as well. The GM should tell you how many Complications you’ll suffer (normally only 1), and you can choose to simply fail if the cost is too high.