SOTDL: Dice Pools

Determining what dice to include in your dice pool essentially boils down to a series of simple questions:

What do I want to accomplish? Pick the most applicable Skill for what you want to do.

How will I accomplish it? Choose the best Attribute for how you want to get things done.

Which aspect of who I am is helping me or hindering me? Choose the Distinction that best fits the fiction of your action, either as something that helps you or something that gets in your way.

These first three questions provide the three dice that make the base of every dice pool. Then ask:

Do I have a Knack (associated with the skill I have chosen) that might help?

Do I have any Assets that might help?

Is there an SFX that applies, and do I want to pay the cost to use it?

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Always Include

You always include one of each of your three Primary trait dice in every roll. Primary traits are Attributes, Distinctions, and Skills.

Sometimes Include

Primary traits always supply dice. Secondary traits only supply dice conditionally.

Knack dice represent character specialties but are linked to specific skills and may only be used with the skill they are linked to and in situations that cover that specialty.

Signature Assets and Scene/Story-Arc Assets may be applied wherever they would sensibly interact with the fiction. If the GMC opposing your action has a Complication levied against them, you may treat that as one of your assets and add it to your pool for the roll.

SFX may be added wherever their definition allows them to be applied for the cost listed.

Hero Dice may be added at the player's discretion by paying a pp, typically after the main die roll.

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Tallying Dice Pools

With each roll you get to add two dice as your final total. Some SFX allow you to add a third die, as does the use of Hero Dice. Ones (1s) and other conditional Hitches are never added to the total.

You will also sometimes need an Effect die. Effect dice cannot come from any of the dice you pick for your total. This includes extra dice added in to your total via PP spends. Hitches also can't be Effect dice.

The number rolled on your Effect die doesn't matter. The rating of your Effect equals the total number of sides on the die. | | |

If you run out of dice and have no Effect die remaining, your effect is which is null value as we are playing the game. (There are funky rules regarding results that play well enough around the table but tend to muck things up in PBP games).

Note: Effect dice are only necessary for determining Asset, Complication, or Hero Dice values.

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