Making a Check

Home Defiant is a D6 Dice Pool game similar games like Shadowrun and Blades in the dark. Whenever you are performing an action that is beyond the ability of the common man, the Fate may request that you perform a check to see if you would succeed. Depending on your attributes and the situation, you will roll a number of six sided dice (d6) to determine your success

Making a Check

When the Fate tells you to make a check, they will need to determine 3 things: a Trained Attribute, a Talent Attribute and a Difficulty Class. Trained Attributes and Talent Attributes will be mentioned to you while the DC may or may not be mentioned depending on the Fates.

When making a check, you will roll a number of of d6 equal to the total of the Trained and Talent Attribute. If you have a Technical Attribute that relates to this check, you will add this number to the number of dice rolled as well. Then, you roll all of the dice. For example, Rudy has Dexterity 2 and Martial 1. When the Fate requests for a Martial Dexterity check, Ruby will roll 3 dice.

After determining the number of dice you can roll, you need to determine the number of hits After rolling your dice pool, dice that is showing 4, 5 or 6 is considered a hit. The number of hits rolled must be equal to or larger than the DC to be successful. Otherwise, the check fails.

Zero Dice Pool

Sometimes, you may be asked to make a check where the sum of your attributes is less than 1. In these cases, it means that the task that is placed ahead of you is too advanced for you to perform. You will not be able to succeed these checks unless if you use Skills or gain assistance to increase the number of dice that you can roll.

Failing a Check

Whenever a Defiant fails a check against a static obstacle, they cannot try to perform the same check again until they have a new perspective on how to approach the issue. A Defiant who has failed to kick down a door cannot retry the check simply by saying they wish to punch the door open instead. It is assumed that the Defiant already tried their absolute best to force it open. If the player attempts the goal with an action that requires an entirely different check, or if they learn something new about the obstacle that gives them a distinct advantage, they may retry the check.

Focusing on Intent

Sometimes, a Defiant will say they are looking around a room for hidden doors when what they are actually looking for is just a way forward. When a Defiant makes a check, understand the underlying goal of their action and try to accommodate it. If the player successfully makes the check, instead of just saying there are no hidden doors, The Fates should also reveal that their investigation uncovered a discarded letter directing them to the next piece of the quest.

Defiance

Defiance is a number that is used to track degrees of success. Positive Defiance will usually trigger positive effects for the roller while negative Defiance will usually means additional negative effects.

On a success, you should count the number of 6s that you rolled. This determines how high your Defiance level is. For example, if you rolled three hits and two of them is a 6 on a DC 2 check, you succeeded on the check with 2 Defiance.

Alternatively, on a failure, you need to count the number of 1s you rolled. This determines how low your Defiance level is. For example, if you rolled three hits and two of them is a 1 on a DC 5 check, you failed on the check with -2 Defiance.

Note that you only count 6s on a success and 1s on a failure. They do not cancel each other out.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Whenever you are performing an action in an advantageous or disadvantageous situations, it will affect the number of dice you roll. For a situation or Skill to affect your check, they must affecting you for the entire duration of the check. If the situation or Skill stops affecting you before you complete the action, it will not grant you advantage or disadvantage when you roll dice.

Advantage

Whenever you are performing an action while having assistance or getting benefit from the environment, the Fate may grant you an advantage during the check. You may also gain or grant Advantage by using certain Skills. For every advantage you have, you can roll 1 additional dice during that check.

For example, you may be trying to hide while in the dark or trying to lift something using a crowbar. If this is the case, the Fate may decide to grant you an advantage.

Disadvantage

Whenever you are performing an action while facing resistance or getting difficulties from the environment, the Fate may grant you a disadvantage during the check. You may also gain or grant Disadvantage by using certain Skills. For every disadvantage you have, you must roll 1 less dice during that check.

For example, you may be trying to hide while dressed in neon colors or trying to lift something while drunk. If this is the case, the Fate may decide to grant you a disadvantage.

Sometimes, you may gain advantages and disadvantages from different sources. When you do so, they cancel each other out. The remaining advantage or disadvantage will be the only one affecting your check. For example, if you gain advantages from 3 different sources but get a disadvantage from one source, you will make your check will only 2 advantage.

You can only have a number of advantages and disadvantages equal to highest of the used attribute. For example, if you have Martial 1, Might 1 and 2 advantages, you can only have 1 advantage when you roll a Martial Might check.

Granting Advantage or Disadvantages

The Fates can grant Advantages or Disadvantages whenever the situation calls for it. If a situation provides significant advantage or disadvantage to the action performed, an Advantage or Disadvantage should be provided respectively. As a guide, significant refers to a direct causal advantage to performing an action. While the rain directly impacts the ability to climb and deserves a disadvantage, a mosquito hovering in the climber's ears does not.

Usually, Advantages and Disadvantages should be provided to the Offender rather than the Defender. If an opposed check ensues and the situation provides advantage to party A and a disadvantage to party B, only provide the advantage to party A. However, if the situation proves problematic to both sides, it is better to ignore it for both.

Difficulty Class (DC)

Difficulty Class or DC describes how difficult the task is to complete. This is the number of hits a player must roll to successfully complete a task. If the number hits is lower than the DC, then the check failed.

Below are some reference you can use to determine difficulty. Note the tier column that should inform you which DC to use for your party. Using one tier below will make your encounters feel easy while using using one tier higher makes the encounter significantly harder. It is not recommended to use DC that is 2 tiers higher because the tasks may feel impossible to complete for your party.

Tier	DC	Difficulty	Example
0	0	Routine (No roll needed)	Walking a path, eating a meal, greeting a neighbor.
1	1-3	Simple	Leaping a ditch, shooting a target, starting a campfire.
2	4-6	Standard	Climbing a wall, picking a lock, tracking footprints.
3	7-9	Formidable	Forging a decree, snapping chains, calming a riot.
4	10-12	Masterful	Picking a vault, deciphering encryption, surviving a catapult strike.
5	13-15	Heroic	Outrunning an avalanche, convincing a monarch to abdicate, leaping a ravine.
6	16+	Unfathomable	Punching through solid steel, holding up a collapsing building, swimming up a waterfall.

Extended Check

Sometimes, you may want to take your time when performing an action. While in Encounter time, they may be other things that are taking away your attention but when things slow down you would like to take your time to take the Observe action multiple times over the hour to find the secret door in the room. Instead of rolling hundreds of Focus + Survival checks, you may instead perform one single check to summarize the action over time. This is called an Extended Check.

When a Defiant tries to do something that requires an Extended check, the first step you need to decide what is the reasonable timescale needed to have a reasonable attempt on the action. Then, depending on the Defiant's chosen timescale, you can give additional benefits or penalties.

If the Defiant's chosen timescale is longer than what you decided, you can grant them one or more of the following benefits

• Grant the Defiant more information than what they would have received otherwise.
• Reduce the DC of the check performed by 1 per timescale difference.
• If the Defiant's chosen timescaale is long enough, automatically succeed the check.

If the Defiant's chosen timescale is shorter than what you decided, you gan grant them one or more of the following penalties

• Increase the risk by causing a negative effect to happen upon failure. This includes accidentally triggering a trap, or jamming a door.
• Grant the Defiant less information than what they would have received otherwise.
• Increase the DC of the check performed by 1 per timescale difference.
• If the time scale is too short for the task, automatically fail the check.

Defiant vs Character Time Perception

The Defiant may not understand what is a reasonable time to spend on a task. If it is obvious to their Character, make sure to let the Defiant know which timescale is considered "reasonable" amount of time to spend on an action.