Choices and Challenges

Choices and Challenges differ in that choices are resolved without rolling any dice (no random chance) while challenges do rely, at least partially, on luck. Challenges will not be indicated any differently in the option text, but should generally be obvious as options with a chance to fail.

The outcome of a challenge is determined by several factors:

• The Difficulty Class (DC) of the challenge
• The Suitability of the lead character attempting the challenge
• The Suitability of the support character assisting
• The Energy level of the lead character

Difficulty Class

The DC of a challenge depends on how hard it is to succeed, and is a set of three numbers. When rolling the dice to resolve a challenge, a character who rolls above the success threshold succeeds and does not lose energy or health. A character who rolls between the success threshold and the damage threshold succeeds, but loses a point of energy. A character who rolls between the damage threshold and the failure threshold succeeds, but loses a point of health (and potentially energy). A character who rolls below the failure threshold fails, and may lose energy or health as well.

In linear form: <- Success [ST] Lose energy [DT] Lose health [FT] Fail ->

Quirks, bonuses, items, and other situational effects may cause a character to lose or maintain their health or energy even when their roll would normally indicate otherwise.

Suitability

The Suitability of a character, whether lead or support, depends on their stat or stats that most closely match the challenge. Each stat has a general set of challenges that it excels in. Note that the following list is not exhaustive and is just a series of examples.

• Strength - pushing, carrying, physical combat
• Dexterity - balancing, disarming traps, ranged combat
• Magic - countering magical traps, casting spells, magical combat
• Charm - convincing, performing, bluffing
• Insight - perceiving, investigating, recalling knowledge

Quirks, bonuses, items, and other situational advantages can also play into a character's Suitability. A character with high Suitability for a challenge gains a bonus to their roll.

Energy

If a character's Energy level is low, they will receive a penalty to their roll. The penalty depends on the situation

Criticals

Rolling a natural 1 or 20 on the die is a "critical" success or failure. Crit successes will almost always succeed in some over-the-top way, but in exchange often cost a point of energy as the character pulls off some incredible stunt. Crit fails will almost always fail in some concerningly problematic way that introduces additional issues or injures the character.

Items

Items can be found around the dungeon. There exist Consumable and Permanent items. Consumeables are things like potions, bombs, and other one-use objects. Permanents are things like pendants, armor, and other items that are not destroyed on use.

Identifying Items

The party usually won't know exactly what an item does or how to use it immediately. Characters can attempt to Identify items during a rest, no more than one item per character. This is an Insight skill challenge with a DC based on how mysterious the item is. A success grants more information and potentially unlocks additional ways to use the item.

Consumables and Active Items

There are two main ways to use consumable items. The first is straightforward: the ability to use a consumable may appear in a normal choice or challenge. Simply vote for that option to use the consumable. The second is similar to write-in choices: if you'd like to use a consumable but the option is not available in the current selections, just post in #story_discussion and an option can be created or modified.

Activating Permanent items that have active effects works in an identical way to using consumables.

Equipping Items

Items can be equipped by (usually) any character, which will grant them an effect in the Bonuses tab. Items may be equipped before Identifying them, though this will (usually) not reveal the effect. Items are mostly equipped during rests, but can also be swapped out during most regular scenes as long as the party isn't in significant danger. Choices for particular characters to equip items may come up in either regular scenes or during rests, or you may suggest a particular character equip an item in #story_discussion, similarly to activating consumables and active items above.

Almost all equippable items will have a passive effect, which means they will not come up in choices.