When the demons first invaded, it seemed certain that the world was over but somehow, life managed to persevere. Once the bulk of the enemy’s forces were defeated, the devils that remained were still able to obliterate armies that assumed their victory was inevitable. The world learned that very little in life is certain.
Dice help us remember that.
Whenever your character is trying to do something risky or that has an uncertain outcome, dice are used to help determine the uncertain element. The GM will inform you of the difficulty of the roll and you will toss a die, comparing its value to the difficulty to determine whether things go in your favor.
A “toss” is the act of rolling a single die. Whenever you perform a roll, it will consist of at least one toss and could include more. A roll with two tosses will have two dice rolled and their values will be added together.
A number is said to beat another when it is greater than or equal that other number. Your die roll beats a difficulty of 7 if the die comes up with a 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12.
A number is said to be inside another if it is less than or equal to that other number. The a die roll is inside 4 if the die value is 1, 2, 3, or 4.
A number is outside another if it is greater than that value. A die roll is considered to be outside of 9 if it rolls values of 10, 11, or 12.
If the die’s value Beats the difficulty of the roll, the outcome of the roll is favorable to you. If the die’s value doesn’t beat the difficulty, the GM rules whether the act is a success with a detrimental side effect or an outright failure (whichever makes most sense for the game).
When a roll is called for, you can ask the GM if any of your skills could help improve the roll’s outcome. If the GM agrees, you will also be told which Stat can be used toward the roll. Your stat and skill will combine to increase your chances at success. With GM permission, any skill may combine with any stat to enhance a roll.
Your skill’s level will “trap” the stack numbers of the specified stat. If the skill level is 1, you trap your stat’s first stack number (which is always 1). If the skill is 2, you trap the first two stack numbers (which are 1 and either 2 or 3 — depending on the stat’s level). The higher your skill’s level, the more stack numbers can be used to improve the roll.
When you toss your first die, compare that die’s value to the best stack number your skill traps. If the tossed die’s value is inside that stack number, you may immediately toss another die and compare it to the next-best stack number. Repeat this process until a tossed die’s value exceeds the best stack number.
Whenever the rules call for you to roll a Skill with a Stat, that means that you use the specified skill to trap stack numbers for that stat and use those stack numbers to “stack” additional dice toward the roll.
If you’re using a skill of at least level 1, you can stack any die that rolls a value of 1. This could lead to tossing more dice than you have stack numbers and even, theoretically, an infinite number of dice. If you do toss more than 50 dice toward a single roll, you should stop playing RPG’s and go to a casino.
Regardless of how high a stack number gets, dice that roll a double-digit value (10, 11, or 12), will not stack another die toward the roll. Even with a stat level of 19 and skill level of 10 to trap all its stack numbers, tossing a 10 or higher means that’s the only die you get for the roll.
Whenever you toss a die, you may burn essence to change the die’s value in some way; either increase or decrease the die’s value. You do this before you compare the tossed die’s value to its stack number (so you could use this to increase the rate of stacking extra dice).
To do this, mark one of your Essence numbers as unavailable. You may increase or decrease the value of the tossed die by any amount up to the marked number’s value. This cannot change the die’s value above 12 or below 1.
Whenever there is a random chance of something occurring, the rules will specify such by giving the probability in the form of a percentage: 100% being total certainty, and 0% representing total impossibility. Rolling to resolve such random events does not involve stack numbers or any modifications. Either you or the GM will be required to roll a single die and compare the result to the value associated with the probability percentage.
| 0% | Won't happen |
| 8% | must beat 12 |
| 17% | must beat 11 |
| 25% | must beat 10 |
| 33% | must beat 9 |
| 42% | must beat 8 |
| 50% | must beat 7 |
| 58% | must beat 6 |
| 66% | must beat 5 |
| 75% | must beat 4 |
| 84% | must beat 3 |
| 92% | must beat 2 |
| 100% | Always happens |
The demonic invasion seemed to weave insanity right into the fabric of reason and reality. Things are so insane that reasonable, orderly things like mathematics don’t work anymore!