Core Mechanic - Skill rolls

There are three types of skill roll in ReQuest.

1. Skill Test
2. Skill Contest
3. Skill Reaction Contest

All skill rolls require you to roll a value equal to or less than your skill on d100 in order to succeed. Skill contests and reactions additionally require you to "beat" an opponent's roll. Every time you use a skill in ReQuest, you will use it for one of these purposes.

Skill Test Mechanic summary

Roll D100 and compare this to the relevant skill’s score. If the dice roll is equal to or less than the skill’s score, the attempt is successful. If the total is greater than the skill’s score, then it has failed.

Skill Contest Mechanic summary

All participants involved in the contest roll D100 and compare this to the relevant skill’s score. If a participant's dice roll is equal to or less than the skill’s score, the attempt is successful. The winner of the contest is the participant who succeeded the 'best'. See the section on Skill contests for full details. To be precise, each participant makes a skill test and the one with the best result

Skill Reaction Contest summary

One person (The actor) makes a skill test then the "reactor" makes a skill test in an attempt to better the opponent's result. Unlike a normal skill contest, the reactor in a Skill Reaction Contest gets to see the result of the initiator's test before rolling the test.

The Skill Test

Before rolling D100 apply any skill modifiers to the test. If any of the modifiers call for a multiplication or division of the skill they are, unless otherwise stated, applied before any addition or subtraction. Once all modifiers have been applied, the player must roll less than or equal to the modified skill.

Skill test results

There are four possible results for a skill test

1. Critical success
2. Success
3. Failure
4. Fumble

Critical Success. This occurs if the skill test is successful and a double is rolled. E.g. if someone's skill is 47% and the roll is 22 then it is a success and a double has been rolled turning it into a "critical" success. A critical success is significantly better than a normal success.

Success. This occurs if the skill test is successful but a double is not rolled.

Failure. This occurs if the skill test is a failure but a double is not rolled.

Fumble. This occurs if the skill test is a failure and a double is rolled. E.g. if someone's skill is 47% and the roll is 88 then it is a failure and a double has been rolled turning it into a "Fumble". A Fumble is significantly worse than a normal failure.

Result's Quality Rating

Each possible result (critical, success, failure, fumble) is given a Quality Rating(QR). The higher the QR, the, better.

Special Numbers

• 01 is an automatic critical success when it is rolled. In addition, in a contest, a rolled 01 always beats any other number. In ReQuest, there's always a chance to beat huge odds.
• 02-05 is an automatic success when it is rolled.
• 96-99 is an automatic failure when it is rolled, even if the skill being tested is greater then the number.
• 00 is an automatic fumble when rolled, even if the skill being tested is greater then the number. In addition, in a contest, a rolled 00 always beats any other number. In ReQuest never ask "what could possibly go wrong."

Very High Skill Tests - Additional Criticals

Sometimes, in a skill test, the tester will have a skill over 100%. This allows the tester a chance to score "additional critical" results. In addition to scoring a critical on a double, a character with a skill over 100 can score a critical by rolling equal to or less than the amount by which its skill exceeds 100. For example, if a character has a skill of 125% and rolls 14 on d100 it scores a critical because its excess over 100 is 25 and it has rolled less than 25. Additionally, if the character had rolled a double (e.g. 11) then the character would score 2 criticals at once: one for the double and one for the Additional Critical. Scoring two criticals with one roll ("double critical") is significantly better than scoring a 'normal' critical. Each additional critical adds +1 to the final QR of the roll. So, in the case above, the tester has a QR of 3.

Superhumanly skilled characters can score more than one additional critical. Each full 100% above 100% adds an additional critical chance. A character with a skill of 250% who rolls 35 will score 2 additional characters.

Auto-failures and very high skills.

Additional criticals can cancel out the normal failure caused by rolling 96-98. For example, a character with a skill of 250% rolls 97. This is normally a QR of 0 but the additional critical adds +1 to the roll turning it into a success. In pratice this means that once your skill reaches 200%, the results of 96-98 become normal successes.

99 and Very High Skills

99 is a double and is always a rolled fumble so its rolled QR is -1. If an additional critical is rolled then that adds +1 to the roll for a final QR of 0. Therefore, whenyour skill equals or exceeds 299%, even a roll of 99 becomes a normal (QR1) success (you will always score a minimum of 2 additional criticals).

00 and very high skills

No matter how good you get, 00 is always a failure at best. No matter how many additional criticals you roll, the QR of a rolled 00 cannot exceed 0. In ReQuest, there is always a chance to screw up.

Skill Contests and Reaction Contests

In a contest (whether normal or reaction) the tester has to beat an opponent. To see who wins, each participant makes a skill test and the one with the highest QR wins. E.g. if A rolls a success (QR=1) and B rolls a critical success (+2) then B wins.

If all participants roll the same QR then the character who rolled lowest wins. E.g. A and B both succeed. A rolls 43 and B rolls 72%. A "wins".

If all participants gain the same QR and roll the same number, the dice are immediately rerolled; ties are not possible.

There are 6 possible results of a skill contest that measure the magnitude of the victory:

1. major victory
2. Full victory
3. partial victory
4. partial defeat
5. full defeat
6. major defeat

These results are symmetrical; if you score a critical victory then your opponent suffers a critical defeat. The magnitude of victory depends on the difference between the skill tests. If both participants gain the same QR from the skill test (e.g. they both roll normal successes) then the winner scores a "partial victory" and the loser suffers a "partial loss". In plain English:

• normal success:
  • partial victory/loss vs another normal success (QR1 vs QR1)
  • full victory vs a failure (QR1 vs QR0)
  • major victory vs a fumble (QR2 vs QR0)
• critical success:
  • partial victory/loss vs another critical success (QR2 vs QR2)
  • full victory vs a normal success(QR2 vs QR1)
  • Major victory vs a fumble (QR2 vs QR0)

What about if all participants fail? Then the one who does least badly wins - more through luck than judgement. I.e. the one who rolls the lowest wins: just like if both succeeded.

Thus:

Failure vs a Failure: partial victory/defeat (QR0 vs QR0)

Failure vs a Fumble: full victory (QR0 vs QR-1)

What about additional criticals? As always, simply compare the QRs. If tester A gets a QR of 4 and tester B gets a QR of 3, then A has scored a Full Victory over B.

Victory Ratings

The results of a contest/reaction can be abstracted to give a Victory Rating which measures how good a victory is. The victory rating is equal to the difference between QRs from the Victor's point of view. This is summarised as:

• Narrow Victory/defeat: VR=0
• Full Victory: VR=1
• Major Victory: VR-2.

A narrow victory is roughly equal to a minimal success. A Full victory is roughly equal to a normal success. A major victory is equal to a critical success. Obviously it is possible for the VR to be greater than +2. Each +1 is roughly equal to an additional critical.

Because the results of a skill contest are symmetrical, you do not need to worry about the margin of loss as well as the margin of victory: the loser does not get punished twice.

Contests and special numbers.

A rolled 01 always beats any other number regardless of QRs. If the QR is less than the QR of the losing test, the winner has scored a "partial victory".

A rolled 00 always loses to any other number regardless of QRs. If the QR of the losing test is somehow higher than the winning test (e.g. due to skills in excess of 200%) then the winning tester scores partial victory.

It is possible for all participants to fumble but one of them still to win. E.g. tester A rolls 99 and tester B also fails and rolls 88. The tester who rolled 88 rolled lower and, therefore, wins.

Justification for failed victories

It may seem strange that two participants may both fail or fumble yet one wins. This, however, represents the fact that no matter how weak two participants may be, if you make them arm wrestle then one will win. GMs, as an option, can state that any test in which no participants manages a success is a failure all round. In that case, the participants are jeered by all onlookers but nothing changes about the situation. In this case the GM can have the participants keep rolling for the contest until one wins. The default case in ReQuest is that in any contest there can only be one winner and there must always be a winner.

It's possible that multiple participants may be involved in a contest. For example, if 6 people must all endure a trial bt ants to win the hand of the May bride then each character must make a Resilience roll and the one who rolls best lasts longest.

Extended Contests

A GM may occasionally wish to spread a contest out, requiring one participant to build an advantage over the other. In this case the GM may say that the contest is repeatedly roll until one participant reaches a victory threshold. This is abstracted through "Victory Points". After each contest, the winner adds a number of VPs to his total equal to his Victory Rating. The GM can state that its an absolute contest in which the first to a fixed number of victory points wins or a relative contest in which one participant must exceed another's VPs by a fixed amount.