Core Mechanic - Skill rolls
There are three types of skill roll in ReQuest.
- Skill Test
- Skill Contest
- Skill Resistance 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. Except under exceptional circumstances, a roll of 01-05 always succeeds and a roll of 96-00 always fails.
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 test 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 test result 'wins'.
Skill Reaction Contest summary
One participant (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 and can
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 after any addition or subtraction. Once all modifiers have been applied, the player must roll less than or equal to the modified skill.
Skill Modifiers
Use the MRQ modifiers.
Voluntary Skill modifiers
Sometimes a character may wish to voluntarily take negative modifiers to a skill. If so, the character cannot take any modifiers which would result in the skill value being reduced below 05%.
Skill test results
There are four possible results for a skill test
- Critical success
- Success
- Failure
- 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 - a "critical failure". 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 the result.
| Skill Test Result | Critical success | Success | Failure | Fumble |
| QR | +2 | +1 | 0 | -1 |
Technically: rolling a success scores you one point, rolling a failure scores you 0 points. If you Fumble then you deduct 1 point from your result to end up with -1. If you critical, you add 1 point to your result to end up with +2.
Special Numbers
- 01 is an automatic critical success when it is rolled. Nothing can reduce the QR of a "01" below 1. 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. Furthermore, no matter what else happens, nothing can increase the QR of a "00" above 0. In addition, in a contest, a rolled 00 always loses to 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 final 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 criticals. If the character with a skill of 250 rolled 74 it would score just one additional critical.
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 due to the automatic failure result but the additional critical adds +1 to the QR, turning it into a success. In practice this means that once your skill reaches 200%, the results of 96-98 become normal successes.
99 and Very, Very High Skills
99 is a double and will always, therefore, be 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, when your skill equals or exceeds 299%, even a roll of 99 will become a normal (QR1) success because you will always score a minimum of 2 additional criticals.
00 and Very, 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. It doesn't necessarily matter if the tester succeeds at the skill test just as long as it does better than its 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 (QR=+2) then B wins.
If all participants roll the same QR then the character who rolled highest wins. E.g. A and B both succeed. A rolls 72% and B rolls 43%. A rolled higher than B so A "wins".
Design Note. Why highest? In a contest, a character with a higher skill can win even when rolling relatively poorly, which reflects its higher skill. Rather than using a system where you see "who made the roll by the most" which requires a lot of calculation, it is always possible to just read the dice. The odds end up being largely similar.
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:
- Major victory
- Full victory
- Partial victory
- Partial defeat
- Full defeat
- Major defeat
These results are symmetrical; if you score a critical victory then your opponent suffers a critical defeat and vice-versa. 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". To summarise:
- if you roll a normal success (QR=1) you get:
- a partial victory/loss vs another normal success (QR1 vs QR1)
- a full victory vs a failure (QR1 vs QR0)
- a major victory vs a fumble (QR2 vs QR0)
- if you roll a critical success (QR=2) you get:
- a partial victory/loss vs another critical success (QR2 vs QR2)
- a full victory vs a normal success(QR2 vs QR1)
- a major victory vs a failure(QR2 vs QR0)
What about if all participants fail? Normally this means there is no change. Then one wins more through luck than judgement. I.e. The one who rolls the highest wins: just like if both succeeded.
- So if you roll a Failure (QR=0) then you get:
- a partial victory/defeat vs another failure(QR0 vs QR0)
- full victory vs a fumble: (QR0 vs QR-1)
What about if you roll additional criticals and end up with QR3 or better? 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". E.g. Bob has 20% in 1H Shield and parries desperately against Mauler throg who has 286% in War Maul. Throg rolls 32 for 2 additional criticals (QR3) while Bob rolls 01 (QR2). Because he rolled 01, Bob wins but because his QR is less than the loser it only counts as 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 a 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 99 rolled higher so, therefore, wins. Onlookers will jeer mercilessly though.
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 a 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 suceeds at a test.
Multiple participants
It's possible that multiple participants may be involved in a contest in which case the one who rolls best wins. For example, if 6 people must all endure a trial by 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. Drinking contests can be abstracted the same way.
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 rolled until one participant reaches a victory condition. This is abstracted through "Victory Points". Each participanst starts with zero VPs and after each contest roll, the winner adds a number of VPs to his total equal to his Victory Rating (the loser does not subtract any VPs). 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.
Reactions vs 'normal' contests.
There are no game rule differences between normal contests and reaction contests. The only difference is that one character is acting after another. Reaction contests are usually used for reactions (such as dodging or parrying an attack) or for resistance rolls against such things as certain magical attacks, diseases, poisons and so on.
General skills concepts
Types of skills
ReQuest has two types of skills: Core and Edge. Common skills are those which every character of a particular speciesand culture knows. Edge skills are those which by default are not known until they are explicitly learned. For example, every human has a core knowledge of how to climb but knows nothing of brain surgery unless taught. Edge skills are not necessarily any harder than core skills: they are just not widely known within a specific culture. A character has no proficiency with an edge skill until it has been learned; at which point the character gains the base score indicated by the skill.
The list of core skills does tend to vary a little between species, cultures and times. For example, Internet use might be a core skill in modern America but not in Glorantha. Some species also are missing core skills - for example, dwarves don't commonly swim - or have additional core skills such as mineral lore for dwarves.
There are also exclusive "Trait skills" which are skills that are common to species that have certain traits. For example, Gloranthan Trolls have the trait "Darksense" which provides the trait skill "darksense" - a perception skill useful in dark places. For Trolls, Darksense is part of their core perception skill.
Every skill, whether common or uncommon, has a "base score" equal to the sum of two characteristics, sometimes with a third characteristic or attribute included as well. The character's ability or learned score with a skill is equal to the value printed on the character sheet. Whenever a character's skill is tested, modifiers may increase or decrease its value for the duration of the test. This does not change the character's learned ability.
Occasionally, the character's base score may change due to a characteristic being temporarily increased or decreased. If the situation is temporary then this does not affect the character's learned ability. Sometimes, however, temporary changes can last for a long time. For convenience's sake, a characteristic change is considered temporary until it has lasted for at least week. If the change lasts longer then the player character should update the base score and learned score as appropriate because their body has become used to its new state.
Skill Labels
A skill's label is a keyword that helps identify the skill and tells you more about the skill. Each skill has one or more labels. For example, any skill labelled "Agility" can be referred to as an "Agility Skill". Each characteristic used in the base score is also a label. So for example, all of the close combat skills use DEX and STR in their base score so, each close combat skill is a "Dexterity skill" and a "Strength skill". Occasionally, game mechanics might say that all "such and such skills" have -20%. The such and such refer to a label. For example, being encumbered affects Agility and Stealth skills. Some skills are so fundamental that their name includes the label. For example, Perception is both a skill and a label. There are no special rules involved in this.
Special Labels
- Loaded this skill is affected by the Load Penalty
- CAP This skill, while in use, acts as a cap on other skills being used. (E.g. while riding a horse, your fighting skills cannot exceed your ride skill.
- Specialism this skill can only be learned as a specialism.
- Exotic this skill can only be learned after certain criteria have been met. For example, Runecasting {rune} requires the intergration of the rune before it can be learned.
Sometimes a GM may ask for a specific skill test (e.g. climb). If you don't have a climb skill you could ask to substitute a skill that shares several labels. If the GM agrees. Skills which share multiple labels are considered to be related. The more labels they share, the closer the relation.
Substituting Skills
One skill is substituted for another during a test when it is rolled instead of the other skill. Generally, when one skill is substituted for another during a test, it receives a negative modifier of at least -20%. The GM has the final say over whether one skill can be substituted for another.
Complementary Skills
If a character possess a skill that is closely related to a skill that is about to be be tested and is equal to or greater than the skill to be tested then, at the GM's discretion, it provides a +10% bonus to the skill about to be tested. This is a flat rate bonus and a skill that is to be tested can only benefit from one complementary skill.
Multiple skills used in one test
E.g singing the ballad of Black Arkat to a bunch of sceptical Uz. Roll under:
Uz Lore, Sing, Theology (Arkat) all at once. You could also add in a perception labelled skill to try and assess their reaction. When doing this, make a single roll and see which skills succeeded and which failed. This is not the same as using a Complementary skill to gain a bonus because each skill is being individually tested with the same roll.
Cap Skills
When using multiple skills sometimes you can just test all skills at once to see which works and which doesn't as above. Other times, certain skills act as a CAP on all skills when multiple skills are tested at once. Most common example is Ride. While mounted, any DEX skill you use (generally combat skills) is capped by your Ride skill. So for example if you are ride 45% and 1H Sword attack 75% your sword attack is capped at 45%. Caps are applied after all modifiers have been applied.
Other cap skills include
Speak (Language) in many communication skills using that language. Climb, while climbing, swim while swimming, jump while jumping, fly while flying etc.
Specialising in Skills
ReQuest allows characters to specialise in skills. The advantage to doing this is that you can attempt specialist uses of the skill that would either be impossible or have a large negative modifier at normal ability. So for example, you might want to specialise in the Acrobatics skill "balance" to become a very good rope-walker. The disadvantage is that the specialist skill is not as generally useful as the skill it is derived from. GM's may allow players to use a specialist skill for an action based on the derived skill at a negative modifier of 20-60%. E.g. Bob The Balancer has Acrobatics/Balancing at 125% but falls off a rope. He never got around to learning to tumble and his Acrobatics common skill is a miserly 50%. The kind GM allows him to make an acrobatics skill at -40% using Balancing to see if he can reduce falling damage.
The Base Score of a Specialist Skill is equal to the Base Score of the parent skill +1/10th of the learned value of the skill from which it is derived ("parent skill"). If the parent skill's learned value changes, the specialist skill's base score changes as well.
A skill which is "Skill Name (X)" is not a specialist skill unless the skill "Skill Name" can be improved directly. So for example Close Combat (1H Sword) is not a specialist skill because there is no generic "Close Combat" skill that can be improved. On the other hand 1H Sword (Humakti) is a specialist version of the 1H Sword skill. Perception is an improvable skill therefore it is possible to specialise in particular senses.
Optional rules
Once per game session you may reroll a "specialist" skill. This gives the player a bonus for specialisation.
Creating New Skills
The intent of ReQuest is not to produce an exhaustive list of skills that can be used for all occasions, rather, through creating new uncommon skills and specialist skills, players can work with the GM to create skills that suit their character and campaign.
When creating new skills, as a guideline, the new skill will either be a specialist version of a current skill, a new skill within a pre-existing family (e.g. Craft something), a specialism of a current skill or a completely new skill.
Mongoose RQ allows for Legendary Skills which require certain pre-requisites to met and Hero Points to be spent before the skill can be learned.
ReQuest has space for "Advanced Skills." Advanced skills are specialist skills that can only be learned when their parent skill has reached 100%. An Advanced Skill like this would not be as fantastic as a legendary skill but would allow the character to perform feats beyond the range of normal and specialist skills.
Advanced Skills and Legendary abilities are useful in "cinematic" roleplaying where you want the characters to be able to perform amazing feats of derring-do.
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