Another thing that have helped me as a GM a bit is to ask the players what circumstances around would grant black dice to this roll (also blue dice but hey ). If you have some mature players they'll pound their own dice pools with black dice.

If you have less mature players, and perhaps players more inclined to power-gaming, you could still do this, but start out using it for skill checks you know the PCs have talents that negate setback dice. It gives the players this kick-ass feeling of beeing more awesome.

It's raining? Well i don't care!

It's sunny like Tatooine, well I'm a Twilek so I don't care.

What you mean he's a toydarian and only cares about money, Im a skilled negotiator, i don't care.

My friends are in the trash contractor and it's a fire-fight going on around my head, i don't have any slicer gear, I don't really read this alien language and my pant's are on fire? Well, at least the check was only average ...

Exactly. On that last one...just MHO, but some things are worth an upgrade instead of setback. "Ready for battle" has less emotional charge than "killed my advisor", so depending on the situation that chance of Despair may be appropriate.

I would Upgrade (changing Purple to Red) due to skill ranks or some other form of "training" that the NPC might have, but I think that "emotional state" belongs firmly in the realm of Setback.

If you think Despair would be appropriate/interesting in the given situation, and for some reason the opposed check difficulty isn't already Upgraded, that's your cue to spend a Destiny Point. Heightens tensions, grants risk of Despair, and gives your players a chance to influence the story later with that Destiny Point.

Exactly. On that last one...just MHO, but some things are worth an upgrade instead of setback. "Ready for battle" has less emotional charge than "killed my advisor", so depending on the situation that chance of Despair may be appropriate.

I would Upgrade (changing Purple to Red) due to skill ranks or some other form of "training" that the NPC might have, but I think that "emotional state" belongs firmly in the realm of Setback.

If you think Despair would be appropriate/interesting in the given situation, and for some reason the opposed check difficulty isn't already Upgraded, that's your cue to spend a Destiny Point. Heightens tensions, grants risk of Despair, and gives your players a chance to influence the story later with that Destiny Point.

An opposed check will already have reds and purples for the NPCs skill vs the PCs skill.

Exactly. On that last one...just MHO, but some things are worth an upgrade instead of setback. "Ready for battle" has less emotional charge than "killed my advisor", so depending on the situation that chance of Despair may be appropriate.

I would Upgrade (changing Purple to Red) due to skill ranks or some other form of "training" that the NPC might have, but I think that "emotional state" belongs firmly in the realm of Setback.

If you think Despair would be appropriate/interesting in the given situation, and for some reason the opposed check difficulty isn't already Upgraded, that's your cue to spend a Destiny Point. Heightens tensions, grants risk of Despair, and gives your players a chance to influence the story later with that Destiny Point.

An opposed check will already have reds and purples for the NPCs skill vs the PCs skill.

Not necessarily, since sometime the NPC won't have ranks in the given skill, and so the opposing difficulty will only be going off the relevant characteristic. But that's why I said "for some reason," since it tends to vary.

I have toyed with the fact two setback die are the equivalent of an upgrade. So if you have a situation that you can not come up with a good reason to add a setback die, two setback die could downgrade the difficulty. I find this help get the GM challenge die. I have seen several times where a check in adventure states that if you get a Despair that something happens, but unless I use a Destiny Point to upgrade the difficulty it will never happen. For example, You have to slice a computer & it says a Hard Computers check. It states that a Despair will cause the computer to shut down & alert authorities. Just my opinion I have down this occasionally when the player feels they want to use the Talents they have.

Exactly. On that last one...just MHO, but some things are worth an upgrade instead of setback. "Ready for battle" has less emotional charge than "killed my advisor", so depending on the situation that chance of Despair may be appropriate.

I would Upgrade (changing Purple to Red) due to skill ranks or some other form of "training" that the NPC might have, but I think that "emotional state" belongs firmly in the realm of Setback.

If you think Despair would be appropriate/interesting in the given situation, and for some reason the opposed check difficulty isn't already Upgraded, that's your cue to spend a Destiny Point. Heightens tensions, grants risk of Despair, and gives your players a chance to influence the story later with that Destiny Point.

An opposed check will already have reds and purples for the NPCs skill vs the PCs skill.

Not necessarily, since sometime the NPC won't have ranks in the given skill, and so the opposing difficulty will only be going off the relevant characteristic. But that's why I said "for some reason," since it tends to vary.

Then spend a Destiny point to upgrade the roll, but situational stuff should be Setback.

I have toyed with the fact two setback die are the equivalent of an upgrade. So if you have a situation that you can not come up with a good reason to add a setback die, two setback die could downgrade the difficulty. I find this help get the GM challenge die. I have seen several times where a check in adventure states that if you get a Despair that something happens, but unless I use a Destiny Point to upgrade the difficulty it will never happen. For example, You have to slice a computer & it says a Hard Computers check. It states that a Despair will cause the computer to shut down & alert authorities. Just my opinion I have down this occasionally when the player feels they want to use the Talents they have.

They aren't the equivalent as you're missing the Despair/Triumph possibility.

Then spend a Destiny point to upgrade the roll, but situational stuff should be Setback.

Yes, that's exactly what I was saying in post #27.

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Can you add a setback die to a talent check like Scatching Tirade or Inspiring Rhetoric? I think yes, it was also mentioned in Order 66, but I would like to be sure.

38 minutes ago, NicoDavout said:

Can you add a setback die to a talent check like Scatching Tirade or Inspiring Rhetoric? I think yes, it was also mentioned in Order 66, but I would like to be sure.

Sure. You should be able to add situational setback dice to just about any kind of check, at any time.

Is it raining? Is the light from the nearby star too bright for your eyes? Is there dust nearby? Did someone just sneeze?

Your GM should be handing out setback dice liberally. You should get at least one setback die added for virtually every roll you do, and many rolls should get at least two or three setback dice.

If your GM isn’t adding lots of setback dice to the rolls, then there’s a whole swath of talents that are designed to remove setback dice that wind up being totally useless. And that makes players feel like they’re doing something wrong, or they’re bad people, or whatever.