"...if any of the remaining positive dice have a result that is equal to or lower than your characteristic chosen for the test, the task succeeds. Otherwise, the task fails."

Does this mean, that even with a characteristic of 5, and absolutely no negative dice, a character fails on a 6?

Yes

A 6 in this game is like a Natural 1 in D&D, Pathfinder, etc. There always has to be a chance to to fail. Just like a 1 in this game is a hit.

Yeah you can definitely still fail without negative dice. The book even suggests running some tests without negative dice sometimes and I believe combat tests start with a base zero negative dice (someone just corrected me on this on another topic).

Negative dice are just there to cause stress and also remove some positive dice from the pool when they match. You can always do something that isn't stressful but you can still mess up.

Yeah you can definitely still fail without negative dice. The book even suggests running some tests without negative dice sometimes and I believe combat tests start with a base zero negative dice (someone just corrected me on this on another topic).

Negative dice are just there to cause stress and also remove some positive dice from the pool when they match. You can always do something that isn't stressful but you can still mess up.

This.

I guess I don't fully understand the dice rolling mechanic. I haven't played it, and maybe I will once I do, but let me get this straight.

Roll dice.

Remove same numbers.

If you have any positive dice within range of X Characteristic (1 to X), you succeed.

If no positive dice are within range (above X to 6), you fail.

Simple enough so far, but what about the remaining Negative dice? Do they only serve to grant 1 stress per die, with their actual values irrelevant?

If so, this mechanic seems really strange to me... Failing on a positive die while also having Negative die values redundant.

Negative dice don't exist to make rolls harder - they do that, sure, but that's not the point - they exist to hurt you: negative dice aren't difficulty , they're pain .

Take the example of a kitchen knife vs. a combat knife. In the game I GM they both do +2 damage, but the kitchen knife gets a negative die and the combat knife doesn't. That's because a kitchen knife has no guard, just a smooth wood grip, so your hand could easily slip down the handle and cut yourself if you make an attack. That is what the negative die is reflecting. It's not harder to land a hit with a kitchen knife than it is with a combat blade, it's harder to use one without hurting yourself.

Hope that helps.

Negative dice don't exist to make rolls harder - they do that, sure, but that's not the point - they exist to hurt you: negative dice aren't difficulty , they're pain .

Take the example of a kitchen knife vs. a combat knife. In the game I GM they both do +2 damage, but the kitchen knife gets a negative die and the combat knife doesn't. That's because a kitchen knife has no guard, just a smooth wood grip, so your hand could easily slip down the handle and cut yourself if you make an attack. That is what the negative die is reflecting. It's not harder to land a hit with a kitchen knife than it is with a combat blade, it's harder to use one without hurting yourself.

Hope that helps.

So Difficulty is solely expressed by Characteristic via the Positive die, while Negative dice generally only represent stress/trauma and the removal of potential Successes? I guess that makes sense; not dramatically different from the narrative dice in Star Wars I suppose.

And remember, If you want to make something harder without making it more dangerous, you can always require more successes.

Example: You are trying to pick a lock. You start by rolling 1 positive die. You have the "nimble fingers" perk and a piece of wire that each give you +1 positive die. Therefor you have a dice pool of 3 positive dice.

That's a pretty easy roll. Unless your Dex is 1, You probably have about an 80% chance of making that. Your GM thinks it's a little unreasonable for you to be able to pick a deadbolt with no training or experience. But adding negative dice doesn't make a lot of sense: picking the lock isn't dangerous, and anyway negative dice only cancel positive dice on matching doubles (not very often). So instead your DM says that you have to succeed on two of the three dice that you're rolling instead of just one. Hazah, problem solved!

Well I see negative dice as adding difficulty, they do cancel out potential successful positives, but Im coming to understand what else we can do with the system, such as the above multiple successes without at negative dice.

Negative dice definitely reflect task difficulty, but are also closely linked with the potential for stress.

Negative dice definitely reflect task difficulty, but are also closely linked with the potential for stress.

See, I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I would reverse the emphasis:

Negitive dice definitely reflect the potential for stress, but are also closely linked with task difficulty.

Negative dice definitely reflect task difficulty, but are also closely linked with the potential for stress.

See, I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I would reverse the emphasis:

Negitive dice definitely reflect the potential for stress, but are also closely linked with task difficulty.

I don't disagree with you, however you have to determine that be reading between the lines. If you take the text at face value, it details more instances of negative dice being added for difficulty then the potential to cause stress.