Hi all,

When you have a Destiny pool, can players and GMs use the Destiny Point tokens for just ordinary skill checks like Mechanics? What I don't understand is if you can use Destiny Point tokens for ordinary skill checks, who would use the Destiny Point token to upgrade the difficulty die to a challenge die? I mean, if a PC is searching for droid parts in a desert, no one would be effected negatively by the check, so if the PC used a Destiny Point token to upgrade one of his ability dice to a proficiency die, who would want/care to upgrade one of the difficulty dice to a challenge die?

In other words, who upgrades the "bad" dice on a regular skill check when using Destiny Point tokens?

The GM always does the "dark side" uses of the Destiny Pool. Something I didn't get at first, but now love, is upgrading exactly those kind of situations. -Normally- nobody would be negatively effected by that mechanics roll in the desert, but should a despair come up? That trash pile you were searching through was actually a Tusken Raider Effigy, and they are extremely irate you tampered with it!

Typically, whoever is making the skill check can use a Destiny Point to upgrade their positive dice. The 'other party' can use the Destiny Point to upgrade the negative dice.

If a PC is making the check, the GM could upgrade the difficulty of the check by flipping a Destiny Point from Dark to Light.

If the GM is making a check, the PCs could upgrade the difficulty of the check by flipping a Destiny Point from Light to Dark.

And like "What" says, the reason why somebody would flip a Destiny Point to upgrade the difficulty of a check are almost unlimited.

As a GM, when I upgrade the difficulty of a check (converting a purple Difficulty die to a red Challenge die), it almost always means I've got something in mind for what a Despair could mean.

So if the PCs are shooting at Stormtroopers standing by a computer console, I might flip a Destiny Point from Dark to Light and upgrade their difficulty dice. In my mind I'd know that if a Despair comes up, I'd probably use it to mean the PCs shot the computer console and the door they're trying to escape from gets jammed shut.

If you're searching for droid parts in a junk yard, and I flipped a Destiny Point from Dark to Light to upgrade your difficulty dice, I'd probably have in mind whatever might be lurking in the junkyard. Maybe a dianoga, maybe another dangerous creature, maybe you find something valuable to somebody who attacks you for it, maybe a mountain of trash falls on you...