Hey everyone,

Been playing EotE and F&D for a while now, and am still finding that we, as a group, are not really nailing the skill difficulties and when to add setbacks and boosts, or when to upgrade checks very well. From what I understand of the game, almost every check should be getting one or more setback and/or boost dice added to it for the game to really work well/properly. So I was hoping people could leave their opinions for what examples of what an Easy, Average, Hard, Daunting, and Formidable difficulty would be for each of the various skills. Further, what circumstances would cause you to add a setback? A boost?

If the thread generates some good input, I'll edit the first page with examples provided for an easy-to-access repository for others with a similar question.

I'll start:

Athletics:

• Easy -- running across a gymnasium (floor is flat and level; design for people to run across it); climbing over a wall waist-height or lower
• Average -- running up a slight incline; climbing a ladder
• Hard -- running up a steep incline; scaling a wall with many handholds (aged, crumbling brick)
• Daunting -- running up a very steep incline (approaching 45 degrees); climbing a fairly smooth wall (new brickwork)
• Formidable -- running up a 45 degree or greater slope; climbing an almost perfectly smooth surface (glass)

Setback:

• surface is wet
• surface is rough (running)
• surface is loose (slides out from underfoot/crumbles away while climbing)
• covered in snow or other impediment (this would probably range from 1-3 setbacks, depending on how deep/hindering that is)
• other obstructions (cables along the floor, jagged rocks in a cliff face)
• it's too dark to see well (1 for dim light, 2 for darkness probably)
• other visual problems
• combat
• below 1/2 strain or wounds

- Difficulty

Running across an empty gymnasium isn't even an Easy check, it's automatic. Unless you really want to give away free Advantages, or the character is absolutely ungraceful and could actually trip over their own feet, there's no reason to roll for Simple things like unimpeded movement. Every time you call for a roll, there is a chance for something bad to happen, but you're also giving them Advantages to spend. Do you want people healing and buffing just from walking across the room?

I'd probably put climbing a ladder at Easy. It's something you can do without too much hassle, but there is a *chance* of something bad happening. As they're rushing into the Falcon, Luke and Han each had to climb a ladder to get into the gunner seats. There is a chance that one of them could have slipped and fell, but not really. And the roll more than likely just ended up giving them some Advantages to spend during the fight.

Athletically, I'd probably put traversing a jungle gym or something at Average. Common enough that people do it all the time, but then again people fall off all the time too.

I'd put a typical obstacle course at Hard. One of those team building places at corporate retreats, where everybody has to help each other over the wall and stuff.

I'd put an Army Ranger training camp at Daunting. Kinda like that corporate retreat earlier; only with more blood, bruises, and broken bones.

I'd put some of the stuff from The Matrix at Formidable. Basically impossible unless you're living inside a computer simulation. But you do have Force powers, so who knows!

- Setbacks and Boosts

Basically anything could be argued into a setback or boost die. It's the last 10 seconds on the clock at the end of a basketball game, and you're hoping to make this last basket and win the game. There's a setback for being tired, and maybe another for the stress. But your parents are in the stands watching, and that cheerleader you like is smiling at you too, so there's a couple of boost dice. Plus you're wearing your new Nike (they're still around, right?) basketball shoes with the phlebotinum in the soles that costs 2x as much as any other shoes. So there's another boost die.

I would even put climing a ladder at simple and only call for a roll if soemthing that would cause setback on the roll, example climbing a ladder in a thunderstorm while being chased may be ,just, a 2 setback difficulty. So conditions make it necessary to make the roll. Under normal circumstances people dont get hurt climbing a ladder , its only when circumstances make someone make a mostake.

Similarly making a body length horiOntal jump shouldnt require a roll, doing the sam jump across a ravine at night or in the wet and now it needs setback.

A relatively hard climb of a hill might require an average check, success is perhaps not in doubt but failure may mean it took longer, rwally its downn to your interpretation, but much of what you described could be hand waved as just having been done and you just get on with it.

I think this is useful, but remember that there are also Simple checks with no difficulty.

Yes, often these are called out in the rules, I would also call that if the degree of success requires to be determined then a simple roll would be required this, also, is called out in the rules.

Thanks for that. Good points, all.

However, I didn't want this to turn into a thread about just one skill. I'd like to see some examples on other skills.

It's probably not my place to comment, but that's too much quantification for me and feels a bit backwards. I find it more useful to decide before-hand what the difficulty should be, and then come up with the rationalization afterwards. This allows me to narrate more freely, scale the encounter better to the character's abilities, and also allows me to avoid making the player roll just because "it's there".

Basically I flip it the other way around. But YMMV...

It's probably not my place to comment, but that's too much quantification for me and feels a bit backwards. I find it more useful to decide before-hand what the difficulty should be, and then come up with the rationalization afterwards. This allows me to narrate more freely, scale the encounter better to the character's abilities, and also allows me to avoid making the player roll just because "it's there".

Basically I flip it the other way around. But YMMV...

Just noticing that int he game I play, the GMs are almost always having us roll Average or Hard checks, and rarely are there any setbacks or boosts added to anything. I think your method could work well, but this hasn't seemed to work thus far.

An example: we're playing through the initial Yuuzhan Vong invasion. What would you use for the difficulty of Knowledge: Xenology, Lore, or Medicine checks applied to YV warriors and equipment? For an autopsy, I would think perhaps Hard (anatomy is basically similar to other humanoids), but probably 2 or 3 setbacks due to their having been zero literature for study on them (so whatever differences there are would have to be discovered on the fly), and maybe an upgrade to run into a piece of YV bio-tech embedded in the body (Despair would activate whatever the nasty surprise is).

For the Knowledge, I would probably start with Formidable or Daunting, then add a few setbacks on top.

below 1/2 strain or wounds

Hmm, not a fan of this. That's what we have crits for. We get enough "Make TASK X more difficult" or "Take two strains for every maneuver" crits as it is. We don't need to start hitting 'em with blacks when they're along the wound threshold track.

It's probably not my place to comment, but that's too much quantification for me and feels a bit backwards. I find it more useful to decide before-hand what the difficulty should be, and then come up with the rationalization afterwards. This allows me to narrate more freely, scale the encounter better to the character's abilities, and also allows me to avoid making the player roll just because "it's there".

Basically I flip it the other way around. But YMMV...

Just noticing that in the game I play, the GMs are almost always having us roll Average or Hard checks, and rarely are there any setbacks or boosts added to anything. I think your method could work well, but this hasn't seemed to work thus far.

An example: we're playing through the initial Yuuzhan Vong invasion. What would you use for the difficulty of Knowledge: Xenology, Lore, or Medicine checks applied to YV warriors and equipment? For an autopsy, I would think perhaps Hard (anatomy is basically similar to other humanoids), but probably 2 or 3 setbacks due to their having been zero literature for study on them (so whatever differences there are would have to be discovered on the fly), and maybe an upgrade to run into a piece of YV bio-tech embedded in the body (Despair would activate whatever the nasty surprise is).

For the Knowledge, I would probably start with Formidable or Daunting, then add a few setbacks on top.

This may be part of your problem... you're expecting the GM to give you boosts. It's their job to decide the negative side of the dice pool; setting and upgrading the difficulty, and stipulating setbacks. Then it's your job to fill out the positive side; the ability check, and the boosts. If your GM isn't putting any setbacks, then you're only going to be that much better off when you start talking your way into some extra boosts. As I said before, just about anything can be argued into providing boosts or setbacks. The point of this game system is to make the narrative and the story meaningful, rather than just background noise while you look up charts and formulae like other RPGs require. That's why none of the items are "rated", like saying these binoculars give +1 Perception, but these more expensive binoculars give +2. Or this one datapad gives +1 Slicing, but this very rare model gives +3. Instead, you simply say "I've got my trusty datapad handy" and the GM gives you a boost die.

Boost dice are most often used to reflect the character’s possession of some sort of benefit or advantage, such as having ample time to complete the task or having the right equipment.

Setback dice are often used to represent relatively minor conditions that impair or hinder a character, such as poor lighting, obstructive terrain, insufficient resources, or the fact that he is facing a robust, hungry rancor instead of an old, decrepit one.

Boost and Setback aren't meant to be a huge obstacle. They're minor influences.

Regarding your question of YV checks... I'd probably make them all Daunting to begin with, since nobody has a clue what they are. The fact that you have points in Xeno, Lore, or Medicine is your only saving grace, since that reflects some level of background knowledge in general. At least you have a few dice to roll. But until you perform that autopsy, you don't have a clue what they look like inside or where their weak points would be. And until you "socialize" with them, you aren't going to have a clue about their culture or society. I wouldn't say that a complete lack of experience with YV is "just a couple setbacks".

Once you've gotten some experience with YV, I'd probably lower it to Hard. And the more resources they can build up after that, such as a medical database from the autopsies, would start to contribute boosts eventually.

I'm going to layout some typical modifiers I use and the setback dice I assign and some brief reasons why.

I always try to set the difficulty based on the perfect situation; right tools, tested new part, repair manual, right model, good light, not a cramped workspace, not during combat, not rushed for time, not in a zero gravity or heavy gravity area (unless required for job or task). Just think of the best possible everything ready to go, like on a cooking show with everything prepped and ready to go, now time to prepare the meal.

Setback dice options and suggestions are a very weak area of the 3 core books, but having run and played over 150 RPGs I've had insight to these kind of things.

Generally, these stack and can get pretty high, but PCs being PCs are quite resilient and creative in a good player's hands. (the social flavor setback dice can be 1 or 2 where those options were 1 or 2 for tasks such as for survival or mechanics, there your NPCs, how do they feel about what is at stake or what the deal is for? Does the PC(s) have a reputation that the NPC knows about? Untrustworthy, trickster, difficult negotiator, etc)

Also remember that these modifiers should apply to all characters PCs and NPCs!

No skill ranks gets a character a setback die automatically-> 1

Never worked with (i.e. - may have worked on a different type or brand), done before (never has the character tried to do this), unfamiliar with item (Character doesn't even know what they have in front of them) -> 1 for each of these conditions met.

(social variants; never met, new to area, using interpreter or partial language knowledge, no language/communication method would be (2) all others would be 1 setback die each)

No tools 2 (no knowledge of customs or law)

Or

Improper tools 1 (partial customs or law knowledge)

Poor conditions 1 to X (these represent environmental (extreme cold/hot/zero gravity/etc), stress such as working under duress (combat, fatigue or lack of sleep, hunger, etc) and tight spaces, bouncy landspeeder going over very rough terrain. Rushed or not enough time. I hope you get the idea here. (social variants; wrong place, wrong time (early or late), stress/duress situations as above)

Character(s) health conditions

State of Health -> The idea of below 1/2 wounds

Wounded Critical Severity conditions<See critical chart>

Please note each of these though listed together should be considered separately when determining setback, Disease, Drugs, Poison <You'll find drugs and poisons in various books)

Diseased, drugged,poisoned, irradiated - Any of these can cause harsh side effects or dangerous infections <Typically 1, sometime 2 at worse 3> Resilience roll to counter Vs Difficulty of Drugs (each success removes a setback die)

Here are some of my various Diseases, drugs and poisons

Diseases

Galactic Common Cold -> 1 setback die

Head Ache (Mild or Severe) -> 1 setback die for Mild only if stressful situations such as combat, forced social encounters, Severe gets you 2 setback

Hangover, severe -> 2 setback dice

Flu -> 1 or 2 depending on severity

​Dysentery -> 1 if severe (Don't eat the Slybak Worms, they will get you)

Allergies -> 1 to 5 depending on severity of allergic reactions. Allergies can kill anyone!

Eye infection (or scratch) or joint infection -> depending on action taken 1 or 2, shooting with an eye infection could warrant 2 setback dice just having 1 eye infected and I speak from experience here ( I had a severe eye infection that lasted over two months, with just over 1 month with complete blindness in my right eye. Suck)

Heavy Bruising -> 1

Bruised Ribs or other bones -> 1 to 2 depending on actions (I wouldn't also apply Heavy Bruising unless it was to say the Face)

POX/Itchy-Scratchy Disease/Fleas (I'm talking to you Wookies!) 1 if really itchy

Pneumonia at least 2 (and other similar more aggressive respiratory infections)

Broken hand/foot/limb/tail -> 1 or 2 depending on action

Paralysis can be similar to broken, having the limb or hand/foot/tail you need unavailable can be quite an issue to deal with.

Poisons can be found in a number of books as can diseases as can Drugs, Nerve Gas or mustard gas, chemical exposure can cause a variety of the above as side-effects or the burning below. Blindness, chemical burns, pox, dysentery, etc

Burns or Radiation Burns- Characters suffering from burns, where the damage to wounds is directly from burns suffer setback dice. A character can suffer from Burns and Radiation burns separately.

Damage less than 25% -> no setback dice

Damage 26%-50% -> 1 setback die

Damage 51%-75% -> 2 setback dice

Damage 75% or more -> 3 setback dice

Burns and radiation burns are extremely painful and uncomfortable to the point of disabling movement.

Inferior parts 1 (older model part to newer model system) or 2 (this represents adapting say a shield generator part from one manufacturer to another) (social variants; wrong kind of token gift, bargaining chip, item not wanted by NPC (which may just incur auto failure (Try telling a Hutt they'll love the blue one, when they wanted a green one with white stripes)

Damaged part 1 (if the players don't look to see if it's damaged it's on them... (use this when PCs scavenge another broken/wrecked device, vehicle, Gun, light saber, etc) (Socially questionable items, stolen goods, illegal items, Inferior quality items for deal (not new or poorly made goods)

Used part 1 (tested) or

(use tested (above) or untested (below) whether or not they scavenge it or procure part from a reseller or steal it, etc) (PCs may get a used part that says "tested good" from Watto, but he was lazy that day... Or the bad folks have/force the re-seller X sell players a bad/sabotaged part specifically to Bone the players). You smell burning coming from your ships restroom recycling system, what do you have your PCs do?

Used part 2 (untested)

(used items may be fine to some, but if not, 1 setback die might apply, I also used this area if the amount of items is too many or not enough for social situations)

Lando's guys were supposed to fix the hyperdrive...

Newer model part to older system retrofit 1 (this is similar to Inferior part) or 2 (way newer model part or way older system retrofit)

(Socially, this newer part converts to the old switcheroo, you said I'd get X for Y, what gives? This works both ways, PCs bring W and want Y, but the contact brings Z, and the contact still wants W. This area might apply to PCs bring W, contact brings Y and also wants X in addition. Again this could work both ways, 1 or 2 setback dice would apply)

KSW

Setbacks and boosts should be thrown on liberally based on the narrative, everthing is not done in a vaccum. A realtively short jump during a combat situation, should call for an easy or average check. This same jump should always be the same difficulty, but in game you might be playing on a planet with higher gravity, high winds slippery terrain, rain, snow etc and the GM shoukd build these conditions into the narrative so that thay can introduce setback similarly a player narrating a particularly good and believable con story should get boost to land deception check , something thats not so believable ahoukd get setback.