Do you ever Upgrade npc checks, as the gm, for situations that might warrant it? Or is it up to the PCs to flip destiny for it? Thanks!

Yes, it's part of the back and forth of the Destiny Points. It also helps the story that these npcs are especially driven in their task to capture/injure/kill the pcs.

Also Jay Little says you can just upgrade based on your judgment. If something would be hard or dangerous because of some inherent hazard or condition then you can upgrade without flipping a DP.

Also besides upgrading the difficulty dice pool die type, you might just increase the base difficulty as well. Once the difficulty dice pool size is set the number of dice will never be reduced (it may increase though), though the die types in the pool may change.

KSW

1 hour ago, doktor grym said:

Also besides upgrading the difficulty dice pool die type, you might just increase the base difficulty as well. Once the difficulty dice pool size is set the number of dice will never be reduced (it may increase though), though the die types in the pool may change.

KSW

Aren't there talents that lower difficulty? Master Artisan, for example.

1 hour ago, Stan Fresh said:

Aren't there talents that lower difficulty? Master Artisan, for example.

Yes. Usually at cost of strain.

yes there are, and these are done at the initial setting of the difficulty. So as a GM I set a repair at HARD ((3) Difficulty dice), then the player announces they are using the Master Artisan and their PC suffers 2 strain and reduces the initial difficulty level by 1. The basic pool for the difficulty has now been set to AVERAGE (2) Difficulty dice. A GM might upgrade one of these dice to represent an extreme challenge beyond that of later using a destiny point to upgrade the difficulty pool. (Combat checks against an adversary with the Adversary Talent happen later! in the basic pool build process)

The process that FFG built has a specific flow to be followed, we had done it wrong for a while, but eventually we saw the path!

It is key that the player announce they are using the talent before any further parts of the basic die pool are developed. After the initial difficulty die pool count has been set the player can start their part of the basic dice pool. They take the higher # of either their ability score or skill rank, gathering that number of ability dice, then they take the other value and upgrade that many ability dice to proficiency dice.

Now you have the basic pool completed and would go on to the modifying the Dice Pool step. You would add Boost and Setback dice first, no subtracting or removing yet! These come from all kinds of things; gear, modifications to gear, talents, environment, distraction and stress, improper or superior parts, etc. Add, add, add, no removing yet!

Then you upgrade ability and difficulty dice. Again, do not subtract or remove dice yet! Also here the active player then the other player may spend a destiny point to upgrade their respective portion of the dice pool. Talents and other factors like equipment or environment may upgrade the dice in their respective pools (the ability and difficulty dice, and sometimes if their is an upgrade and no dice to upgrade to, another respective ability or difficulty die is added to the proper part of the dice pool). Upgrade or add dice to the respective pools only! no removing or subtracting yet! The Adversary Talent upgrades here!

Now, pay attention to the total summed number of Ability and Proficiency dice in the pool and the summed number of Difficulty and Challenge dice in the pool. So say the end result of dice pool from the original adjusted Average difficulty (2 Difficulty dice) and say the player contributes to the basic dice pool 2 Proficiency and 1 Ability die (3 ability dice for their skill rank value and two upgrades for the Ability score of 2). Then with all the adds and upgrades we end at 2 Challenge Dice, 1 Difficulty die, 2 Setback dice and 2 Proficiency dice,1 Ability die and 1 Boost die.

Now we can Down Grade, still no subtracting or removing of dice!

So say the player has another talent that downgrades the difficulty of the dice pool 1 per rank of said talent and the player has 3 ranks. Here is the step many folks breeze over and do the process wrong and why to follow the process! Even though the player has 3 downgrades to the difficulty dice pool, there are only 2 Challenge dice to downgrade as you can not downgrade a Difficulty die, nor lower the total summed number of dice in the difficulty dice pool. So the difficulty dice pool will still be 3 Difficulty dice. As I mentioned many folks may end up misunderstanding the concept, and then go and remove a Difficulty die from the difficulty dice pool, lowering it's summed value. Likewise, something that downgrades the other portion of the pool will only downgrade Proficiency dice to Ability dice.

The last step is to remove Boost and Setback from the dice pool from talents, gear, etc.

Keep in mind some talents just use a skill to mechanically test against a pre-set difficulty level and in general the difficulty dice pool is not modified by other talents what so ever, often they are set at HARD. This is because it is mechanically just using the skill to check for success or failure and not to perform an actual usage of the skill in the typical means, such as counting extra successes or using advantages.

On 5/30/2019 at 9:44 AM, Archlyte said:

Also Jay Little says you can just upgrade based on your judgment. If something would be hard or dangerous because of some inherent hazard or condition then you can upgrade without flipping a DP.

This is something I definitely do as a GM. If the PC is attempting something where failure could go colossally wrong (which mechanically would manifest on the roll of a Despair), I upgrade without spending a destiny point.

Most of the time, my players are choosing when to upgrade PC rolls with destiny points, and I am choosing when to upgrade NPC rolls with destiny points. However, my players sometimes suggest that an NPC should do so, and I take their input into consideration.