OK, seasoned Game Masters,

I have a fairly straightforward question regarding the Dice Pool that I figure is not too uncommon out here in n00bie-land.

Since there are only specific dice available, and a standard set has only limited numbers of each, do I use the outlined "upgrade" rules to account for specific dice ranges, or do we need to get more dice?

For example, I have a character that has a dice pool of 1 Proficiency and 2 Ability dice, vs. a Daunting (4 Difficulty dice) task.

If I read things correctly, I am supposed to upgrade 2 of the Difficulty dice for a single Challenge die, and roll those.

Next up the scale, is the Formidable roll: listed as 5 Difficulty dice. I am assuming that will translate to a Challenge die, and all 3 Difficulty dice.

Further up, is " Impossible " with the pool above, plus burning a Destiny Point .

On the PC side of things, I haven't seen a skill in the 5 range yet, but I am guessing that 7 is the highest you can get (2 Proficiency dice and 3 Ability dice).

Now, here's the guesswork on my part from there:

A Skill Total of 8. I would want to add an Advantage for each point past 7 to reflect the awe-inspiring level of skill being demonstrated at that point.

So, am I on target or is there another system to use, and I'm just too confused?

Next, I address the Boost and Setback dice:

I am guessing you can only add 2 of each, and more than that will result in upgrades, until you run out of dice, then adding an automatic Advantage or Threat accordingly...

So, just how far am I off?

An Inquiring mind wants ta know!

1 hour ago, TLoATDaE said:

For example, I have a character that has a dice pool of 1 Proficiency and 2 Ability dice, vs. a Daunting (4 Difficulty dice) task.

  If I read things correctly, I am supposed to upgrade 2 of the Difficulty dice for a single Challenge die, and roll those.

What you describe should be handled with YG PPPP. A Daunting task requires 4 purple dice. You should not be altering the pool to reflect the dice you physically own.

If you don't have enough dice for what the pool requires, just roll in two bouts. We do this all the time when someone faces a RRR roll, since we only own two dice sets, so we have two red dice. We roll a red die, make note of its result (often by setting aside a purple or black die turned to what it got), and then roll two red dice.

1 hour ago, TLoATDaE said:

A Skill Total of 8. I would want to add an Advantage for each point past 7 to reflect the awe-inspiring level of skill being demonstrated at that point.

I don't understand what you mean here. The most ranks you can ever have in a skill is 5.

1 hour ago, TLoATDaE said:

Next  , I address the Boost and Setback dice:

I am guessing you can only add 2 of each, and more than that will result in upgrades, until you run out of dice, then adding an automatic Advantage or Threat accordingly...

Boost and setback dice do not get upgraded to anything. Genesys (FFG's generic version of SWRPG) caps them at a max of 4 boost and 4 setback added to a roll, but the way the Star Wars rules are written, you could apply as many as needed to reflect the conditions.

My recommendation... buy another set of dice or the app.

6 minutes ago, jendefer said:

I don't understand what you mean here. The most ranks you can ever have in a skill is 5.

My recommendation... buy another set of dice or the app.

Thanks for getting back to me, @jendefer , it is appreciated!

Had to pick a bit for the quote, but here goes:

I refer to skill+characteristic. There are a handful of examples where you get a skill of 5, and a stat of 3, resulting in 8 total. Still not entirely sure how to calculate the dice pool on it, but Oggdude's Generator does the job nicely.

As for adding Advantage(s), I was thinking of literally just adding Advantage per point I couldn't cover with dice. There are situation where you can add them automatically. That's what I was thinking, at any rate...

Since my dinosaur phone can't even dream of handling the app, and more dice running $30 CDN, it's too pricey for my rather thin blood right now...

Looks like multi-rolling is the only clear option, then.

3 minutes ago, TLoATDaE said:

I refer to skill+characteristic. There are a handful of examples where you get a skill of 5, and a stat of 3, resulting in 8 total. Still not entirely sure how to calculate the dice pool on it, but Oggdude's Generator does the job nicely.

The way it works is you take the maximum of the ability score and the skill ranks, and that determines how many green dice. Then you take the minimum of the ability score and the skill ranks, and that determines how many of the green dice you upgrade to yellow. So for your example, max(5,3) = 5 and min(5,3) = 3. So there are 5 dice, and 3 of them are yellow: YYYGG. Note that the dice pool would be the same for someone with a stat of 5 and only 3 ranks in a skill.

@jendefer tells it well. You look at the numbers for the attribute and the skill used. Take green dice equal to the highest number, and replace green dice from that pool with yellow dice equal to the lower score. In effect, you will rarely, if ever, have more than 5 dice total (green and yellow, not counting blue Boost dice yet). If it makes it a bit more clear for you, turn this around. Take the lower score, and grab yellow Proficiency dice equal to that. Then add green Ability dice until you have a total number of dice equal to the higher score (from either Attribute and Skill ranks).

Now, upgrading dice might throw this out of whack a little. You might want to carefully (re)read that section in the Core Rulebook(s). More often than not this happens when spending Destiny Points.

Also, I concur about not simply adding black and red dice when you don't have enough purple ones. The red Challenge dice add the dreaded Despair symbol into the mix. it shouldn't appear in a dice roll that isn't upgraded for some reason (like with Destiny, or because it is an opposed roll against a capable opponent). The black Setback dice also have a symbol mix on their faces that is typical to that specific die type. I noticed that the dice do not mirror between those of equal number of sides. For example, blue Boost dice tend a little more towards Success symbols over Advantage symbols. Black Setback dice don't favour Failure symbols over Threat symbols, however. They are slightly skewed towards Threat symbols instead. Not an error, but a feature of the system.

@TLoATDaE When buying new dice isn't an option, and the phone doesn't handle the dice roller apps well enough, rolling the same dice over until you rolled the required pool seems the only option. However, I don't know if you also own other polyhedral dice, like regular D8s and D12s for Dungeons and Dragons for example. A simple Google search for the image should bring up the conversion chart for using regular dice with this game. It is in the core books as well. You might even find an image from the Beta test FFG Star Wars Dice decal sheet. 😉

15 hours ago, jendefer said:

"For example, I have a character that has a dice pool of 1 Proficiency and 2 Ability dice, vs. a Daunting (4 Difficulty dice) task."

What you describe should be handled with YG PPPP.

Not to nitpick, but isn't that YG G vs PPPP.

17 hours ago, TLoATDaE said:

On the PC side of things, I haven't seen a skill in the 5 range yet, but I am guessing that 7 is the highest you can get (2 Proficiency dice and 3 Ability dice).

Yeah...this is not at all how it works, but no worries, @jendefer and @Xcapobl have good advice. One thing it looks like you believe is that the positive and negative dice interact when deciding upgrading and downgrading, but that is not the case. I'm going to add some random examples, hopefully that will set you straight.

PC1 has Agility 3 and Piloting Planetary 1. 3 is the higher number, so you start with a dice pool of 3 green dice. There is one rank in the skill, so you can upgrade one green die with a yellow, resulting in YGG for their skill.

PC2 has Agility 1 and Piloting Planetary 3. Again, 3 is the higher number, so you start with a dice pool of 3 green dice. There is one ability rank that can be applied to the skill, so you can upgrade one green die with a yellow, resulting in YGG for their skill (again).

For all intents and purposes, both PC1 and PC2 have the same dice pool, it's just that the process of which is the base and which is the upgrade are flipped. One side note about this process: if a PC had 3 Agility and 3 ranks in Piloting Planetary, all three dice would be yellow: both numbers are the same, so start with 3 green dice; then upgrade those three times resulting in three yellows.

One other side note about this: PC2 will never have more than 1 yellow die in their pool, no matter how many skill ranks they get, as that Agility 1 holds them back. PC1 could potentially have YYYGG if they maxed out their skill ranks to 5, so PC1 is the better natural and potential pilot. (Side note to side note: there is the Dedication Talent which a PC can take to boost a characteristic, but it's unlikely someone would want to boost a characteristic with a 1 over a characteristic with, say, a 4.)

Note the difficulty dice have nothing to do with any of this so far.

Let's say the difficulty is Easy, both PCs would be rolling YGG vs P as the total dice pool. Let's say you flipped a destiny point to upgrade the difficulty because you want to add the chance of a Despair, then the PCs would be rolling YGG vs R.

Now let's say the difficulty is Hard (it's a busy crowded street). Let's also say the previous roll or encounter resulted in a Despair or a good narrative reason to upgrade the difficulty, so that's 1 upgrade. Let's say you're also feeling quite vindictive (jk, GMs aren't known for this, are they?? ) so you flip a destiny point, making that 2 difficulty upgrades. Your pool starts at Hard, which is 3 purple dice. You upgrade this twice, turning PPP into RRP. So when the players roll, their PCs are rolling YGG vs RRP.

Setback and boost can be added in a variety of mechanical ways, based on Talents or other previous events. To this, feel free to add setback or boost as you see fit. It's dark and the PC is fiddling with a lock? Setback. The player had their PC say a killer line and the table laughed? Boost. Etc.

17 hours ago, TLoATDaE said:

I am guessing you can only add 2 of each, and more than that will result in upgrades, until you run out of dice, then adding an automatic Advantage or Threat accordingly...

Running out of dice isn't a thing...you can always roll the dice you have, tally the results "so far", and roll the remaining dice and see how it changes the tally. It's tedious, granted, but you wouldn't want to replace dice with automatics. Better to get a beginner box (or two) which come with dice and are a good introduction into how the game works. You can also get the dice app, but a lot of people would rather roll a mitt-full of dice than poke at an app.

On 8/10/2019 at 12:12 AM, jendefer said:

Boost and setback dice do not get upgraded to anything. Genesys  (FFG's generic version of SWRPG) caps them at a max  of 4 boost and 4 setback added to a roll, but the way the Star Wars rules are written, you could apply as many as needed to reflect the condition    s.

This is not the case. Only Defense is capped at 4. But if there are other sources of setback, you can have a lot more than 4 of either dice in any one pool!

3 hours ago, c__beck said:

This is not the case. Only  Defense is capped at 4. But if there are other sources of setback, you can have a lot more than 4 of either dice in any one pool!

Oh, nice! I didn't realize it was only the Defense pool that was capped. Looks like things are about to get a lot more dicey for my players!

We have a bunch of dice, but still run out with our experienced force using party, so I picked up a bunch of blank D12's, which I drew on and varnished. Not as good as the commercial ones, but at least I get more than one force dice per die set!