Hello everyone,

I need clarity on opposing skill rolls. Our GM believes that the enemy takes the players skill rolls and using the difficulty chart adds the opposing dice, along with the same amount if dice to the players skill. For example if the mechanic skill is used for our player 1 proficiency and 2 ability, the Gm will roll the opposite plus 1 addition purple added on a easy difficulty. Is this correct. I only ask because the edge of the empire starter game states this in the rules.

Not correct.

Normally checks have an inherent difficulty. Difficulties are set number of dice:

Easy: P

Average: PP

Hard: PPP

Daunting: PPPP

Formidable: PPPPP

For example opening a lock. Say It's a standard lock, so the difficulty is average. You roll your skullduggery skill against 2 purple.

Now, opposed check is a completely different type of skill check.

For example when 2 combatant wants to wrestle each other:

You determine from whose perspective you roll, he has the positive dice, the opponent has the negative dice. You take your positive dice, in this case the Brawl skill and then use the opponents Brawl skill dice as negative dice.

Your topic title and your body are asking two different questions…

Combat checks (skill checks with combat skills) are not opposed rolls. They are against a set difficulty. For example, attacking someone with Melee or Brawl is an Average () check. Of course, some talents and abilities can change this, but it defaults to Average.

An opposed roll, which is different than a combat check, takes the opponent's skill pool into account. For example, if you are searching for a hidden foe, you would roll your Perception dice pool against a difficulty determined by the target's Stealth skill. Say their Stealth pool is . That would make your difficulty .

12 hours ago, Otacon29 said:

Our GM believes that the enemy takes the players skill rolls and using the difficulty chart adds the opposing dice, along with the same amount if dice to the players skill.

This is not how it works. The character's skill isn't added to the difficulty. Otherwise it would make more skilled character fail more often!

12 hours ago, Otacon29 said:

I only ask because the edge of the empire starter game states this in the rules.

I think someone is misreading the rules.

I would suggest a re-reading of the rules to better understand the difference between a skill check, a combat check and an opposed check (I don't have the beginner game, so I'm not sure if it includes competitive checks, but that's a thing, too).

The character's skill is only added to a difficulty if someone else is rolling an opposed check against that character. And remember that combat checks are not opposed checks. The difficulty is based on the range to the target!

12 hours ago, Otacon29 said:

For example if the mechanic skill is used for our player 1 proficiency and 2 ability, the Gm will roll the opposite plus 1 addition purple added on a easy difficulty.

This has a lot of layers, hard to understand how you're actually doing it. The word "opposite" doesn't really make sense here.

If your player character (PC) is making a Mechanics check, the GM decides what difficulty, in this case "Easy". Then the *player* rolls their 1 proficiency (yellow) + 2 ability (green) + 1 difficulty (purple) to see if they succeed. The GM should rarely roll the dice...only when a PC is the actual target of a combat attack or a social skill.

Example melee combat, Wookiee vs stormtroopers. Say the Wookiee has Brawn 4 and 2 ranks in Melee, so his dice pool is YYGG (2 yellows, 2 greens). All melee skill tests are average (2 purple), so the Wookiee's player rolls YYGG-PP. There were three, but he chops one in half, and now there's two.

Example ranged combat, stormtroopers vs Wookiee. They spend a maneuver to disengage to Short range. There are two, but they are minions, so they pool their efforts and shoot with YGG. Short range is Easy (one purple), so their final pool is YGG-P. The GM rolls these dice, and manages a hit, and a critical! The Wookiee is tough, but injured now, and he hopes somebody can save his fuzzy behind.

Example hacking. The Wookiee's reluctant companion, an R4 droid who has seen better days, decides to close the blast doors. He has to hack the imperial droid port, find the right door, and close it. His Intellect is 4, his Computers skill is 3, so his dice pool is YYYG. Not bad! But the GM figures it's a secure port, so Hard difficulty (three purple) to hack. Also, with all the chaos and screaming it's a bit of an overload for the poor droid's circuits. So the difficulty is PPP, but the GM adds two setback (black) dice to the pool. Luckily our droid has one rank in the Gearhead Talent, so he can discard one of those setbacks. So the final pool is YYYG-PPPS. The droid's player rolls these dice, and hopes it works...

I would like to thank you all for replying. You have helped me so much, forgive me for the confusing question, allow me to clarify. We started the beginners"edge of the empire" starting module on tatoonine. In the begining book it states while to take players (the GM deduced) skill dice used for each dice and roll the same amount in opposite while adding purple because he believed it read that way, I had already played the game a few times and GMed and said that was incorrect, showing him the skill tree, he wouldn't have any of that because "the book states I do it this way." Unfortunately a big fight insued because he wouldn't back down. For one roll example he pitted 2 red dice and 4 purples against a player while doing a computer slice, the player having 2 yellows and 1 green. We were doing combat, but I felt the roll was way off.

53 minutes ago, Otacon29 said:

For one roll example he pitted 2 red dice and 4 purples against a player while doing a computer slice, the player having 2 yellows and 1 green.

6 negative dice against the players in a module meant for "beginners"? That's a challenge meant for top tier player characters, and even then it's pushing it. If any of you have played D&D, he just asked a level 1 PC to kill a red dragon. He clearly has no idea how the dice work, he should pop in and say hello maybe ask for advice before he assumes he understands.

6 hours ago, Otacon29 said:

I would like to thank you all for replying. You have helped me so much, forgive me for the confusing question, allow me to clarify. We started the beginners"edge of the empire" starting module on tatoonine. In the begining book it states while to take players (the GM deduced) skill dice used for each dice and roll the same amount in opposite while adding purple because he believed it read that way, I had already played the game a few times and GMed and said that was incorrect, showing him the skill tree, he wouldn't have any of that because "the book states I do it this way." Unfortunately a big fight insued because he wouldn't back down. For one roll example he pitted 2 red dice and 4 purples against a player while doing a computer slice, the player having 2 yellows and 1 green. We were doing combat, but I felt the roll was way off.

Your GM probably never had any education in probability and statistics. Otherwise he would know that's basicly guaranteed failure