So last night I got my nerdy little test group together through the magic of the interwebz and we played an on-the-fly rendition of a couple sections of Riders on the Maelstrom (we started pretty much mid-action aboard the Kuari Princess).
I wanted to see if we could apply a little Burning Wheel methodology to out-of-combat skill tests. In that game when you test for something…you let it ride and deal with the consequences. Testing a skill again only happens in a session if conditions change or a different task is attempted.
One of the things that multiple other threads and play reports have mentioned is the potential for bags full of Advantage or Threat regardless of success or failure.
So what we did was, roll a skill/ability test and tally up overall success/failure. The success or failure was a done deal for the session, other than spending destiny points, advantage and Triumphs to temporarily succeed at a similar task. If the PCs were trying to slice into the control systems of the ship and they succeeded, they could have access to that level/type of control throughout the ship without having to test again for our session. If they couldn't get themselves into a system, then they had to figure out a more "cut through the bulkhead" method of getting through the ship for the session. If the Imperial agents and troopers biffed their investigation of idents…the PCs just happened to avoid the check points in some fashion.
Then we took the advantage/threat and banked em. These pools of A/T could only be spent outside of an encounter (n o building up rockstar power for the first round of combat/encounter ). The players could then assign Advantage as they saw fit, and I'd do the same with Threat ( reverse that for NPC actions if there are any out of an encounter/combat) . They could also choose to spend their points to cancel each other out.
If they managed to bank four advantage, they could treat that as a temporary success in the case of a failed check. So, while they may be locked out of door control or something similar, they just so happened to hotwire this particular door. Likewise if they built up four threat, I could really give it to them by denying them access or success to something they previously succeeded at, or I could use a lingering banked Threat to cause a bit of strain the next time the stormtroopers passed very close by the PCs checking idents. Triumph and Despair were mostly used at the time of the check, but we did bank one Triumph when we couldn't really come up with an awesome use for it. Destiny points and Dark Side points were spent in the same way ( I didn't feel the need to spend any Dark Side points to chop out the legs from PC actions in the session we had, and could be a source of abuse…like any other short circuiting of game mechanics) .
The end result was that we had fewer "roll perception roll perception roll perception" and other endlessly repetitious dice pool resolutions. This in and of itself dropped the number of threat and advantage we had to work with (making them a limited resource and easier to apply). The players really had to get creative when they botched a roll. On the flip side they got to pat each other on the back when they succeeded, because life got easier for the duration of our session. The main hangup or point that I had to bolster my delivery of the material, was to think of other ways that the players might get past a choke point if they failed a related roll (
the rule of three is very important in any game system for any scenario though, so I try not to let the world hang in the balance on a single roll unless the world is literally hanging in the balance on a single roll
). It's also important to note that if you are worried that a botched roll will keep a player from properly donning a vac-suit or some-such…just let the poor people put on their clothes without a check
It didn't come up in our session because our PCs were only +15xp, but reducing the number of out-of-combat skill checks wi ll likewise reduce the bulk usage of non-combat talents. However, it almost makes them more essential since getting a boost to a check that you might only make once that session for a given task…would be good.
We ran combat in the typical manner. I didn't make any changes there. The main point was to see if we could make out-of-combat skill tests have a bit more impact without having to constantly come up with Mark Twain quality applications of Advantage and Threat, and we didn't want to constantly assemble dice pools for similar tests/actions. And in order to keep things from being locked down on a single roll, we applied the modifier symbols and destiny points in a way that was more mechanical in case the narrative interpretation didn't flow at a given point.
When my players pulled their banked Triumph out of the bag when they stormed the locked down bridge of the Kuari Princess…it felt awesome. And Big Jak Tagrim didn't stand a chance once the fur started flying.
I don't really think this methodology needs to be coded into any rules or anything. But I thought I'd toss out one way that we handled the bountiful modifier symbols when out of combat skills succeed or fail with "leftovers."
TL;DR Roll fewer out-of-combat checks, and bank your modifier symbols :-P