Hello Edgers,

with a binary check what do you do if the player has a net result of successes/failures of 0?

What do I mean by that?

For instance, the player wants to charm some guards. She rolls 1 success, 1 failure, 2 advantages - so the net result is 0 but she has 2 advantages.

Strictly speaking, it's a stalemate. Because it is no failure I have a problem with saying: "Ok, so the guards don't buy your story (a failure on the check) but: what do you want to do with your advanges?"

What's your take on that?

Less than 1 remaining success is a failure.

You only succeed on a check if you have at least one success.

A 'null' result (no success, no failures) means 0 successes, which means you fail.

Ah, thank you, I must have overread it.

What would you do if more failures are rolled, i.e. 3 failures? Would you escalate the failure? How would that scale with a Despair?

Hello Edgers,

with a binary check what do you do if the player has a net result of successes/failures of 0?

What do I mean by that?

For instance, the player wants to charm some guards. She rolls 1 success, 1 failure, 2 advantages - so the net result is 0 but she has 2 advantages.

Strictly speaking, it's a stalemate. Because it is no failure I have a problem with saying: "Ok, so the guards don't buy your story (a failure on the check) but: what do you want to do with your advanges?"

What's your take on that?

She failed to convince them but she explained herself very calmly and can recover 2 strain. Or she failed to convince the guards but she caused the guards to pause which gets her a boost die for initiative if the guards choose to try to arrest/kill her. She failed at convincing the guards but she was engaging enough that the guards were distracted by her reasoning that a member of her party gets a boost die to their action.

Ah, thank you, I must have overread it.

What would you do if more failures are rolled, i.e. 3 failures? Would you escalate the failure? How would that scale with a Despair?

A failure is a failure. The Advantage/Disadvantage and if a Despair is present or not would determine how good or bad the failure was.

Various results could be (subject to parties and situations):

Fail and Advantage: you can try again, but only a different way or with the guard example, they decline the offer and the PC doesn't get in trouble, the guards politely ask her to move alone. Fail and disadvantage the guards disapprove of the charm and possibly why they were trying to be charm and react. Fail and Despair, guards see through the charm and why plus call for back up.

I like using the advantage and threat as an additional outcome of the check. For instance the check is to pick the lock on a door. They succeed but generate threat. In that case I would say they opened the door but made some noise doing so. If there were someone inside they might be heading in the direction of the door now to see what the noise was.

In a social situation i might have a failed check with a lot of advantage. In that case I would probably allow another check to be made. Basically the PC didn't tick off the person they were talking to.

It could be they are trying to pull one over on a smuggler. The could fail the check really badly, the smuggler knows they are trying to deceive him but they rolled so much advantage its like the smuggler was impressed with them for even trying it. "You're full of it kid, but I like your style."

Overall I just use it as a way to adjust the flow of the narrative. That is what i love about this system.

I had the situation yesterday where a player was trying to pick the lock on a side door so the party wouldn't have to deal with the security droids guarding the front door.

She rolled zero net successes (so a failure) and two advantage. She decided to spend the advantage triggering an alarm on the door that the droids would check out, thus drawing them away from the front door.

The door stayed locked, but something good happened.

I had the situation yesterday where a player was trying to pick the lock on a side door so the party wouldn't have to deal with the security droids guarding the front door.

She rolled zero net successes (so a failure) and two advantage. She decided to spend the advantage triggering an alarm on the door that the droids would check out, thus drawing them away from the front door.

The door stayed locked, but something good happened.

This is the kind of stuff I love about this system. The check led them in a different direction. It helped push the narrative in a different direction. It also helps with the problem of the players wanting to keep trying the check over and over. Definitely more interesting than doing that.

Hello Edgers,

with a binary check what do you do if the player has a net result of successes/failures of 0?

What do I mean by that?

For instance, the player wants to charm some guards. She rolls 1 success, 1 failure, 2 advantages - so the net result is 0 but she has 2 advantages.

Strictly speaking, it's a stalemate. Because it is no failure I have a problem with saying: "Ok, so the guards don't buy your story (a failure on the check) but: what do you want to do with your advanges?"

What's your take on that?

As you chat to them it becomes clear they're aren't as responsive as you'd like but fortunately one of them receives a call and distracted he converses with his fellow guard as you listen to what the guard's being told over the communicator and realise maybe another opportunity has showed itself as it appears they're waiting for a shift change and whoever they're waiting for has apparently called in that they're going to be late...

Technically you have no successes but you do have 2 advantages so nothing says they can't be used as long as it doesn't match what a single success would have provided.

I've been ruling a net zero result as a soft failure, where the least harmful outcome of failing is the result.

I've been ruling a net zero result as a soft failure, where the least harmful outcome of failing is the result.

This is certainly backed up by the rules. There's no Threat on the roll to make things worse, so all the roll really says is "you didn't succeed."

Thanks for clarifying, guys and gals, much appreciated.