As the game's story is narrated by the players, something risky will eventually come into play. A player's character might pull out a pistol and shoot a security droid, or they might hack into a secure system. In these risky cases, where the outcome of an action or sequence of actions is heavily influenced by chance, dice are rolled to determine the outcome. The Director is the ultimate authority on what is and what is not a contest, see [[COST|Regulus/COST/Home]].
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The first step of this type of roll is to define what the player wants for their character, the desired outcome. The die roll will determine if they get that outcome, plus additional issues that might arise. In the case where the character pulls a pistol and shoots a security droid the player might define the outcome as 'incapacitating the droid'.
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The first step of this type of roll is to define what the player wants for their character, the desired outcome. The die roll will determine whether they get that outcome, along with any additional issues that might arise. If the character draws a pistol and shoots a security droid, the player might define the outcome as 'incapacitating the droid'.
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The second step is figuring out the type of action the character is taking. Once you have the grasp of that, the player can figure out if they have **Means** to attain their outcome. Means is anything on the character sheet that gives the character an advantage in the situation. Continuing the pistol example, a Quality like 'Soldier' or 'Marksman', even 'Lightning Reflexes' would provide means for the contest.
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The second step is figuring out the type of action the character is taking. Once you have a grasp of that, the player can determine whether they have Leverage to attain their outcome. Leverage is anything on the character sheet that gives the character an advantage in the situation. Continuing the pistol example, a Quality like 'Soldier' or 'Marksman', even 'Lightning Reflexes' would provide Leverage for the contest.
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Now we reach a point where the character either has Means or not for the contest. If they do not have Means they will roll a single six-sided die for the contest. If they have Means, they decided to roll one, two, or three dice depending on the amount of effort & risk they accept for the contest. The more dice the greater the chance of getting what they want, but also the greater the chance of dice coming up a 1 and creating issues.
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The player may now also find additional Leverage towards the outcome. This means that if they have more rules on their sheet that apply in this situation, they get Leverage on their roll for each one, up to a maximum of three. For each Leverage in excess of the first, the player can choose one of the options for the rolls below:
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Now, the Director determines if this is a **Sudden** contest. If a contest is Sudden, the player skips the find leverage step. If it isn't Sudden, then the player finds leverage. This means if they have more rules on their sheet that can apply in this situation, they get advantage on their roll for each one, with a maximum of three. For each advantage, the player can choose one of the options for the rolls below:
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* Add one additional die to the roll.
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* The final result gets a +1 bonus.
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* You may discard a single result of 1 from the roll.
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* You can re-roll one rolled die.
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* Replace one of the rolled dice with an eight-sided die.
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* Mark up Luck.
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- The final result gets a +1 bonus.
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- You may discard a single result of 1 from the roll.
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- You can re-roll one rolled die.
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- Replace one of the rolled dice with an eight-sided die.
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- Use the favored die table for the roll.
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- Mark up Luck.
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Each of these options is available only once in a contest. The player may now also decide to ==spend one Fortune token== to add one additional die to the roll (this can be combined with the die option above to get 3 dice in total).
Now once we have figured out Means, and leverage, the roll can is made, and the dice are cast! If more than one die are rolled, keep the highest as the result, but always note if any dice show a 1 because that is bad. Look up the result on the table below:
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| Die Result | Favored | Means | No Means |
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| ---------- | --------- | -------- | -------- |
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| 1 | No | No! | Hell No |
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| 2 | Maybe | No | No! |
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| 3 | Possibly | Maybe | No |
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| 4 | Yes | Possibly | Maybe |
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| 5 | Yes | Yes | Possibly |
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| 6 | Yes! | Yes! | Yes |
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| 7+ | Yes!! | Yes!! | Yes! |
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| Die Result | 1+ | 0 |
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| ---------- | -------- | -------- |
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| 1 | No! | Hell No |
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| 2 | No | No! |
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| 3 | Maybe | No |
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| 4 | Possibly | Maybe |
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| 5 | Yes | Possibly |
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| 6 | Yes! | Yes |
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| 7+ | Yes!! | Yes! |
The outcome on the result table is a direct indicator if the player gets what they want for their character. That said, each result that isn't as simple as **No** or **Yes** needs some clarity:
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**Paying Luck**:
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- If the contest is deemed Sudden, but the player feels the contest is very important for the character, they can still find leverage if they are willing to pay 1 level of Luck. In this case they get the 'Use the favored die table for the roll' option for free, plus what they can leverage for the roll.
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- If the contest has no Means, the player may pay 1 level of Luck to create Means for the contest. The Director and player create a lucky circumstance that provides means for the contest.
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## Challenges
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A Challenge is just a contest in reverse. It is a narrative situation that is happening to a player character where the player wants to avoid the outcome. Let us reframe the continuing pistol example. In this new case, the player's character enters a vault of caplets to steal a rare one, and as they do so a security droid deploys it's auto-pistol to shoot the character. Now this is the inverse of the action above, as the player wants to avoid being 'incapacited by the security droid'. The rules are the same, but the outcome is reversed. If the player gets the Yes (or better) outcome they avoid the narration in question. Most of the results are the same but work opposite. However the **Yes!** and **Yes!!** work slightly differently:
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- **! - Exclamation**: In a challenge, "Yes, and ..." becomes a way to flip the narrative. The clause here can be used to generate a blanket narration related to the outcome of the challenge. In the pistol example the player could do something like "Yes, and in a flash I deactivate the security droid with small stun wand". The blanket narration must be related to the challenge but not directly. A more interesting outcome here could be "Yes, I dodge the droid's fire and slip through a wall of caplet trays, quickly pocketing the one labeled XX-23 that I was looking for." This is more interesting as it leaves the droid in narrative play, but gets the character what the player was looking for.
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- If the contest has 0 Leverage, the player may pay 1 level of Luck to create 1 Leverage for the contest. The Director and player create a lucky circumstance that provides that for the contest.
