Pendragon Campaign - Success Rolls and Checks
Success Ranges
In GURPS a roll is 3d and can have four results: crit, success, failure, fumble. The ranges for each depend on the effective Attribute/Skill/Trait/Passion level.
Success Roll Result Ranges Table
Skill Level Crit Success Failure Fumble
4 or less 3 or 4 - 5 to (Level + 9) (Level + 10) or more
5 3 or 4 5 6 to 14 15 or more
6 3 or 4 5 or 6 7 to 15 16 or more
7 to 14 3 or 4 5 to Level Level + 1 to 16 17 or 18
15 3 to 5 6 to 15 16 17 or 18
16 or more 3 to 6 7 to 16 17 18
Success Rolls
Attributes and Skills
Attribute or Skill rolls can be initiated by players or the GM. All rolls have something unfavorable happen if they fail, i.e. there is no "nothing happens if you fail this roll". There are no group or everyone rolls, in this case one player rolls and the result stands for the entire group.
Traits
Traits are activated by a player whenever they want to explain the motive for an action, or sometimes can be used like an Attribute or Skill roll (e.g. Energetic to stay awake or Lust to determine performance in bed). Only roll if there are definite positive and negative effects on success or failure.
Passions
Passions combined with Chips are used to change success levels (see Chips below). Passions can also be used much like Trait rolls and this does not cost Chips.
Success Roll Results Table
Result Effects Check
Crit Excellent Result X on Attribute or Skill
Success Good Result / on Attribute or Skill
Failure Complication / on Attribute or Skill
Fumble Disastrous Result ✳︎ (asterisk) on Attribute or Skill
Excellent Result/Disastrous Result: Not only did you succeed or fail but you did it in such a shocking or unusual way that it is remembered strongly. For example, not only did you defeat the Black Knight you dismembered him. Or, not only did you lose the singing contest but you lost your voice for a week. This is to justify getting extra Glory.
Good Result: Action succeeded to advance player's (or group's) goal.
Complication: This is something that makes the adventure more complicated and possibly longer but not necessarily harder. For example, you fail a folk lore so the peasants don't tell you what's going on and the local priest denounces you as ineffective. A complication should be related to the action you were trying to accomplish. At GM's option the action might still be a success, though in this case the complication is worse.
Checks
Checks are used to determine Glory gained at the end of an adventure. In general attempting to do something (whether Success or Failure) is a / (slash), a Crit is an X and a Fumble is an ✳︎ (asterisk or +X overladed). Multiple / are still the same as one /. An X overwrites a / and an ✳︎ overwrites everything.
At the end of an adventure (or the year) an ✳︎ reduces the associated Attribute, Skill, Trait or Passion by one point.
Passive Rolls
Many Awareness and Knowledge rolls are of the "did you see it?" or "do you know it?" variety where failure means PC does not get any more information but otherwise there is no Complication. For these cases GM assigns a difficulty to skill check and assumes a roll of 10. Passive Rolls do not get checks.
Modifier Skill Level To Succeed Difficulty
+0 10 Base roll
-2 12 Some difficulty
-5 15 Only experts should succeed
-10 20 Results in KAP that require a critical success
Reaction Rolls
Reaction is treated as a Skill with base 10, modified by Reputation and Status. An influence skill roll can be made to provide a modifier of +5/+2/-2/-5 for Crit/Success/Failure/Fumble. Reaction rolls are rolled by the GM. Note that the Reaction Table has more results than other tables.
Reaction Table
Result Reaction Level Notes
Crit Excellent NPC acts in best interest if PC
Success by 5 or more Very Good NPC is quite helpful and friendly
Success by 2 to 4 Good NPC helps within reasonable, everyday limits
Success by 0 or 1 or Failure by 1 or 2 Neutral NPC is uninterested and ignores PC
Failure by 3 to 5 Bad NPC acts against PC if he can profit by doing so
Failure by 6 or more Very Bad NPC acts against PC if it's convenient to do so
Fumble Disastrous NPC acts in PC's worst interest
Chips
Changing Success Level
PCs can convert a previous roll into an appropriate Passion roll then use chips to change the success level.
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Step Process
1 After roll PC declares they are using an appropriate Passion to change success level.
2 Spend chips to change success level. Multiple increases can be applied.
3 Passion check based on final success level. PC also gets check for original roll.
Chip Costs Table
Success Level Change Chips Margin of Success/Failure
Fumble to Failure, or Failure to Fumble 2 MoF = Maximum of 18-Skill or 1
Failure to Success, or Success to Failure 1 MoS = Maximum of Skill-10 or 1
MoF = Maximum of 10-Skill or 1
Success to Critical, or Critical to Success 2 MoS = Maximum of Skill-3 or 1