Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.

Critical Success / Failure with modifiers

4 posts / 0 new
Last post
monjay monjay's picture
Critical Success / Failure with modifiers
Please forgive me if my question has been answered - I searched the forums and didn't come up with an answer, and perhaps I missed it in the book. Okay, I am making the assumption that a critical success or failure is dependent upon what is rolled on the dice, not by the result of a roll with modifiers applied; e.g. Monjay rolls a 56 and applies a +10 difficulty modifier, making the result a 66. This is not a critical fail. If I'm wrong, please do clarify! My queston, however, is about the circumstances in which a player rolls a critical success, and the modifiers make it a failure - does it become a critical failure? For example, Monjay rolls a 22 on his "post a relevant forum post," a critical success! However, once we apply the "+20 caffeine supply depleted" modifier, the result is a 42 and a failure. Does the critical nature turn it to a critical failure, or does it just ... ahem ... go away?
MysterFord MysterFord's picture
Re: Critical Success / Failure with modifiers
You are partly correct, and partly in error. You are correct that what is rolled on the dice determines whether or not a critical (success or failure) has occurred. Only rolling doubles triggers a critical. Where you err is that modifiers are not applied to the roll, but rather to the target number (usually a skill rating). So, if I have Protol 80, but I'm very unfamiliar with the culture (-20), my target number is 60. If I roll doubles that are less than 60 (00, 11, 22, 33, 44, or 55) I have a critical success. If I roll doubles that are more than 60 (66, 77, 88, 99) I have a critical failure.
monjay monjay's picture
Re: Critical Success / Failure with modifiers
Aha, thanks for that tidbit. What is rolled on the dice is static, but it's the target that changes. That clarifies the logic for me, thanks!
MysterFord MysterFord's picture
Re: Critical Success / Failure with modifiers
Glad I could be of assistance