Dice Rules

Dice Pool

You may have come from some far-off star with grand notions of what it means to strike out on your own. You may have some skill at bartering, some idea of business you plan to use to make your fortune. You may even have some experience clearing out your local variety of horror with a CY-series rifle. What’s that going to do for you when you’re 3-miles deep in the bowels of this leviathan, beads of sweat mixing with the bio-grease smeared across your face, a swarm of drones not 30 feet from you, and nowhere to run except into the rushing drain artery beside you.

When the time comes to sink or swim, what’re you going to do?

The Dice pool

Whalefall uses a dice pool system to determine the success or failure, and the level of success or failure, of significant actions, checks, and abilities.

The number of dice available in a player’s dice pool is determined by their level of specialization in the specific skill related to the action, check, or ability. The simple logic is - the more specialized a character is, the better their chances of succeeding at tasks relating to their specialization.

The primary size of die used in Whalefall is a ten-sided die (D10). D10s serve as the baseline die in this system, though certain situations, conditions, or perks can change that.

Example: Player character Ilija has 4 levels of specialization in Athletics skill. For checks that use Athletics, like climbing a wall or lifting debris, Iliya’s dice pool will be 4 D10s.

Determining Success

Success is determined by rolling over a Target Number (TN) that the Game Master (GM) sets based on the difficulty of the task at hand. A player must roll their entire dice pool for every check.

A TN is composed of two numbers.

The first number refers to the number a player must meet or surpass on a die to succeed. The second number is the minimum amount of dice that must succeed in order to pass the check. If a player’s pool does not contain enough dice to meet the required number in the check, they automatically fail.

Example TN: (5,2) Player must roll at least a 5 on 2 dice in this check.

Example: Player character Gomez wants to persuade a corporate security guard to allow her access into a guarded area. The GM determines that this will require a Diplomacy check. This guard is a bit of a hard-ass, and so the GM sets the TN at (6,2). Gomez has 3 levels in Diplomacy, so her dice pool has 3 D10s. She rolls 3, 7, 9, and succeeds in persuading the guard.

Partial success and Partial failure

The GM has the ability to mitigate the more severe consequences of a failed check by allowing for a partial success or partial failure.

This can happen if a player rolls exceptionally high on one or two dice but fails to clear the overall check. If they prefer the glass half-full, the GM can rule that the player gets part of their goal, but not enough to succeed. Alternatively, they can hit the player with reduced consequences for failing.

Example: Player character Ryuji attempts to leap over a hole in the ground but fails to clear the TN (5,2) by rolling a 2, 4, 10. Instead of having them fail and fall into the pit, the GM rules a partial failure, declaring that Ryuji catches the edge of the opposing ledge and is now dangling.

Reminder

The dice pool rewards specialization. Having a vision for your character and focusing their development along specific paths can help them become masters of their chosen field.

At the same time, the dice pool system is meant to be adaptable and flexible to various situations. The GM should feel free to adjust the TN to best represent the challenges and opportunities in the game world.