Degrees of Success

If you want a more-detailed result, there are two techniques for getting more information from the Hierarchy. The first, and most important, way is to consider the particular Forces involved in greater detail. While you simply assigned Forces as Favored, Opposed, or Neutral in the basic die-rolling system, here we will consider their specific natures. Which Forces come up where, particularly of the Favored and Opposed Forces, will tell you the nature of the success. A success with Passion (Favored) Dominant and Static (Favored) Weak is very different from one with Static (Favored) Dominant and Passion (Favored) Weak, even though both give the same nominal result. Consider the Descriptors of the characters involved, and take advantage of that distinction to describe both the nature and degree of the success or failure. If the results make sense, their relative magnitude will take care of itself.

Directly comparing successes and making sure that one success is appropriately "greater" than another is a secondary and rather minor consideration. But if you wish to be more consistent in your rulings, or you just wish finer gradations than simply analyzing the Forces can give you, the Hierarchy (with or without Circumstance dice) can be used to give degrees of success. In general, more Favored Forces in the Dominant and Major positions, more Opposed Forces in the Weak position, and stronger results from Benefit dice mean a better result, while more Opposed Forces in the Dominant and Major positions, more Favored Forces in the Weak position, and stronger results from Hindrance dice mean a worse result. Also, the Dominant position is slightly stronger than the Weak, which is in turn stronger than the Major. A suggested ordering of results is given in the chart on this page, but it is by no means definitive, nor does it cover every possible situation. The chart works from the greatest success at the upper left to the greatest failure at the lower right. Failures are white-on-black and Successes are black-on-white.

Circumstances and Success

The Circumstance dice can also be used to give a more-detailed description of the results. When a Circumstance die ties a Planet, treat it as having the same position as the Planet for purposes of the nature of the success. This is the only way you can have more than one die effectively in the Dominant or Weak positions. If it falls between steps of the Hierarchy, consider it just before the Planet with the next-lowest score. So if it is between the Dominant and Major positions, treat it as slightly more important than the Major Planet, and so on. If it falls above the Dominant position (or above the Major, if there is no Dominant) it has a very strong influence, stronger than any of the Planets. In any case, remember that a Minor Circumstance die can not determine results, only color them. Even if it is the lowest die in the roll, it well not cause success or failure, only determine the why of it. A Major Circumstance die, however, can determine success or failure. In that case, consider it positionally just as above, but allow it to tell you how and why the character succeeded or failed. For Major Circumstance dice, you can also count them in as extra Favored or Opposed Forces when looking at the degree-of-success chart.

Another optional technique is to allow multiple Hindrance dice when facing a small number of significant opponents. A separate Hindrance die can be assigned for each opponent, and you can then look at where they fall to individually determine how the opponents did, thus giving a more-detailed result. If a Main character is facing a couple of Omegas for whom you don't have Planet scores yet, you could just treat each as a Major Hindrance die, and if their particular Hindrance die is the one that causes the character to fail, or do less well, they are the cause of it, and have succeeded in inverse measure.

Another important technique, even if you don't use explicit "degrees of success", is to use the character's Descriptors, along with any Circumstance Dice, to describe the details of the results. For both Major and Minor Circumstance Dice, take them into consideration when deciding the specifics of the result, even if they weren't the deciding factor. A success due to a Favored Force in the Dominant position should be different from one due to a Favored Force in the Dominant Position with a Minor Benefit die just beneath it.

While Descriptors specifically should not be considered when setting the Favored and Opposed Forces for the task, nor when determining Circumstance Dice, they are useful in interpreting and explaining the results of the Hierarchy. Just as Circumstance Dice can help explain why the character succeeded or failed, her Descriptors can provide the inspiration for describing the results. You can also, at your discretion, consider them in terms of magnitude -- it is likely that the The Cardinal would do a more effective job of holding a door against a battering ram than The Spook would, so you can decide as much even if both had the same result on the Hierarchy.

Remember, these Descriptors aren't part of Rolling the Planets, just interpreting the result. Therefore, they shouldn't change the quality of the success (i.e., which Forces were involved), just its specific expression in the game world. You already know whether or not the character succeeded (and to what degree, if you're using Degree of Success), you're just looking for an appropriate game-world explanation to match those results.