If you are unable to decide the outcome of something which the Main characters are involved in by considering Descriptors alone, or a conflict between characters is too close to call, you may resort to "rolling the Planets." This takes into account the Forces of the universe in order to resolve an action that, on the merits of those involved, alone, is unclear. Rolling the Planets may also be used to give the player a chance when her character doesn't have any relevant Descriptors, but the action is not completely impossible.
To roll your Planets, roll the appropriate die for each of your Planets (except the W Planet), and order them according to the results. It is probably easiest to have a different color die for each Planet, even if they are of different types. Line them up on the table with the lowest-resulting die at the top, and the highest at the bottom. The size of the die (number of sides) doesn't matter. The Force associated with the 1st (lowest) die is the Dominant Force. The highest result indicates the last position, and that Force is the Weak Force. The 2nd-lowest die is the Major Force, and whatever is left is the Minor Force. Position is the only thing that matters, not value. Results of 4,5,6,7 and 1,6,10,20 are identical (assuming those results correspond to the same Forces in the same order). In the case of ties, the extreme positions are lost first; there may only be one Force, and thus die, in the Dominant or Weak positions. If you are for some reason rolling more than four dice27, the excess Forces will end up being of Minor influence, so you might have more than one die in the Minor position even though they don't tie. The following examples28 of reading the Hierarchy should make it perfectly clear.
In case 1, each of the dice has come up with a different value, so the results are straightforward: Dynamic is Dominant, Passion is Major, Static is Minor, and Known is Weak.
In case 2, the two lowest dice have tied. Since extreme results are the first ones lost, it is read as Known and Lost Major, Passion Minor, and Static Weak.
Case 3 is essentially the inverse of case 2. Here, the highest two dice have tied, so no Force is Weak. It is read as Passion Dominant, Known Major, and Static and Dynamic are Minor.
In case 4 we have a pair of ties. Since neither the lowest nor the highest rolls are unique, there are no Dominant or Weak Forces. This would be Dynamic and Passion Major, and Known and Lost Minor.
Case 5 shows a three-way tie with one low die. Lost is Dominant, and Static, Dynamic, and Passion all are Major.
In case 6 we see an internal tie. In this case, both the lowest and highest rolls are unique, so Dominant and Weak Forces are present. Since Major is favored over Minor, the tied dice are both read as Major. This would be read as Dynamic Dominant, Static and Known Major, and Lost Minor.
Finally, we have the least-extreme case in case 7. All four dice have come up with the same result. There are no unique rolls, so there can be no Dominant or Weak Forces, and since Major is favored over Minor, Static, Known, Lost, and Passion are all Major.
Some characters will have fewer than 4 Planets to roll, due to having more than one Wed Planet. In those cases, the dice must be read slightly differently. The same basic principles apply, remembering that Minor is the least-important position to consider. Cases 8-11 illustrate the character with 2 Wed Planets, while cases 12 and 13 are for someone with 3 Wed Planets.
In the basic case (case 8), the character with only three Planets to roll produces a regular result, but without a Minor Force. So this would be read as Passion Dominant, Static Major, and Known Weak.
In the case of a tie, it will be either two Major and a Weak, or a Dominant and two Major. Case 9 is Dynamic and Lost Major, and Passion Weak.
Case 10 shows the other possible tie. This is Static Dominant, and Dynamic and Lost Major.
Like a 4-way tie for a regular character, a 3-way tie means all Forces are Major. So in case 11, Lost, Known, and Static are all Major.
There are only two possible results for the character with 3 Wed Planets. Either the dice tie, or they don't. Case 12 shows Passion Dominant and The Lost Weak, while case 13 shows Static and Known both Major.
There are three complications to the die rolls. The first is the Circumstance die. Circumstance dice normally sit outside the Hierarchy. While they do not disturb the Hierarchy, it is important to know how they relate to it. Set up the Hierarchy normally, and then put the Circumstance die alongside it, according to its result. Cases 14 through 17 show 4 possible results, depending on the result on a Circumstance die. They range from stronger than the Dominant to weaker than the Weak.
If a Circumstance die falls above the Dominant position (or above the Major, if there is no Dominant), as in case 14, it has a very strong influence, stronger than any of the Planets. A Major Circumstance die would rule the situation and, while a Minor Circumstance die would not change the degree of the outcome, it would strongly color its nature.
Cases 15 and 16 show some of the possibilities of the more-common results of a Circumstance die falling somewhere within the hierarchy, sometimes tying one of the Planet dice. When it ties a Planet, treat it as having the same position as the Planet -- Major in case 16. 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, as in case 15, treat it as slightly more important than the Major Planet. If it is between the Minor and Weak, it is slightly more important than the Weak Planet, and if it is between the Major and Minor positions it is essentially the same as the Minor position -- which is to say almost no impact.
If a Circumstance die falls below the Weak position (or below the Minor, if there is no Weak), it has no impact29. 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 before the Planet in the position it is "above".
The Cardinal is trying to move a boulder to block a cave entrance, and the SG has ruled that it is too heavy for him to move easily, so he has to fall back on the Planets. Additionally, he is being swarmed with biting spiders, which is why he wants to block the cave in the first place. The SG rules this is a d6 Minor Hindrance die -- it is very likely to have an impact, but not likely to prevent him from succeeding. The Favored Forces are Passion and Dynamic, and the Opposed Force is Static. The Cardinal's player rolls her dice, and comes up with Known: 5, Dynamic: 2, Static: 4, Lost: 12, and Minor Hindrance: 3. This would be read as Dynamic Dominant, Static Major, Known Minor, and Lost Weak, Hindrance better-than-Major, which is a success. For purposes of how much influence it has, the Hindrance die is considered to be slightly more influential than the Major Force. Had the Hindrance die been Major, it still would not have caused a failure, because it shows up after the Dominant and Weak positions (though before the Major), and success is determined in this case at the Dominant position (which is Favored), so the rest would never have been checked.
The second complication to the basic roll is the Omega die. You've undoubtedly noticed that, with the simple roll the character's Wed Planet has essentially no impact on the results. At most, a Favored or Opposed Force is removed from the equation, altering the odds from the outset, but not having any further impact. The Omega die is a way to give the Force that an Omega's powers stem from a bit more impact in random situations. Any time the SG calls for a roll and does not declare the character's Wed Planet as one of the Favored or Opposed Forces, you may apply an Omega die to the roll. To do so, before you actually roll your Planets (or any Circumstance dice), decide on a value for the Omega die, and thus the Force it represents. It may not be less than 1 nor more than the largest value that one of your other Planets can obtain. The best way to do this is to place a die with the appropriate face up. Then roll the rest of the dice, and arrange all 5 into a standard Hierarchy. The usual rules apply: Dominant and Weak must be unique, any extra dice end up in the Minor position. Then read the results as usual. It is good form, but not required, to explain within the context of the world what this die represents.
The Cardinal (Mercury d8, Venus W, Mars d6, Jupiter d6, Saturn d20) has found what he believes to be the resting place of the One True Grail. He suspects that the passage will have tests, both mental and physical, to prove one's worth (the Grail itself is a sufficient spiritual test), so his player declares that he is being very cautious in his explorations. The SG has decided that there is a trap, but that the Cardinal's learning and physique are not sufficient to necessarily avoid it, though the odds are in his favor. So she calls for a roll of the Planets, declaring both Lost and Known Favored -- either sort of knowledge might provide the clue he needs to avert disaster -- and Static Opposed -- his real obstacles are refusing to be open to the new possibilities and being unaware of his surroundings, and being too laid-back physically, not reacting quickly enough. Since The Cardinal has a very low Saturn, and his Jupiter is very high, his player decides to use the Omega die (Passion) to try and help the odds. She decides that the odds of either Mercury or Mars beating out, or at least tying, Jupiter are pretty good, so Static probably won't end up Dominant, but she doesn't like the odds with her low Saturn. So she assigns her Omega die a 20, explaining that The Cardinal is fervent about his faith, and thus paying especially close attention. Since the Weak position must be unique, she's guaranteed that Lost won't come up Weak -- it will either tie, and both Lost and Passion will be Minor, or it will be less than 20, and Minor.
She rolls the dice, and comes up with Known: 1, Dynamic: 3, Static: 5, Lost: 9. Combining that with her Passion: 20 (the Omega die), she reads the Hierarchy as follows: Known Dominant, Dynamic Major, Static & Lost Minor, and Passion Weak, as in Example 18. With a Favored Force in the Dominant position, it is a success.
She could have applied the inverse logic, assigning the Omega die a 1 to prevent Static from being Dominant, and then the Dominant position would either be empty, or occupied by Passion, which doesn't matter to this roll -- but not Static, in any case. But since you check the Weak position before the Major, and The Cardinal's Saturn is so much lower than all his other dice, it is very likely that it would have ended up in the Weak position, leading to failure. She decided it's better to gamble on the small dice, hoping that at least one of the other two (one of which is Favored) keeps Static out of the Dominant position, than to gamble on Static not being Weak on its own. Had the roll been the same as above, going this route would have resulted in Passion & Known Major, Dynamic & Static Minor, and Lost Weak -- a failure (see Example 19).
The third complication is the combined roll. When two Omegas are both working on the same task, their Planets interact. Both are governed equally strongly by a Force, except where they are Wed. To represent this in game terms, the dice of their Planets are combined, so that you only roll one die for each Force, which then applies to both characters. Both characters' Hierarchies are then read from this set of dice, with each character ignoring any Wed Planets. There are two instances of this, depending on whether the Omegas are opposed or coordinating. In both cases, for each Force compare the Planet scores of the two characters, and select only one of them. If the characters are working against one another, results get less predictable, so roll the larger die of the two. This is referred to as an opposed roll.
The Cardinal (Mercury d8, Venus Omega, Mars d6, Jupiter d6, Saturn d20) and Renaissance Man (Mercury d4, Venus d8, Mars d4, Jupiter W, Saturn d10) are arm wrestling. You would roll d8 for Known, d8 for Passion, d6 for Dynamic, d6 for Static, and d20 for Lost. The results are Known: 1, Passion: 3, Dynamic: 3, Static: 6, Lost: 10, and are laid out as in Example 20. The Cardinal would have a result of Known Dominant, Dynamic Major, Static Minor, and Lost Weak, while Renaissance Man's result would be Known Dominant, Dynamic and Passion tied for Major, and Lost Weak.
A combined roll is also used for characters acting in concert, this time referred to as a coordinating roll. The same procedure is followed, but when characters work together, results become more predictable, so the players may select which Planet die to use for each Force. If either character has a Planet Wed, that die may be omitted. The Storyguide should tell the players which Forces are Favored and Opposed before they select their dice. Then order all of the dice into a single Hierarchy30 to determine the results of the action.
So if The Cardinal and Renaissance Man, as above, were working together to lift a heavy stone, the SG might decide that Dynamic and Passion were Favored, while Static was Opposed. The players might then choose to roll d8 Known, d8 Passion, d4 Dynamic, and d20 Lost. They chose large dice for the Forces that didn't matter, and small dice for those that were Favored. If the results were Known: 4, Passion: 2, Dynamic: 2, and Lost: 9, the result would be Dynamic and Passion Major, Known Minor, and Lost Weak, as in Example 21.
They chose not to roll a Static Planet at all, because the only choice was small enough that it probably would have landed high in the Hierarchy. If they'd had a large Jupiter to roll (d12 or greater), they probably would have, because an Opposed Force in the Weak position would help them. If they'd been stuck with a small Static die, they probably would have used the smaller dice for Known and Lost, risking bumping Passion, in order to try and keep Static out of the upper positions.
If the characters are not in direct opposition nor working directly together, but merely engaged in actions that will impact one another, you may choose to use a simple roll for each of them, rather than a combined roll. Generally, direct conflict, where one can succeed only in direct proportion to the other losing (wrestling), is best handled with a combined roll, while indirect conflict, where both can do well (footrace) is best handled by simple rolls for all participants.
In any case, all three of these complications (Circumstance dice, Omega die, combined rolls) are certainly optional, and are not at all necessary to the game. Like Degree of Success31 , they are intended to add a bit more flexibility to Rolling the Planets, but since the entire dice mechanic is intended to be just a fall-back, an aid for when the outcome can't otherwise be determined, you may feel that that extra detail is wasted, or not worth the trouble.
Now that you know how to read the Hierarchy, using the Planets to resolve actions just involves understanding the Forces. The basic die-rolling procedure is as follows:
1 The SG sets the Difficulty for the action, and picks the Favored and Opposed Forces.
1a If the player's Wed Planet is not one of the Favored or Opposed Forces, she may decide to assign it a value, before the roll.
2 The SG decides whether or not a Benefit or Hindrance (or both) applies, and if so, assigns the die or dice.
3 The player rolls her character's Planets, and orders the dice according to the results, from lowest to highest.
3a The player also rolls any Circumstance dice, and compares them to the Hierarchy of the Planets.
4 The SG determines whether or not the action is successful, based on the Hierarchy of the Planets.
Taking each of the steps in turn, we'll begin with an in-depth look at step 1, picking the Forces. There are two aspects to picking the Forces: how many, and which ones. Generally, we recommend that you start by assigning a Difficulty to the task, and then picking a number of Forces to match that Difficulty. You may, however, just choose the Favored and Opposed Forces, and allow the Difficulty to fall where it may, thus providing the Difficulty "naturally". In general, we discourage this method, as almost any Force can be described as governing almost any action, so it will tend to produce the Difficulty you want it to -- thus leading back to the first method.
The basic difficulty for a task that requires a roll is Moderate. If you are considering using the Automatic or Impossible Difficulty levels, reconsider. In many situations, they are identical to the Simple and Hard Difficulties32. If what you want is a particularly easy or difficult task, assign a less-extreme Difficulty, and apply a fairly small Circumstance Die. If the action really should be automatic or impossible, declare it such, and don't roll. About the only time when those Difficulties are appropriate is in a case of opposed action, when the action would normally be simplistic or futile, but you want some chance for the opponent to succeed or fail, respectively.
Once you have a Difficulty in mind, the first question is which Forces are Favored for an action. These are the Forces that are in alignment with the action and likely to come into play for a successful outcome. The Opposed Forces are those which are most likely to come into play if the action fails. All actions should have at least one neutral Force, a Force which is neither Opposed nor Favored, and thus is given no consideration when interpreting the results. Remember that these Forces are picked with reference to the task being accomplished, and with no regard for the character accomplishing them.
Once the SG has decided, she should tell the player what Forces are Favored and Opposed. At this point, it is the player's responsibility to let the SG know if she has overlooked any mitigating circumstances that would alter the relevant Forces. The player may argue for different Forces, but the SG has final say. Generally, the only reason the SG should change the Forces picked is if she has forgotten a relevant Descriptor of the character, or the character changes strategies (presumably to play to her strengths). Ideally, the player will have already taken her character's strengths into account when choosing a course of action, and so the SG's choice of Forces will be well-tuned. Whether or not the SG accepts any of the player's suggestions, the Favored and Opposed Forces should be settled upon before the roll is made. It is too late once the dice have been rolled.
If you are using the Omega die rule, now is a good time for a player to declare that she's using an Omega die (only if that Force is neither Opposed nor Favored, of course). She can either assign its value immediately, or wait and see what Circumstance dice (if any) are going to be applied. Either way, the Omega die must have a value assigned to it before any of the other dice are rolled.
The other element that should be decided upon before the roll is the application of any Circumstance (Benefit or Hindrance) dice. Circumstance dice are used for two different purposes. A Minor Circumstance die is applied for circumstances that affect the nature of the outcome, but won't actually help or prevent it, such as wounds, special tools, distractions, and extreme cleverness. When a result is read that includes a Minor Modifier die, the outcome is determined normally from the Planets, but the placement of the Circumstance die is used to help explain the outcome. Remember that Diceless characters can't roll for themselves, so allies and opponents are often translated into a Benefit or Hindrance die, respectively, for the Main characters.
A Major Circumstance die is used for those cases where the actual outcome could be affected. Again, the Planets are rolled normally, and the Circumstance die is placed with regards to the Hierarchy. But if a Major Circumstance die is stronger than (has a smaller value than) all of the Planets, it instead rules, causing failure or success, respectively. At the SG's discretion, it may also rule the situation with other placements, depending on the rest of the Hierarchy. Major Circumstance dice should be used for particularly amazing stunts, very significant Diceless opposing or allied forces, or other major impacts on the possible outcomes.
In any case, the size and type of Circumstance die should be left up to the SG, with player input, of course. Most Circumstance dice should be Minor, and you should mostly stick to the d20 to d4 range. Consider carefully before assigning a Major Circumstance die, because you are lessening the player's impact on the story by putting a factor outside her control into the Hierarchy. A character may have both a Hindrance and a Benefit die at the same time, but only 1 of each (whether each is Minor or Major doesn't matter).
Once you have the Forces and Circumstances determined, roll the dice. There are two types of rolls, a basic roll and a combined roll. A combined roll is only used when two characters with dice (i.e., Planet scores) are involved in the same action, either in concert or opposition. A basic roll is used in all other circumstances, even when the character is in conflict with another (Diceless) character.
For a basic roll, roll all of the character's Planets, and order the dice (and thus the Forces they represent) according to their results, from lowest to highest -- die type doesn't matter for this ordering. To expedite this, it is a good idea to have a different color for each Planet die, even if they are of different types. Consult the die-rolling examples if you're not sure how to deal with ties and other complications. If you have any Circumstance dice, you can either roll them along with the other dice (provided they are of different colors, so you can keep them separated), or afterwards. Alternately, you could roll Major Circumstance dice along with the Planets, since they are necessary for determining success, and roll Minor Circumstance dice separately, since they only flavor the result.
For a combined roll, you need to figure out which dice to roll. If the characters are working against each other, it's an opposed roll, and you simply select the larger die for each Planet (or the only die where one of them is Wed). You should end up with a die for each Planet that either character has, and that die should be the larger of the two if both characters have it. Roll the dice together and order them, pulling any Wed results to the side, away from that character. Then determine the Hierarchy for each character, using only dice that are not Wed for that character. If the characters are working together, it's a coordinating roll, and the players may choose which die to roll for each Planet -- including choosing not to roll a die for any Planet that is Wed. Roll the chosen dice, and make a single Hierarchy out of them.
The final step is to determine the success or failure. This is done by checking the Hierarchy in a particular order. First the Dominant die is checked. If it is one of the Favored Forces, the action succeeds, and if it is one of the Opposed Forces, the action fails. If it is neither, or there is no Dominant die, proceed to the Weak. If that die is an Opposed Force the action succeeds, and if it is a Favored Force the action fails. If it, too, is neutral or non-existent, look to the Major die. Once again, a Favored Force means success, while an Opposed Force means failure. If, after checking the Major position, there still is not a result, the action is considered to have been unproductive; there has been no change in the situation. In most cases, this means that nothing happened (the arm wrestlers are at a standoff, with neither having made any progress), but in some situations doing nothing is tantamount to a bare success (if you're trying to resist someone pulling you down, just not going anywhere is almost a success). If an Opposed and Favored Force are tied in a position, treat that position as neutral and move on. If there are more Opposed than Favored Forces tied in one position, treat the position as Opposed, and vice versa.
Remember that a Major Circumstance die will determine success if it is strong enough.What exactly constitutes "strong enough" is up to the SG. If it is lower than all of the Planets, it certainly rules, but the rest of the time it is up to the SG to interpret its relative importance from its position, especially with regards to the Opposed and Favored Forces.
27 No character has 5 Planets -- those without an Wed Planet don't have dice at all -- so ordering 5 or more dice is fairly uncommon.
28 Throughout this work, Known is a white octagon, Passion is a blue pentagon, Dynamic is a red diamond, Static is a green heptagon, and Lost is a black hexagon. Circumstance dice are a brown triangle. Omega dice are a yellow square.
29 less, even, than the Minor position
30 remember that extra dice end up in the Minor position
31 see next chapter
32 due to Wed Planets altering the odds for a particular character
Copyright © Anno Domini 2001 by woodelf & Epidiah Ravachol.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the October Open Game License, Version 1.0 or any later version published by the RPG Library; with the Invariant Sections being "Appendix IV: Designers' Notes" and "Colophon", with the Front-Cover Texts being "Four Colors al Fresco: A Roleplaying Game of Pulp-Style Superheroes in an Alternate Renaissance", and with no Back-Cover Texts.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "Appendix V: October Open Game License".
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