Rolling dice in Solum

Dice are used in most roleplaying games to resolve situations where the outcome is not self evident. I the case of Solum the system is based around Die type, and difficulties. 

Die types range from D4 (four sided dice) to D12 (twelve sided dice) but is normally D6, the more sides your die type have the bigger chance of success you have. 

Difficulties range from 2 (Trivial) to 12 (Divine), but is normally 4. Read on to find out more!

Die type

The die type determines a character’s natural ability in an area. The absolutely most common example is ability scores. The ability die type determines what die type you roll with whenever you try to do something that is covered by that ability.

Die types range from D4 (worst) to D12 (best).

The most basic roll would be just one die (of the appropriate type) against a difficulty (for instance 4).

Roll equal to or higher than the difficulty to succeed.

The die type determines your chance of succeeding:

Die type	Chance
D4	1 in 4 (25%)
D6	3 in 6 (50%)
D8	5 in 8 (62.5%)
D10	7 in 10 (70%)
D12	9 in 12 (75%)

Solum dice explode

In Solum the above roll would never actually occur. This is because all skill rolls are exploding:

Whenever you roll the maximum value on a die (4 on a D4 for instance), you don’t count the roll, instead you reroll it as two new dice of the same type (2 D4s for instance), and add the result together. If any of the rerolls also turn out with the maximum value, they are also rerolled as two new dice.

The final result of a roll is the sum of all the dice you rolled in the process that does not show the highest possible value.

The chance of succeeding is modified slightly:

Die type	Chance
D4	1 in 4+ (20%)
D6	3 in 6+ (49%)
D8	5 in 8+ (62%)
D10	7 in 10+ (70%)
D12	9 in 12+ (75%)

As can be seen the biggest change is in D4, this is because while you can reach infinitely high numbers with an exploding roll (and in that way succeed no matter how high the difficulty is), a max result of four is no longer a guaranteed success (you can roll 4, and reroll that as a 1 and a 2 for instance, giving you the final sum of 3).

Modifying die type

The die type is normally given by the ability used for a roll, but sometimes it is modified on the fly by various things. The notation is -1DT (one die type lower than normal, so from D6 to D4 for example) or +1DT (one die type higher than normal). The die type can never be lower than D4 or higher than D12.

This type of modification is normally used when something is made weaker or stronger due to something external. Examples include: Armour makes weapons used against you weaker, some poisons makes you weaker, a spell can make you more agile, a blessing can make a weapon stronger.

Skill

Being skilled gives you more than one chance to succeed with a roll. Instead of rolling once, you roll twice (or thrice, or even four times). If at least one of your rolls succeed, the roll is a success.

Being skilled (having two chances) increases your chance to success greatly:

Die type	Chance
D4	36% (+16%)
D6	74% (+25%)
D8	86% (+24%)
D10	91% (+21%)
D12	97% (+22%)

Being specialised (having three chances) even more so:

Die type	Chance
D4	49% (+13%)
D6	86% (+12%)
D8	95% (+9%)
D10	97% (+6%)
D12	98% (+1%)

And the maximum number of dice (4):

Die type	Chance
D4	59% (+10%)
D6	93% (+7%)
D8	98% (+3%)
D10	99% (2%)
D12	100% (+2%)

Note that as you get more skilled (ie more chances) your talent (ie die type) becomes more important, and as you get more talented your skill becomes more important.

Quality

The quality of your success is the number of successes you got from your chances. This means that if you only roll with one die (an unskilled roll) you can only get the basic quality.

The higher the quality the better your success is, but exactly what that means varies from situation to situation. In combat, your quality determines how many dice of damage you do.

The qualities have names:

1    Success       

2    Extraordinary       

3    Heroic

4    Legendary

Difficulty

Difficulty is the target number you have to reach to succeed. It is normally four (4). If you increase the difficulty it gets harder to succeed, and if you decrease it it gets easier.

Compare a difficulty of 3 (Easy) to a difficulty of 5 (Hard) for a skilled roll with D6:

Easy: 89%

Normal: 74%

Hard: 52%

Difficulties range from Trivial (2) to Divine (12). Almost all rolls should be Easy (3), Normal (4) or Hard (5) however.

Modification

Simple modifications to rolls is a +1 or -1 to a roll. This sort of modification is only used by magical items (a Dagger +1 for instance adds one to the final damage value) to modify damage rolls. Modifications can range between -4 and +4.

Opposing versus fixed difficulty rolls

Opposing rolls are rolls made against another player’s or monster’s roll rather than against a fixed difficulty. All of the above (except difficulty) works exactly as it does for rolls against fixed difficulty.

Instead of rolling against a fixed value the two sides both roll, and whoever gets the highest value succeeds.

The winner determines quality in the normal way, but of course uses the losers highest result to measure it.