BANY - II. Competence and Difficulty

A. Advantage/Disadvantage

Rolling a d6 for everything might get dull and doesn’t leave room for changes in competence or difficulty. It also doesn’t allow for differences between characters. The easiest way to handle this is Advantage and Disadvantage in the style of D&D.

a)  Advantage

Roll two dice and apply the higher die as the result. This increases the chance of higher rolls while preserving the chance of lower rolls. The average roll for a d6 is 3.5, with advantage it is 4.75.

2. Disadvantage

This is just the opposite of Advantage, roll two d6 and keep the lower roll. You can still roll a Yes/And but are more likely to get one of the No results. The average roll with disadvantage is 2.53.

3. Negation

Advantages and disadvantages cancel each other one for one.

4. Don’t Double

Doubling advantage or disadvantage (rolling three dice) makes the result so predictable as to make the roll pointless.

5. Application

a) Relative Ability

 – Use this rule, in either direction, to reflect differences in skill or similar traits. A master swordsman should have advantage against a novice. A street level superhero would have disadvantage in a brawl with a planetary level villain.

b) Situation

 – A chef might have disadvantage trying to cook a masterpiece meal with stale ingredients. It’s still possible to make something amazing, though it’s less likely. The hacker with inside information on the target would have advantage on cracking the target’s password. 

c) Metamechanic

 – By metamechanic, I mean player intervention. Willpower in World of Darkness games allow players to reroll some of their dice to prevent failing a check or to get a higher level of success. Advantage is an option for this.

d) Powers/Magic

 – The sorceress invests mana into her scrying, to boost the likelihood of success. An enchanter’s wards apply disadvantage to spells cast against him.

B. +/- 1

6. Plus One

You can apply flat +1 to a roll to represent the same way you might use advantage. The difference will be that a No/And result becomes impossible, and rolling a seven is. You can interpret a seven as being a Yes/And, or as even better. The average roll with +1 is 4.5, shifting from No/And to Yes/But.  

7. Minus One

This is just opposite of +1. Dramatic failure becomes much more likely and solid success impossible. As with Dis/Advantage, doubling it makes rolling pointless. 

C. Reroll

It’s a simple matter to have a rule, or conditions, that call for rerolling a die. For instance, a knight who is so good with a two-handed sword that he gets to reroll if the first roll is a 1. Or, in the area of effect of a curse, any roll of a 6 must reroll. This rule could be good for metamechanics or supernatural effects.