Making a roll
Every check in Epochrypha uses the same procedure. Roll d100 and try to land at or under an attribute score.
Your score is your success chance. An attribute of 62 succeeds 62% of the time. There is nothing to look up and nothing to convert.
One throw answers three questions.
Did it work?
Section titled “Did it work?”At or under your score, you succeed. Over it, you fail.
By how much, and what else? — subtract once
Section titled “By how much, and what else? — subtract once”Subtract the smaller number from the larger. That difference is the only other thing you need, and you read both digits of it.
Score 65, roll 33. The difference is 32.
- The 3 is your magnitude — how emphatically it worked.
- The 2 is the valence — even, so the GM takes a Toll.
The first digit — magnitude
Section titled “The first digit — magnitude”Drop the last digit of the difference and what’s left is the magnitude.
Magnitude never tells you whether you succeeded — that’s already settled by the first question. It tells you how emphatically.
A magnitude of 0 means barely. You can pass by 0 and you can fail by 0, and both are worth playing as the narrow things they are: the blow that lands with nothing behind it, the lie that almost held.
The last digit — valence
Section titled “The last digit — valence”- Odd → you gain a point of Luck
- Even → the GM gains a point of Toll
The two digits are independent. You can succeed by a magnitude of five and still hand the GM a Toll, or miss badly and walk away with Luck. Success and complication are separate axes, and neither one predicts the other.
Doubles
Section titled “Doubles”A roll where both digits match — 11, 22, 33, and so on — is a spike.
- A double that succeeds is a Triumph. Take a point of Luck.
- A double that fails is a Despair. The GM takes a Toll.
A double sets its own valence, so ignore the difference’s last digit when one comes up.
00 reads as 100. It is always a failure and always a Despair, whatever your score.
The four outcomes
Section titled “The four outcomes”| Luck (odd) | Toll (even) | |
|---|---|---|
| Success | You get what you wanted, and something else goes your way | You get what you wanted, but it costs or complicates |
| Failure | You don’t get it, but something breaks your way | You don’t get it, and it gets worse |
Magnitude rides on top of any of these, 0 to 9.
Worked examples
Section titled “Worked examples”Melee 65, roll 33. Under 65, so the blow lands. The difference is 32 — magnitude 3, hard enough to drive through mail, and the 2 is even, so the GM takes a Toll. You put him down and something about it went wrong anyway.
Melee 62, roll 88. Over 62, so it misses. The difference is 26 — magnitude 2, a clear miss rather than a near thing, and the 6 is even, so the GM takes a Toll as well.
Charisma 62, roll 63. Over by one. The difference is 1 — magnitude 0, the narrowest possible miss, and the 1 is odd, so you take a point of Luck. They didn’t buy it, but you saw exactly where it slipped.
Melee 62, roll 60. Under 62, so it lands — but only just. The difference is 2 — magnitude 0, and even, so the GM takes a Toll. A pass by 0 is still a pass: the blow connects and does the least a blow can do.
Melee 20, roll 95. Over 20 by a mile. The difference is 75 — magnitude 7, about as badly as this can go, and the 5 is odd, so you take a point of Luck out of it. Even a disaster hands you something.
Will 40, roll 55. Over 40, so you fail. The difference is 15, which is odd and would normally pay you — but 55 is a double, so it’s a Despair. Ignore the last digit and hand the GM a Toll. Something gives way.
Skill buys safety, not just success
Section titled “Skill buys safety, not just success”Read the failure side of that procedure carefully, because it’s where an attribute score matters most.
A character with a score of 90 fails only on 91 or higher — and nine of those ten rolls are a magnitude 0 failure. Only a roll of 100 gets them to magnitude 1. Their failures are always near-misses.
A character with a score of 20 can fail by up to magnitude 8. When they go wrong, they go badly wrong.
It runs the same way at the top. A 90 can pass by as much as magnitude 8; a 20 can never pass by more than 1, however well they roll. A low score doesn’t just succeed rarely — it can’t succeed emphatically, which is why a novice can’t drive a blade through heavy armor even on their best day.
| Score | Succeeds | Best pass | Worst failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | 90% | 8 | 1 |
| 62 | 62% | 6 | 3 |
| 45 | 45% | 4 | 5 |
| 20 | 20% | 1 | 8 |
| 10 | 10% | 0 | 9 |
Raising an attribute doesn’t just make you succeed more often. It shortens the distance you can fall, and lengthens the one you can reach.
What magnitude feeds
Section titled “What magnitude feeds”Magnitude is the number the rest of the system reads. It decides:
- Who wins an opposed check, and by how much
- Whether damage pushes through armor and soak
- What your Favor can reach when you go looking for something
- Whatever your Epoch uses it for — most Epochs spend magnitude on the severity or duration of whatever their magic costs you