Target Numbers, Botches, and the Rule of One

Read the dice in this order

Count successes before you name the outcome. The Rule of One removes successes. It does not, by itself, make a botch.

Difficulty

The engine accepts an integer from 2 to 10. A die succeeds when its face is greater than or equal to that difficulty. The usual Storyteller default, and the default in this prose, is 6. Difficulty is not the number of successes required. Those are separate.

The Rule of One

Each 1 cancels one rolled success. Cancellation stops when the rolled successes are gone. Further 1s do not dig a hole under zero, and they do not turn a roll into a botch if any die had already succeeded.

Botch

A botch requires all three: no die met the difficulty, at least one die shows 1, and there is no automatic success. A roll of faces under the difficulty with no 1 is an ordinary failure. An empty pool is zero dice, not a synthetic die, and it is not a botch unless a 1 is actually there.

Willpower

Spending Willpower on a roll adds one automatic success. That success is not inserted into the dice. It counts toward the required total, and it blocks a botch because a botch requires zero automatic successes. It does not erase 1s, and it is not added to a roll that is itself a Willpower pool.

What the difficulty is asking

For pools of 3–5 fair, independent d10s, these bands are the minimum and maximum chances across those pool sizes, rounded to one decimal. Success means at least one net success after each 1 cancels one rolled success. Botch means no die met the target and at least one 1 appeared; cancelled successes instead mean ordinary failure. No specialty, Willpower, automatic successes, or difficulty modifiers are included. Requiring two or more successes changes these odds.

Run it in this order.

1. 01Set the difficulty as an integer. Use 6 unless the scene gives you a reason to move it. Keep the required number of successes separate.
2. 02Build the pool from the Attribute and the Ability. An untrained Skill adds 1 to the difficulty. An untrained Talent does not add a second copy of the Attribute.
3. 03Roll. Count a success for each die that meets the difficulty. Without a specialty, a 10 is one success.
4. 04Cancel one rolled success for each 1. If no die succeeded and a 1 is present, the roll is a botch unless an automatic success was added.
5. 05Add Willpower's automatic success after that, if it was spent. Compare the total with the successes required. Meet them and the roll succeeds. Fall short, without a botch, and it is a failure.

1. 01

   Cancelled successes are a failure, not a botch

   If any die met the difficulty, the 1s only remove those successes. When the last of them is cancelled, the result is a failure. The rolled-success count was not zero, so the botch test does not fire. A botch is reserved for a roll that never produced a success and still showed a 1.

2. 02

   A specialty 10 is not the same thing at the table and in the engine

   At the table, a specialty rerolls 10s when that specialty applies. The 10 is already one success. The new die is a separate chance. It is not an extra success awarded before it lands. The engine does not reroll. Its recorded rule is that a specialty 10 counts as two successes, and only when the selected trait is rated 4 or 5. A 10 with no specialty is one success either way.

3. 03

   Multiple actions do not change the dice by themselves

   At the table, each action after the first adds 1 to the difficulty, and the dice are split across the actions. The engine does not split a pool and does not add that penalty on its own. It resolves the difficulty it was given, then adds 1 when the roll is an untrained Skill. If the scene is a split action, the Storyteller has to put that higher difficulty in before the roll.

Common mistakes

• Calling a botch whenever a 1 appears, including when other dice already succeeded and the 1s only cancelled them.
• Treating the difficulty and the number of required successes as the same dial.
• Assuming the engine rerolls specialty 10s. It counts each of those 10s as two successes, and only on a trait rated 4 or 5.
• Stacking a second Willpower success onto the same roll, or onto a pool that is already Willpower.

A botch, and the point that blocks it

The dice do not change. The automatic success changes the name of the result.

• Nia, at the door of the office

  Nia, Manipulation 2, Subterfuge 1, no specialty. Difficulty 6, three dice. The faces are 1, 2, and 4. Willpower is still available.

  No die meets 6, and a 1 is present, so the roll is a botch. If she spends one Willpower, the dice stay 1, 2, and 4. One automatic success is added. The botch is blocked. With one success required, the roll succeeds. The 1 is still on the table. It simply has no rolled success to cancel.

What the roll receipt keeps apart

The engine stores the difficulty it applied, the faces, the 1s, the rolled successes, how many of those the 1s cancelled, and any automatic success. Those numbers are not folded into one verdict before you can see them.

• Strict mode uses the assessed difficulty, from 2 to 10, after an untrained Skill has added its 1. Casual mode halves that target once, rounded down, and will not go below 1. The halving is not applied a second time.
• A specialty is accepted only when the selected stored trait is 4 or 5. The 10 then counts as two successes. Nothing is rerolled.
• Willpower spends one current point and adds one automatic success on that roll. The spend is refused at zero Willpower. The receipt does not keep a separate once-per-turn lock. The sheet's own hint still states the table limit of one such success in a turn.
• A botch is recorded only when rolled successes are zero, at least one 1 is present, and automatic successes are zero. One automatic success on a roll of a single 1 is a success if one success was required, and a failure, not a botch, if two were required.

Frequently asked

Does Willpower stop a botch?

It stops the botch by adding one automatic success, which the botch test treats as disqualifying. It does not cancel the 1 and it does not become a die. If the dice already produced successes, you did not have a botch for Willpower to prevent. If no die succeeded, the automatic success keeps the result a success or a failure, depending on how many successes the roll required. The engine will not add that success to a Willpower pool.

Do 10s explode?

At the table, a specialty rerolls 10s. Each 10 is one success, and the reroll may add more. The 10 does not grant a second success by itself before that reroll. The engine does not reroll. A specialty 10 on a trait rated 4 or 5 counts as two successes. Without the specialty, a 10 is one success.

How do multiple actions change the difficulty?

At the table, each action past the first adds 1 to the difficulty, and you divide the dice. The engine applies the difficulty it is given. It adds 1 on its own only for an untrained Skill. Put the multiple-action penalty into the difficulty before the roll, or it will not be there.

If 1s cancel every success, is that a botch?

No. A die that met the difficulty counts as a rolled success even if a 1 later cancels it. The botch test looks at that rolled count, not at the net. Once any die has succeeded, cancellation can only produce a failure.

Is the default difficulty 6, and can the engine go outside 3 to 9?

Six is the usual Storyteller default. The chart gives exact-outcome probability bands for unmodified pools of 3–5 dice at difficulties 3–9. The resolver accepts 2–10; casual mode can halve the assessed difficulty to a floor of 1. Those mode adjustments are excluded from the chart.

Related rules

• V20 Combat
• V20 Blood Pool
• Bestial Failure Rules