CPA: Skill Checks
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In CPA, characters have skills which are attributes that symbolize their knowledge and ability with a certain vocation, craft, trade, field of study, or school of magic.
- Skilled characters are competent. They are able to accomplish non-risky tasks commensurate with their skill level under safe and relaxed conditions, without any roll needed.
- Actions which can be done safely without a roll in unpressured time, commensurate with skill level, include:
- searching business documents for irregularities
- crafting a machine
- sketching an illustration
- learning a new spoken language or programming language
- searching a room for evidence
- Actions which can be done safely without a roll in unpressured time, commensurate with skill level, include:
However, when actions are risky, or when conditions are stressed, dangerous, or pressured, the GM may command the player to roll dice to make a skill check to see roughly how well that task goes.
The basic concept of a skill roll is, when called, to roll 2d8 + your skill level to try to achieve an intent. Examples include:
- Rolling Crafting to repair a broken car in a toxic wasteland
- Rolling Stealth to sneak by a watchman
- Rolling Chronomancy to try to turn back time
- Rolling Dodge to try to jump away from an exploding bomb
- Rolling Science to distill a potentially dangerous drug or poison
Skill Check Procedure
- Intent:A player declares an intended action with an intended approach to this action. Examples:
- "I want to jump off the ground all the way to the moon."
- "I want to try to use my welding torch to open the hatch on the crashed vehicle."
- "I want to try to intimidate the club's security guard with my strength."
- "I want to try to get the giant squid to calm down so it doesn't bite me."
- Premise:The GM declares whether or not a roll is needed for this intended attempt, what that roll can be, and what the target number is. Examples:
- "No, you cannot jump to the moon without some ultra-tech ion boots or something similar."
- "Since you've worked with these tools in your background and you're not under pressure right now, no need to roll. You easily and cleanly cut off the hatch with your welding tools."
- "Sure, you can roll Brawl or Athletics to try to intimidate the guard by crushing his hand. Difficulty...12."
- "You are 2000 meters under an ocean of oil, with a damaged vaccuum suit, a mortal wound, and you want to try to pacify the giant alien squid? Roll Animals with disadvantage, TN 16."
- Helping: The game already assumes that everyone who wants to help the active player does. If you want to add +1 to an ally's roll, look into the Leadership skill and Commander talent.
- Approach: The player is encouraged to explain their roll with reference to the character's in-story details, to help the GM think of anything that could be achieved without a roll. Example:
- "I studied marine biology back in grad school. I'm calling on my experience training and testing the intelligence of dolphins!"
- Roll: The acting player rolls two dice, usually 2d8, and adds their total plus the relevant Skill Level and any other modifiers.
- If the player does not posess the skill at least level 1 or the 'professional' talent, then a -2 penalty is applied to the roll.
- Some talents and other features may provide an "Advantage" or "Disadvantage" on a skill check roll.
- If you have one advantage, roll 2d10 instead of 2d8.
- If you have multiple advantages, roll 2d12 instead of 2d8.
- If you have one disadvantage, roll 2d6 instead of 2d8.
- If you have multiple disadvantages, roll 2d4 instead of 2d8.
- For example, if you were disguised as a business executive at a party and you had +1 advantage on stealth from "Assassin" and +1 advantage on stealth from "Professional", but -1 advantage on stealth from Exhaustion, you would have a net of +2 - 1 = +1 advantage. You would roll 2d10 for stealth and add your skill level.
- Some talents may allow you to roll other dice for your skill check roll. For example, the 'Sorceror' talent allows you the choice to roll 1d20 instead of 2d8 for your skill check.
- Common sources of advantage and disadvantage dice include talents, exhaustion, bad weather, particularly effective approaches, etc.
- Result:Based on the result, and considering possible degrees of success, bonuses and complications, the game master explains the result. Examples:
- "You rolled a 13 athletics...Ok, you jumped to grab the edge of the house and can climb up."
- "It's not easy to use a welding torch in a hurricane. You cut halfway through the door over 30 minutes but your battery dies. You guys will have to try something else to get this door open."
- "Wow! You rolled a crit! The guy yelps in pain and jumps back, dropping his ID card on the floor at your feet."
- "You only rolled a 13 to dodge the missile, not ideal. It flies faster than you expect and you're left with a difficult choice. Do you dive down the slope into the darkness, or try to dodge the other way, taking 1 damage from the fall and 4d6 from shrapnel?"
- "With merely a 10 on your animals roll, this isn't looking good. You have a terrible headache and the pressure is getting extremely painful. You think the squid might be distracted if you threw a signal flare, but it might not be safe to spark it here. Do you want to try it, or simply run away?"
Result | Outcome |
---|---|
Critical Success! Two 8's on your d8s and result >= TN | The player achieves their goal in a heroic way--that is, with a major bonus.
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Significant Success, result >> TN | The player achieves their intent and gets a minor helpful bonus effect. |
Success, result is equal to or 1-2 points higher than TN | The player generally achieves their intent as is reasonable. |
Near Miss, result is 1 or 2 less than TN: | The player either only partially achieves the intent, or may achieve it but at a cost or penalty. |
Failure, result << TN | The player cannot achieve the intent with this approach, and receives a minor penalty. They cannot retry this approach. |
Critical Failure! Two 1's on your d8s | Regardless of the sum total, this attempt ends in disaster. The intent is not achieved at all, the situation worsens significantly, and the player receives 1 XP. |
Element | Bonus | Complication |
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Resources |
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Time | The task is much quicker than expected. | The task takes far longer than expected. |
Items | You discover a useful item while accomplishing the task. | While working on the task, your tool's battery explodes due to a manufacturing fault, destroying the tool, your materials, and hurting you. |
Context | While accomplishing the task, a crowd of curious, friendly creatures assembles to watch. |
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Target Number (TN): | Description |
---|---|
8 | Simple tasks that aren't guaranteed, such persuading a friend to help move furniture, or running through a dark room without tripping. | 10 | Standard professional challenge such as shooting a moving target, repairing a damaged engine, or climbing a short rock wall. |
12 | A difficult project, such as safely landing a space ship on a stormy planet, or embedding a magical rune into a steel shield, or a long jump from one rooftop to another. |
14 | A dangerous masterwork, such as performing a daring vehicle jump, crafting a sword from demon bones or scaling a rough wall by hand. |
16 | The ambition of a master. Extracting a confession from a career criminal, landing a helicopter on a small island in a hurricane, or deciphering an alien computer system. |
18 | Difficult for a master--fighting a dragon, magically turning back time, restoring a broken computer system from a dead civilization in an irradiated haze. |
20 | A demigod reaching beyond her grasp. Stunning achievements in areas that remain beyond a mortal's control. Super-heroic jumps, persuasion that can change the roots of someone's personality, building a machine that is effectively magical. |
- Unless specifically stated otherwise, casting is always dangerous and rolls cannot be skipped.
- Level 4, 5, and 6 spells are increasingly exponentially dangerous.
- This is because magic originates in other dimensions that mortals can never fully understand.
- To cast, a caster must spend Energy Points (SP) commensurate to the spell's level regardless of outcome.
- Usually, maximum Energy Points = 5 + your total arcane skill levels. For example, if you have level 2 in Teleportation and level 2 in Necromancy, you would have 5 + 2 + 2 = 9 Energy Points maximum.
- All casters can regenerate Energy Points at a base rate of 1 per 4 hours of meditation or rest. Casters who have levels in the Meditation skill can regenerate Energy Points equal to their skill level in Meditation per hour of meditation.
- Particularly successful or unsuccessful castings may provide Energy Point discounts or surcharges.
- There may be other ways to refresh Energy Points as well, notably via mana potions and pacts with gods and demons. Explore and discover.
- Spells cannot be attempted by people without arcane skills.
- Only those with "the gift" and years of formal arcane training may attempt spells.
- A small minority of people posess "the gift" and may be aware or unaware of it. They can be identified with use of the Metaphysics skill.
- People who have "the gift" but are not formally trained risk permanent brain damage or extradimensional posession by attempting to cast.
- People with the "Caster I" talent are considered to have both the gift AND years of formal training to prevent such outcomes.
- Casting magic requires a visible sign.
- This could be pointing or hand gestures, brandishing of a staff or wand, glowing eyes, or some other visually obvious sign.
- By default, it is an obvious 1-handed gesture, arm out and palm extended towards the target area.
- Some ongoing spells require maintenance of concentration.
- The typical caster has a maximum concentration of 1.
- If subjected to any distraction during concentration such as taking damage or vehicle turbulence, a binary Meditation check must be rolled immediately vs. the enemy's attack TN.
- If the check is failed by any amount, all active concentrations are dropped immediately.
- By default, the caster must be conscious to maintain concentration.
- Concentration may also be occupied by non-magical activities such as computer programming, vehicle piloting, intense athletics, etc
- To end a spell you are concentrating on, you simply stop concentrating (no action cost).
- All spells can be cast as rituals, but some spells have a minimum ritual requirement.
- Ritual means that the casting involves a significant amount of time as well as verbal and gestural actions.
- Rituals require a clean, quiet and safe workspace.
- The success chance of rituals may be improved with direct performance of art or music, expenditure of valuable items, prayers to favorable deities, and other factors.
Arcane Spell Levels | Energy Point Cost | Casting Target Number | Chance for success with +X | Chance for success with +8 |
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1 | 1 | 10 | +1: 56% | +8: 100% |
2 | 2 | 12 | +2: 44% | +8: 95% |
3 | 3 | 14 | +3: 33% | +8: 84% |
4 | 4 | 16 | +4: 23% | +8: 67% |
5 | 5 | 18 | +5: 16% | +8: 44% |
6 | 6 | 10 | +6: 9% | +8: 23% |