Rules Lawyer- House Rule Edition- Flat Edge Results

In Fantasy Flights Star Wars RPG you roll some rather unique dice. These narrative dice do more than simply tell you if your skill check succeeded. The addition of two more layers of results, in the form of Threat/Advantage and Triumph/Despair, that are completely independent of the success or failure of the die results can really take the game in some interesting directions. In fact, I would judge this to be the deciding factor in making this RPG such a success.

Given how much variation there can be in the die results, you would expect the dice to always yield some interesting results. Yet, surprisingly, I have often found that the results turn up completely flat* (ie all of the results cancel each other out). As there are no Successes, this means that the check technically failed, even though there are no remaining Failure symbols. But because all of the Threat and Advantage also canceled out, you’re left with a very mundane result. You simply failed at whatever you were attempting.

And that’s boring. For my group, I instituted a rule for events such as these. In this eventuality, I allow my players to reroll the dice, adding in a Setback die and Boost die. The odds of the dice turning up flat twice in a row is fairly small. This way, after every skill check, the dice dictate something narratively happening.

Why the extra Boost die and Setback die, you ask? Those are added to increase the potential variance of results. They balance each other out so the player is not penalized, though the argument could easily be made that taking an extra Setback die on the reroll is a justifiable cost for getting to reroll what is effectively a failed check.

To keep things fair, the GM is entitled to reroll flat results as well. Additionally, rerolls are not allowed during combat settings. You fail to hit your opponent, you fail to hit them, end of story.

This has resulted in some fun dilemmas for my players and really jazzed up scenes. In most cases, my players happily availed themselves of this opportunity. Rolling MORE DICE is always fun. It’s worked out for them in many cases but has also seen a few mundane failures turn into some tight positions.

One time, when negotiating with a sly pirate, who had thrown a few red dice into the pool, a player was faced with a flat result. They just failed their skill check so would not get the deal they were hoping for. But they also generated no extra failure or any threat, so the negative effects were minimal. If they tried again with the reroll, they would be risking some Despair turning up. My player took the reroll and ended up succeeding…with Despair. He got the bargain he wanted with the pirate but he vowed never to negotiate again; the player would take whatever price he offered or get no deal.

It’s a pretty simple rule to implement and can be done in a few variations; just adding Setback instead of both, charging a Force Point to trigger or something similar, should you feel the effect is too powerful. But can really liven up a pretty mundane result and make the whole game more interesting.

*Note: To be clear, Triumph and Despair do not cancel each other out, except as success/failure results. It is entirely possible to have a flat result that still yields both a Triumph and a Despair. These can not be rerolled as you have those two effects to resolve.