Several weeks ago, we at The Dice Pool Podcast started a little venture called INTERPRET THIS! The aim of the exercise is to encourage Players and Game Masters to put their thinking caps on and given a scenario, post up their interpretation of the results. We will include the Setting name, the Genre, the Scenario itself leading up to a dice roll, the pool of both difficulty and skill dice and the results using the GeneSys Role Playing Game dice symbols.
Each week, we will post up a new scenario. The fun part is that you, our the readers of this blog, get to interpret the result. We do duplicate the results on The Dice Pool Podcast Facebook page, but as followers of the D20 Radio Blog, we would suggest posting your interpretations in the comments below.
There are no prizes, just some good wholesome fun. And you know, you may even get a few ideas of your own on how to interpret dice along the way.
So without further ado, here is our first example.
TYPE: Magepunk Fantasy
SETTING: Night’s Edge
SETUP: The lightning arced below as the Star Wanderer gave its all. The captain was secure in his attunement pod near the aft turbines, the magically infused metal churning out black smoke that trailed off into the night’s sky above, silhouetted by the full moon. The crew had breached the cloud cover for a moment, just enough to get their bearings before being forced into the darkened clouds of the shadow realm below. The Wolf Raider’s vessel was close behind, and the crew knew that if their luck did not change soon, they would be joining the shadows beneath them. Aetiuas, the Attuned Human, toyed with the controls of the cannon after the last barrage of enemy fire breached the hull and damaged the firing array. Her associate, the Werewolf Mihangel, pushed the circular contraption back to the rear of the vessel to secure it in place. They had hoped to have the cannon pointed towards their pursuers prior to their decent into the clouds below, but for now, it was only a question of how efficient their repairs had been…
SKILLS: The PCs have taken heavy fire to their airship from their enemies in the previous round. The attack damaged the vessel’s only weapon, an Infused Medium Attuned Cannon. Aetiuas, and Mihangel are attempting to performed a Mechanics check to repair the broken device and reinstall it into its mounting before the next round of combat begins and state that that while Aetiuas is doing the technical side of things, Mihangel wishes to help with the heavy lifting and make a combined skill check.
Aetiuas has an Intellect of 3 and a Mechanics of 2.
Mihangel has an Intellect of 1 and no ranks in Mechanics but does have a Brawn of 4 and an Athletics of 1.
Since the two are combining their skills in a cinematic way, the GM allows Mihangel to use his Brawn as the base, while Aetius can use her Mechanics skill to conduct the repair. Aetiuas also has an Attunement kit meaning that she has the “right tools for the job” and therefore adds a boost dice to the check. Aetiuas mentions that she and Mihangel have been working on the ship for so long, that they are very familiar with the way things work, and flips a Player Story Point to automatically upgrade her skill check. The final skill dice pool is:
DIFFICULTY: The critical hit suffered has a base difficulty of Hard, or 3 purple dice. The GM says that the Wolf Raiders are pressing their advance on the PCs’ airship which adds 2 setback dice to the check. The GM also adds that the buffeting winds from below causes a further single setback dice. Aetiuas’ player lets the GM know that she has the Knack for It talent, narratively claiming that she works well under such pressure. She therefore removes two of the setback dice, leaving one to be applied to the difficulty. The GM flips a GM Story Point back mentioning that the lightning below cracks dangerously close to the ship whilst they are conducting repairs, and upgrades one of the difficulty dice to a Challenge dice. The final Difficulty Dice Pool is:
Aetiuas’ player makes the check and rolls the following result:
So listeners…Interpret This!
The following two tabs change content below.
Born and raised in Queensland, Australia, Ian has been a huge fan of gaming since way back in the dark ages of 1985 when he was 13. His first game EVER was the original Top Secret RPG by TSR and soon after, original D&D. His first GMing gig started in 1987, when West End Games released its first version of the Star Wars RPG using the D6 system. Ian is a former Police Officer but has since retired from active duty. Ian took his passion for games to the next level by running Gen Con Australia in 2008 and 2009, and was involved in the inaugural PAXAUS in 2013. Ian enjoys running all manner of board games, card games and RPGs as well as spending time with his son. Ian is now the Host of The Dice Pool Podcast covering the Genesys Role Playing Game.
Latest posts by GM Hooly (see all)
- The Dice Pool Podcast’s – Interpret This! #4 - May 24, 2018
The cannon was successfully repaired and actually smoothed out the cannon’s tracking (boost die to next attack.) As Aetiuas starts to take aim, she notices the clouds just beneath the hull. She notices that they’re starting to writhe.
Player 3 has entered the game :p I don’t know how far the vampiric manifestations can effect things above the cloudline, but I figured the ship was probably just skimming above it to get it’s bearings. Anyhow, twice the targets, twice the fun!
Mihangel shoves the gun into its mounting just as Aetiuas discovers that its power supply is damaged beyond repair. She pauses to take note of the lightning crackling around the ship, grabs one of the lightning harvesting cables, and jams it directly into the power supply. The next bolt steaks down the cable and directly into the cannon, overcharging it. “Take cover!” she yells at the werewolf as she sights on the enemy ship, intent on making sure she doesn’t waste her one shot.
(Repaired successfully, but the cannon will run out of ammo after the next shot. Add a boost die to that attack.)
That’s more or less where I was going with this, only I was thinking the cannon would explode when they fire it next.