Commit effort. Test preparation. Let consequence answer.

A Skill Check resolves a risky, dramatic, or meaningfully uncertain attempt. The player states what their character wants and how they pursue it. The Guide identifies the Skill and target. The player commits the required dice, may Boost, and rolls to discover what happens.

When risk meets intent, the dice decide.

What Is a Skill Check?

An active Skill Check is a roll made when both success and failure can matter. The final dots must exceed the target number to succeed. Meeting the target is not enough.

Not every uncertain moment needs an active roll. A Readiness comparison uses a character's fixed Readiness Score when standing capability matters but rolling would interrupt play. It costs no dice and is not an active Skill Check.

If the outcome is already certain, do not call for either procedure. Follow the Action resolution paths and narrate what happens.

Skill Level (SL) governs Boosting and Readiness. See Character Skills for those values and the Skills List for what each Skill covers.

Guide Principle: Use a Skill Check only when the result can change the fiction. Establish the stakes before dice are committed.

Choosing the Skill and Target

Every active Skill Check needs one Skill and one target number. Choose them from the declared method and the procedure governing the attempt.

Choosing the Skill

Identify the trained method that must succeed. Choose the Skill that governs that method rather than the broad outcome the character wants. Different methods may pursue the same intent through different Skills.

Guide Principle: Clarify the method before choosing the Skill. Do not select a broad Skill solely because it could describe the desired result.

Choosing the Target

The target number comes from one of three sources. Opposition describes the fiction; it does not create another calculation method.

A Combat Exchange, spell, Class Power, or other specific rule may name its own target and comparison. Use that procedure instead of inventing a second opposed or contested system.

Difficulty Ratings

These named ratings are reference points, not the only legal numbers. The Guide may use another integer when it describes the moment more precisely.

Resolving an Active Skill Check

Use this sequence unless a specific procedure says otherwise:

1. Declare intent and method. State what the character wants to change and how they try to change it.
2. Confirm the procedure, Skill, target, and stakes. The Guide decides whether a check is needed. For an ordinary visible attempt, state the target and meaningful consequences before anyone commits resources.
3. Resolve support declared before commitment. An eligible ally may Assist, or another player may grant Synergy, at the timings below.
4. Commit the required dice or Base Cost. A generic Action resolved with a Skill Check is a Major Action and requires at least 1 AD. A specific procedure supplies its own required dice and cost. Do not pay for the same attempt twice.
5. Boost, if permitted. Commit every Boost die before rolling.
6. Roll all committed dice together. Count Criticals as 2 dots, Hits as 1 dot, and Misses as 0 dots.
7. Resolve the Edge Phase. Apply Advantage or Disadvantage before any later reroll, conversion, or modifier unless a specific rule says otherwise.
8. Resolve other explicit rules at their written timings. Do not add a general modifier or reroll phase.
9. Compare final dots with the target. The check succeeds only if the final total is higher.
10. Resolve the outcome and move committed dice. Apply the governing rule and its consequences. Committed AD become Used unless that rule says otherwise; other dice follow their own procedure.

Success = final dots exceed the target number.

Failure = final dots equal or fall below the target number.

Class Powers resolve when their written Trigger occurs. This may be at declaration, during an interception, or after a named result; it is not a universal phase at the end of every check. See Class Powers for Event timing.

Boosting

Boosting applies to any Skill Check—whether it is made as an Action, Reaction, or response—unless a specific procedure says otherwise. After committing the required dice or Base Cost, you may commit extra Ready AD up to the tested Skill's SL. Commit the Boost before rolling and roll all committed dice together.

A specific procedure may permit different dice to Boost, set a different limit, require a minimum Boost, or prohibit Boosting. For example, spellcasting can permit Ready AD, Ready MD, or a combination of both. The specific procedure takes precedence.

An untrained Skill at SL 0 cannot be Boosted. Skill Level never grants default rerolls; every reroll must come from an explicit rule.

Edge Phase

Immediately after a roll, resolve Advantage or Disadvantage before any other reroll, conversion, or modifier unless a specific rule changes that timing.

New results replace the old results; the second result stands. Each die may be rerolled only once during the Edge Phase, even if another rule could otherwise affect the same kind of result.

A Readiness comparison is not a roll, so it has no Edge Phase. Advantage or Disadvantage changes Readiness only when a specific rule says exactly how.

Example: An Active Skill Check

Rika leaps across a collapsing bridge during a storm. The Guide calls for Athletics and sets Challenging DR 1. Rika commits the generic check's required 1 AD and Boosts with 1 more AD. She rolls Hit | Miss for 1 final dot.

Rika's total equals the target, so the check fails. The Guide resolves the established consequence: she catches the far edge but loses the satchel she was carrying. Her 2 committed AD become Used.

Assist and Synergy

Assist and Synergy let other players support an active Skill Check before its dice are committed. Both can grant Advantage, but several instances of Advantage still do not stack.

Assist

After the Guide confirms the Skill and target but before the originating character commits their dice, one eligible ally may declare Assist. The ally must be present, aware, able to act, and able to describe a concrete contribution that could affect the attempt.

Assist is a Reaction with that declaration as its Trigger. Because Assist is a Reaction, it does not consume a proactive Skill use, even when it occurs during the assisting character's own activation.

The Guide confirms which Skill governs the contribution. It may be the same Skill as the originating check, or a different Skill when the ally is helping through another trained method.

The assisting character spends and rolls 1 Ready AD for a Routine Skill Check at DR 0. They may Boost normally up to the assisting Skill's SL. On a success, the originating check gains Advantage. Every AD committed to the Assist Check becomes Used whether it succeeds or fails.

Only one Assist Check may be attempted for each originating Skill Check. An Assist Check cannot itself be Assisted.

Tip: Assistance must create a concrete benefit for the originating attempt. “I help” is not a method; say what the assisting character does and how it can improve the attempt.

Example: Assist

Rika prepares a Finesse Skill Check to repair a jammed portcullis mechanism. Javi braces the buckled housing so it cannot shift while she works. The Guide allows Javi to Assist with Athletics.

Javi has Athletics SL 1. He commits 1 Ready AD and Boosts with 1 more. He rolls Hit | Miss for 1 final dot and succeeds against Routine DR 0. Both AD become Used, and Rika makes the originating Finesse Skill Check with Advantage.

Synergy

Synergy Points are a shared party resource created through mutual Story Point investment. Once created, they belong to the party; do not track which characters created them.

During a Rest, any two different players whose characters are resting together may create 1 Synergy Point. Each spends 1 SP; add 1 Synergy Point to the party's shared Synergy pool. The same players, or other eligible pairs, may repeat this exchange as often as they choose and can afford. There is no limit to the number of Synergy Points the party may create.

Synergy Points remain until spent. They do not expire at a Rest, Story Checkpoint, or Story Milestone. See Character Development for Story Points.

After the Guide confirms an active Skill Check but before its dice are committed, another player whose character is present may spend 1 Synergy Point. The checking character gains Advantage on that Skill Check, including cancelling Disadvantage. A player cannot grant Synergy to their own character.

Granting Synergy is not Assist. It requires no AD, Action, or Skill Check. The granting player may describe encouragement, a warning, shared experience, prior planning, or simple presence. This description is an opportunity, not a requirement.

Success, Failure, and Outcome Tiers

After resolving every required reroll and modifier, calculate how far the final total lies above or below the target.

Success Margin = final dots − target number

A positive Success Margin succeeds. Zero or a negative Success Margin fails.

Outcome Tiers guide narration. They do not automatically grant extra effect, Advantage, damage, progress, Conditions, or other mechanical benefits unless a rule says they do. Likewise, a Near Miss is still a failed check unless the governing rule explicitly creates partial success.

In ordinary Skill Checks, the difference is the Success Margin. A rule may use a more specific name. Combat uses Hit Margin for attacks; Hit Margin is not Wound Margin.

Example: Calculating an Outcome Tier

Raeline tries to hide from a beast with Observation Readiness 4. Her final Stealth total is 7.

7 final dots − target 4 = +3 Success Margin

Raeline achieves a Strong Success. She disappears into the ruined brush with the quality and control that the established fiction supports. The tier grants no separate bonus unless another rule says it does.

Readiness and Passive Opposition

A Skill's Readiness Score represents trained standing capability when its owner is not actively rolling. It can provide the target for another character's Skill Check or be compared with a fixed target behind the screen.

Readiness is the rounded-down expected output of a fully committed ordinary check: 1 required AD plus the maximum Boost allowed by Skill Level. Each Narateer die produces an average of 0.625 dots.

Readiness Score = floor((Skill Level + 1) × 0.625)

Minimum Readiness Score = 0.

Use the table during play:

Readiness costs no dice, creates no roll, and never moves AD from Ready to Used. Linked Vitals still matter because they cap Skill Level, but they do not add to Readiness.

Choosing Passive or Active Opposition

For example, a guard routinely watching a gate supplies Observation Readiness as the target for a sneaking character. If the guard is actively looking for the character, follow Hide and Search: use an Observation Skill Check instead of Observation Readiness for that attempt.

When Readiness Does Not Apply

Readiness applies only when the character can bring the relevant capability to bear. If they cannot perceive the relevant cue, cannot physically or mentally use the Skill, or are excluded by positioning or a specific rule, use the fiction, an environmental DR, or the named procedure instead.

Being merely unaware of the attempt does not remove Readiness; Readiness still applies when the relevant Skill represents the character's standing chance to notice or resist it.

Example: Readiness as a Target

A cutpurse rolls Finesse against Kaelin's Observation Readiness to lift his coin pouch without him noticing. Kaelin has Observation SL 2, so his Readiness Score is 1. The cutpurse rolls 1 final dot. Meeting the target is a failure, so Kaelin feels the tug and the pouch remains his.

Behind-the-Screen Readiness

A behind-the-screen Readiness comparison resolves hidden, reflexive, or quiet uncertainty without asking the player to roll or revealing that a target was present.

1. Choose the Skill and target. The Guide identifies the capability that matters and sets a DR or another fixed score.
2. Account for circumstances. Choose or adjust the target before comparing. Do not improvise Edge for a score that is not being rolled.
3. Compare Readiness with the target. Readiness must exceed the target to succeed. A tie fails.
4. Narrate the result. Reveal what the character perceives or experiences, not the hidden calculation.

A Readiness comparison is not a roll and is not an active Skill Check. It costs no dice and creates no Edge Phase. A specific rule may modify Readiness or its target only by saying how.

Guide Tip: Keep the player characters' common Readiness Scores close at hand, especially Observation, Insight, Acrobatics, Athletics, Melee, and Survival.

Example: Quiet Discovery

Elira enters a scorched camp where a faint trail remains beneath the ash. Her Observation Readiness is 1. The Guide sets the subtle trail at Routine DR 0. Because 1 exceeds 0, the Guide simply says, “You notice a faint trail leading northeast, up the ridge.”

Example: A Cue Opens an Active Check

Torren's Observation Readiness does not exceed the DR of a hidden mechanism in a crypt. The Guide may let the detail remain hidden. Instead, the fiction supports a faint cue: one footstep echoes as if stone shifted beneath him.

Torren pauses to investigate. The Guide now confirms a separate active Observation Skill Check with its own target, stakes, and cost. The active check does not erase the earlier passive result; it follows from the new opportunity created by the cue.

Summary

• Use an active Skill Check only when both success and failure can matter.
• Choose the Skill from the character's method, then take the target from the environment, Readiness, or a specific procedure.
• The final dots must exceed the target; a tie fails.
• A generic Action Skill Check is a Major Action costing at least 1 AD. A specific procedure owns its cost, required dice, Boost, timing, and result.
• Boost ordinary checks with extra Ready AD up to the tested Skill's SL. Resolve Advantage or Disadvantage during the Edge Phase.
• Class Powers use their written Triggers, not a universal post-roll phase.
• Assist is a Reaction made before the originating character commits dice. A successful Assist Check grants Advantage and consumes no proactive Skill use.
• Synergy is a shared party resource that another player may spend to grant Advantage before commitment.
• Outcome Tiers describe the Success Margin but grant no automatic mechanical benefit.
• Readiness is a fixed standing score. It costs no dice and has no Edge Phase.