Dice, Success, Fail, and (Dis)Advantage

Dice

The magical dopamine-generating tools. We all love them and develop superstitions about how they both bless us with Success and curse us with Fails.

By default, all Rolls in Pathways to Adventure are made with a six-sided die called a d6.

Success is when a Roll turns out in your favor, you Succeed a Roll.

You slash the goblin with your sword, yay!
You succeeded with your Baker Skill and absolutely nailed that pumpkin cheesecake, dope!
You avoid the dragon's fire breath, awe yea!

These are always happy outcomes for the player (or Game Master!), who made the Roll.

Fail is the opposite, it is when you Fail a Roll and the dice turn against you and you get a bad result.

When a Roll is Advantaged, you Roll two dice and take the higher roll.

When a Roll is Disadvantaged, you Roll two dice and take the lower roll.

A Roll can only be either Advantaged or Disadvantaged at a given time, as they cancel each other out if you have both.

A Roll of 6 is considered a Critical Success, while a 1 is an Epic Fail.

Criticals are spectacularly grand Outcomes that differ based on whether it is a Success or Fail and what type of Roll it was!

Critical Success always Succeeds on a Roll.

You slash the goblin with your sword, hitting a major artery, oh that's got to hurt!
You baked a cheesecake fit for the gods, you are amazing!
You avoid the dragon's massive flame breath, remaining completely unscathed, score!

Epic Fails always Fail on a Roll.

You slash the goblin but you whiff the swing entirely, almost falling off-balance, oh crap!
Your dog even turned its nose up at that cheesecake, such a waste!
You are entirely engulfed by all-consuming dragon fire, hope you can survive at Death's Door!

On a Critical Attack, you simply double the Damage value.

For Attack Spells and Attack Chants, Critical Failures do not expend Mana or Morale.

These resources will be discussed in a later section.