Dice
In Contingency dice are used to provide a level of randomness into the game and help to provide resolutions to uncertain situations.
Dice Notation
The dice used in Contingency are referred to by the lower-case letter d followed by the number of sides on the die: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. For instance, a d6 refers to a typical cube shaped die (that many board games use) which have the numbers 1 through 6 printed on each of its faces.
Percentile Dice
Sometimes the rules will refer to a d100 dice. Although you can get a dice with 100 sides, it is more common to roll two ten-sided dice numbered from 0 to 9. One die, that your designate beforehand, will represent the tens digit and the other will be the ones digit. Some ten-sided dice are numbered in tens (00, 10, 20 and so on) making it easier to distinguish between the tens digit and the ones digit.
In Contingency, the percentile die is the only dice that is capable of rolling a zero on its result. When using two d10's as a percentile dice you add the two face values together to form the result. For instance a 7 and 30 will result in 37. If you percentile dice actually has a side with the number 100 on it, ignore the hundreds unit and have that face result in a zero.
Can you have too many dice?
In short... no, as Dice Goblins we believe there is no such thing as having too many dice. Like people, each die tends to have their own personality, some have deep rooted angst only liking to roll low numbers and others your can rely on to roll big under pressure. And remember, to best support your independent dice makers if you can.
However, with all that being said, for the majority of your time playing you will only need to roll either 3 or 4 dice at a time. Our recommendation is to have four sets of each dice available when playing.
When to roll dice?
Dice are only rolled when there is an uncertain outcome to an action or activity.
In general, the Game Moderator will call for a roll if the situation has dramatic potential, and if they are prepared for either a success or failure.
Deciding whether an action had dramatic potential is not an exact science. However, here are the hallmarks of a dramatic action:
- The outcome of the action is not obvious.
- There are consequences for success and failure.
- Either outcome will move the narrative along in an interesting way.
Percentage Chance
Occasionally you may see a rule that describes a percentage chance of something happening. For instance if there is a 10% chance of something happening, then you will have to roll a 90 or higher on the percentile dice for that thing to happen.
Random Tables
Occasionally, you will come across a table that uses a die roll to generate a random result. On these tables, you will see a dice notation, such as d6 or d10, in the header of the leftmost column. Roll that die and then find the corresponding result from the table (some results may be in the form as a range of numbers). Read across from the selected row for the result.
Skill Checks
When the outcome of an action or activity is uncertain, then Contingency uses a Skill Check roll to determine success or failure.
Contingency uses a three dice pool system in which you always roll three dice, which may be of varying types ranging from a D4 up to a D12, and selecting the middle result as the outcome of your roll. For example, if your dice result in a 5, 4 and 9, then the outcome of your dice roll will be 5 as it is not the highest or lowest value in the result. There may be situations where you need to take the higher or lower value, which are referred to as rolling with advantage or disadvantage respectively. However, for the most part you'll roll three dice and take the middle result.
Skill Checks are for Players
In Contingency, the players make all of the dice rolls. If a character is attacking a creature, the player makes an attack roll. If the creature is attacking a character, the player makes a defense roll.
Making Skill Rolls
The most common time for you to roll dice is by performing a Skill Roll, which consists of the player rolling a pool of three (3) dice against a predetermined target difficulty number. If the player reaches or exceeds the target difficulty then they have successfully performed the skill roll.
A typical skill roll will consist of the following steps:
- The Game Moderator will determine what the skill roll will be for, inform the players stakes, if there are any major consequences from failing the skill roll and will let the player know what attribute and skill combination they will need to roll.
- The Player will create a three (3) dice pool consisting of:
- their character's wellness dice
- the chosen attribute dice
- the chosen skill dice
- The Player rolls their dice pool and applies any dice face modifiers by reducing or increase the face value on the dice they just rolled. (these modifiers may come from performing multiple actions in single round or from other buffs being applied).
- The Player selects their result die, by sorting the dice from lowest face value to highest, then by dice size for dice that have the same face value and then picking the middle dice as the result for their skill roll.
- Optionally, the Player may choose to add a Luck Dice to the roll (if they have them available). If they choose to do so, then they roll an additional dice of the same size os their current result dice and adds the value rolled to the value of the result dice.
- The Player adds up any Omen Tokens they earned from their dice results, for both themselves and the game moderator. Remembering that omens are based on the face values of each dice that was part of the skill roll including the luck dice if they player chose to include it.
- The Game Moderator narrates the outcome and then moves on with the remainder of the scene. Alternatively the Game Moderator may pass the narrative control to the player to describe the outcome, or a mix of the two.
Typical Difficulty Targets
The following table outlines the types of difficulty levels you could expect to be imposed when attempting to perform those action.
Difficulty Descriptor Examples 1 Automatic Something that is second nature and you normally wouldn't even think to do it, like breathing normally. 2 Very Easy Opening an unlocked door. Leaping a short distance 3 Easy Looking something up in a book, hitting an unaware adversary, sneaking past a sleeping guard. 4 Moderate Dodging a hidden dart trap, haggle with a merchant. 5 Tricky Leap across a wide chasm, 6 Hard Pick a master thief's pocket. 7 Difficult Lift a portcullis alone. 8 Very Difficult Parley with a cosmic horror. 9 Improbable Hit a very small target with a slingshot. 10 Inconceivable Shoot a small target in an adjacent room without looking. 11+ Near Impossible Closing a rift in space and time with a candy wrapper.
Advantage and Disadvantage
In some situations you'll be asked to make a skill check with either advantage or disadvantage. For these rolls instead of taking the middle result you either take the highest or lowest result respectively. Units of advantage and disadvantage will cancel each other out. If you were to have two units of advantage and one unit of disadvantage, then the first unit of advantage is canceled out by the disadvantage, leaving you with a single unit of advantage and no units of disadvantage. Apart from cancelling each other out, there is no further benefits (or hindrances) to having multiple units of either. As long as you have one or more units of advantage then you take the higher dice result from the roll, and take the lower result if you have one or more units of disadvantage.
Omen Tokens
Omen Tokens are used to reward the players (and sometimes the Game Moderator) for obtaining specific result values on dice used in their dice rolls. For each dice in the dice roll that results in a value of eight or higher will gain the player Omen Tokens to be used as part of their current action. These tokens can be used to trigger additional effects as part of the player's current action. These effects can include doing additional damage on an attack, being able to perform extra actions without penalty or discovering more about the situation the player's are in. The added effects available to the player will usually be listed within the rules for the action they are performing.
Similarly, the Game Moderator earns an Omen Token for each dice the results in a value on one, which the Game Moderator can use to introduce setbacks or other hindrances to the player characters. Unlike players, where their Omens must be consumed as part of their current action, the Game Moderator's Omen token last for the entirety of a scene. Once a scene has concluded, then the Game Moderator's Omen tokens are reset back to zero.
Gaining Omens
Omens occur when certain face values appear on the dice when performing a Skill Roll. Omens can either be positive, providing additional effects and outcomes for the player to choose from, and negative, providing addition features that the game moderator may draw upon for adversaries or environmental actions.
Omens are earned for each dice used as part of a roll, not just the dice used as the result of the skill roll, including any Luck Dice you choose to incorporate.
Omens are ephemeral and, unless otherwise stated, do not carry over between dice rolls and are representative of your character's personal engagement with the current encounter, which may be combat or social, and hence cannot be transferred to other characters, creatures, allies or other NPCs. Any unused omens are lost once the outcome of the dice roll has been resolved. Each additional effect, as a result of an omen, can only be performed once per action unless they contain the Repeatable trait. Additionally, actions with the Instant trait are considered to be part of the action they originate from and are not separate actions for determining Omens. If an omen with the Instant trait list an action that you may perform, then by spending points on that omen you are able to perform the indicated action, even if you have already performed that action (or are about to use that action) during the current encounter round (Resolving encounters is describe in more details in a later chapter).
Player Omens ⍟
When the face value of a die result, after adjusting for modifiers, is an 8 or higher, you will gain omens to spend as part of your skill roll's outcome. Omens are typically positive effects that can be applied to the ability you are rolling for. You gain one omen for each dice that results in either an 8 or 9, two omens for each dice that results in either a 10 or 11 and three omens for each dice that results in a 12.
Omens per Dice Face Result
Dice Face Result Number of Omens 8or9+1 Player Omen ⍟ 10or11+2 Player Omens ⍟⍟ 12+3 Player Omens ⍟⍟⍟
When you include a luke dice as part of a skill roll it is possible, although highly improbably, to gain up to 12 omens from a single roll.
Game Moderator Omens ⍉
When the face value of a die result, after adjusting for modifiers, is a 1 then your game moderator will gain an Omen to used with adversaries or environmental actions. Omens collected by the Game Moderator do not have to be used in conjunction with the same dice roll and may be distributed to other targets at the Game Moderators discretion. Any unused omens remaining at the end of the encounter or a scene are lost.
Omens per Dice Face Result
Dice Face Result Number of Omens 1 +1 Game Moderator Omen ⍉
Luck Dice
After you have the result of your dice roll, but before the triggering scenario has been resolved, you may want to try and push your luck in getting a higher result. This can be done regardless of whether your roll was a success or failure, as long as you have sufficient luck points to expend. You achieve this by spending a Luck Point to roll an additional die equal in size to your result die (the middle die for normal rolls, the larger for rolls with advantage and the smaller for rolls with disadvantage) and add the additional value to the result of your original dice. You can only spend a single luck point for each skill roll you make, as long as you have luck points available.
Every character has their own defined pool of luck dice to draw upon, and may spend these dice to improve the result of their skill rolls if outcome from the skill role hasn't been announced. The number of luck dice is limited and they do not refresh naturally. Once a luck dice has been exhausted, the player will need to undertake a relevant downtime activity to replenish them.
As an example, if Monique was to make a skill check consisting of a d6, a d8 and a d10 and getting a result of 3, 1 and 9 respectively, then their Luck Dice for this roll will be a D6 as that was the dice which gained the middle roll.
Luck Dice are considered to be additional dice added to the dice pool that makes up your Skill Check. Due to this they count towards the earning Omens (these are talked about in the next section). Although a Luck Dice may have the benefit of greatly increase the result of your dice roll, they also run the possibility of adding additional unwanted outcomes as well. Since Omens are determined by the face value of each dice in the roll, the result of the additional dice gets included in the calculation of determining the number of Omens you have earned.
Failing By One
In the event a player fails a Skill Roll by exactly one (1), they may choose to mark a relevant condition to instead barely succeed at the roll, but have a complication be introduced into the scene.
Failing Forward
A failed skill roll does not always mean that you fail to do the thing you are trying to achieve. Instead you should aim to fail forward by still progressing the scene but also introducing a complication.
As an example...
Temur, the party's Elven Scoundrel, is attempting to pick the lock of the door to the Guard Captain's Quarters. Temur makes their skill roll but fails to meet the target difficulty number.
Temur is a talented lock-pick, so instead of just failing to pick the lock, we could instead
- having it take a longer amount of time
which might allow the adversaries time to get into a better position or a chance to get away.- having it leave marks and scratches
which would leave a sign to anyone investigating the lock about it being recently picked- having it make a loud sound
which might alert adversaries on the other side of the doorEach of the above at examples of failing forward, Temur was still able to unlock the door but may have put the party is a worse position by either taking too much time, leaving evidence of your presence or alerting adversaries.
Choosing to Fail
For any skill roll you may choose to have your character fail the roll instead of rolling their dice or choose not to perform any defensive actions. By choosing to fail a skill roll, your Game Moderator will automatically gain one (1) Omen Token if the skill roll would have been made with disadvantage, three (3) Omen Tokens if the skill roll would have been made with advantage, or otherwise two (2) Omen Tokens if the skill roll would have been made with neither advantage or disadvantage.