Difficulties

Difficulty of the Action 

 Required Success 

 

 

 Routine (striking a stationary target, convincing a loyal friend to help you) 

 1 

 

 

 Straightforward (seducing someone who’s already in the mood, intimidating a weakling) 

 2 

 

 

 Moderate (replacing a car’s sound system, walking a tightrope) 

 3 

 

 

 Challenging (locating the source of a whisper, creating a memorable piece of art)c 

 4 

 

 

 Hard (convincing a cop that this isn’t your cocaine, rebuilding a wrecked engine block) 

 5 

 

 

 Very Hard (running across a tightrope while under fire, calming a hostile and violent mob) 

 6 

 

 

 Nearly Impossible (finding one specific homeless person in Los Angeles in one night, flawlessly reciting a long text in a language you don’t speak) 

 7+ 

 

 

 

 Automatic Wins: 

  If a character’s dice pool is twice the task’s Difficulty, the Storyteller may opt to rule that the character wins automatically without a dice roll. Automatic wins streamline play and reduce distracting rules interludes. Apply them vigorously, especially outside of combat or for tests where character failure is boring: information-gathering tests, conversation-openers, or gambits that open up the scene or let it move forward dramatically. 

 Automatic wins seldom apply in combat or other stressful situations. A Storyteller willing to speed up opening rounds or to blow through a location they didn’t intend to be challenging, might allow automatic wins against mooks and nameless obstacle humans: renta-cops in the office lobby, not real cops in the streets.