Difficulty

When you roll for a result, you are trying to meet or exceed a target value, which is the difficulty for the roll. The difficulty indicates how hard it is to do something. Difficulties are measured on the same ladder as everything else. For instance, it might be a Mediocre (+0) difficulty to jumpstart a car, but a Good (+3) difficulty to repair that same car after a serious breakdown.

The difference between the difficulty and the effort (the result of the roll) is the magnitude of the effect, which is measured in shifts. Shifts are used to determine the potency of a character’s efforts and to govern the resolution of complex actions. There’s no such thing as a negative shift—any roll that does not reach the difficulty is simply considered a failure (although failing the roll by a great deal might influence how the group describes the result).

### **The Ladder**

Most things in the system are rated according to the Ladder (shown below).

Usually, the adjectives are used to describe things—someone might be a Good Driver or Average Scholar. The adjectives and numbers are interchangeable, so if you’re more comfortable with numbers, it is equally valid to say Drive: +3 or Scholarship: +1. For clarity, it might be best to use both, as in Good (+3) Drive or Average (+1) Scholarship.

On this scale, Average represents the minimum level of capability for someone who does something regularly, but not exceptionally. Most people are between Average and Good at the things they do for a living—like Investigation for a private eye—and are Mediocre at most other things. It is only when they are driven to excel that they surpass those limits.

 Player characters (PCs) push the boundaries of what “normal” people are capable of and, as such, they tend to be Great or Superb at whatever their central passion is. Each PC is, in a sense, the protagonist in his own story; this means that the heroes of The Dresden Files RPG are genuinely exceptional individuals and may well be recognized as such.

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### **Rolling Beyond the Ladder**

On occasion, you’ll end up rolling for a high or low skill, and getting a result that puts you past the ladder—higher than Legendary (+8) or lower than Terrible (–2). When that happens, just use the number that you came up with. (If you’re feeling creative, come up with your own adjective for this dramatic roll!) This happens a little more often when you get bonuses due to **aspects**.

### **Difficulties in Perspective**

The adjective ladder corresponds to a certain expectation of competence when you’re talking about skills and action difficulties:

·         **Mediocre (+0)** indicates a lack of either talent or training.

·         **Average (+1)** indicates a novice level of training, or a high degree of talent with no formal training.

·         **Fair (+2)** and **Good (+3)** indicate journeyman or “professional” capacity, or a nearly inhuman degree of talent.

·         **Great (+4)** and **Superb (+5)** indicate veteran or masterful capacity, or the combination of extreme talent and good training.

·         **Fantastic (+6)** and above skirt the boundaries of natural human capacity.

You can use the following guidelines to help determine difficulties relative to a character’s skill:

·         A player will nearly always succeed against a difficulty of 2 less than his character’s skill without needing to invoke any aspects.

·         A player will usually succeed against a difficulty of 1 less than his character’s skill, but might need to invoke an aspect on occasion.

·         A player has a relatively equal chance of succeeding or needing to invoke an aspect against a difficulty equal to his character’s skill.

·         A player will usually need to invoke an aspect to succeed against a difficulty of 1 higher than his character’s skill, but has a fair chance of making the roll as well.

·         A player will almost always need to invoke an aspect to succeed against a difficulty of 2 higher than his character’s skill.

### **Extra Shifts**

Sometimes a player will roll far greater than the difficulty and generate extra shifts on an action. Many actions during play will depend less on whether or not a character succeeds, and depend more on how much a character succeeds by and what that success means. The number of shifts a character generates on a roll can serve as a yardstick for describing how a roll turns out:

·         **0 shifts = Minimal success:**

The character pulled it off. It’s neither pretty nor graceful, but it works.

·         **1 shift = Notable success:**

This is a clear success. The character’s result is solid and reliable; while it may not be inspired, it is absolutely workmanlike.

·         **3 shifts = Significant success:**

The success is noticeably well done and of fine quality, very reliable, and so on.

·         **5+ shifts = Potent success:**

Not only is the quality of the success remarkable, it may have some unexpected, secondary benefits, such as a deeper insight into a problem at hand.

You and the players can use this to color your narration of an action appropriately—a Craftsmanship roll to fix a car engine might be described with a result like, “The car still sputters erratically and emits smoke, but at least it’s running again,” if it barely succeeds. If the roll produces 5 shifts, however, it might be described with a result like, “You turn the key and the engine comes to life, purring as smoothly as it did when it was new.”