If a hero attempts to sneak by an enemy guard unnoticed, should the hero make an Agility test to sneak, or should the guard make an Intuition test to catch the hero in the act? If a cultist lies to a hero about the location of a secret temple, does the cultist roll a Presence test to conceal the truth, or does the hero roll an Intuition test to discern the cultist’s honesty?
Except in certain scenarios (explored at NPCs Roll for Deceptive Tasks and Opposed Power Rolls below), heroes make tests and NPCs do not. Heroes are the stars of the story, and the consequences and rewards of tests have longer-lasting implications for them. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. If a hero travels with an NPC retainer or companion, that NPC will almost certainly make tests from time to time. But for the most part, NPCs and other creatures never need to make tests when what they do opposes what the heroes do.
To quickly assess the difficulty of a task opposed by one or more creatures and the test made to attempt it, the Director can use the following guidelines (though these are not hard and fast rules):
- Easy Test: A test is easy if only one creature opposes the hero, and that opposed creature would have a lower bonus to their test roll for the task than the hero does. If a hero with an Agility score of 2 attempts to sneak by a guard with an Intuition score of 0, the test is easy.
- Moderate Test: A test is moderate if multiple creatures oppose the hero and those creatures would have lower bonuses to their test rolls than the hero, or if only one creature opposes the hero and has the same test bonus as the hero.
- Hard Test: A test is hard if an opposed creature would have a higher bonus to their test roll than the hero, or if multiple creatures with the same test bonus as the hero oppose the hero.
The failure consequences of opposed tasks are some of the easiest to create on the fly. Fail to hide from someone, and they notice you. Fail to lie to someone, and they catch your duplicity. Fail to arm wrestle someone for a free ale, and you’re picking up the tab. The consequence is that the opposition bests the hero.
NPCs Roll for Deceptive Tasks
At times, the Director might choose for an NPC to make a test when engaged in a deceptive task, rather than having characters attempt to note the deception. By having the NPC roll in these scenarios, the Director doesn’t tip their hand to the players that subterfuge is afoot.
For example, when an assassin attempts to ambush the heroes while they sit around a campfire, if any player says their hero is on the lookout for danger, that hero would make an Intuition test to notice the danger. But if no one is keeping watch, the assassin makes an Agility test to sneak up on the heroes unnoticed. If the assassin fails the test, the heroes notice immediately as their assailant loudly steps on a twig. If the assassin succeeds, the heroes don’t notice until the assailant is right on top of them.
An NPC might also make a Presence test if they lie to the heroes, as long as the heroes have no reason to believe the character would be deceptive. The Director knows if the heroes are wary in that way because the players will ask if they can make a test to discern the NPC’s honesty.
As an optional rule, the Director is also free to ask the heroes to make a reactive test to a deceptive NPC instead (see Reactive Tests below) whenever they choose.
Opposed Power Rolls
When two creatures are engaged in a particularly dramatic struggle that requires them both to make tests, the Director can have all the creatures involved make a test. The creature with the highest power roll wins. You can’t earn a reward as part of these opposed power rolls, and they don’t follow the typical difficulty structure or have three different tiers of possible outcomes.
For example, if your hero attempts to sneak by a demon lord, you make an Agility test to move stealthily while the demon makes an Intuition test to notice you. If your hero gets the higher power roll, you sneak by without the demon noticing. If the demon gets the higher roll, they catch you in the act of sneaking. If multiple sneaking heroes attempt to get by multiple demons, then each creature makes a test and all the totals are compared to determine which demons notice which heroes.
In the event of a tie in an opposed test, the state of the scene doesn’t change. In the previous example, a tie means that if a demon on guard duty didn’t know a sneaking hero was there, the demon remains oblivious. If the demon did know the hero was out there somewhere while trying to avoid being noticed, a tie means the demon still knows the hero is there but hasn’t determined their location.
Since opposed power rolls don’t use tiers, when you make an opposed power roll, a double edge provides a +4 bonus to the roll, a double bane provides a -4 penalty to the roll, an automatic tier increase counts as a +4 bonus to the roll, and an automatic tier decrease counts as a -4 penalty to the roll.