In the Players Guide page #20 the example “Safe ■■■■■■■”. It looks to me like Greg would score 3 successes, 2 for rolling the ‘3’, and 1 for rolling the ‘9’. How does he get 4 successes? Thank you,
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If his focus is Mechanical Engineering (which would make sense to me as a GM), he scores 2 successes for rolling the 3 and another 2 for rolling the 9. They’re both underneath his target number and having a relevant focus doubles the effect of the success.
Thanks for the response. I thought focus only expanded the range of critical successes, based on the skill value (Players Guide p. 48), which would not be higher than five. So, Gregg has focus on mech engineering (e.g. Engineering 3) so that would give him, say, a crit success on rolls of 1, 2, and 3, but not a roll of 9. I am missing something.
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Looks like a typo to me. You’re correct in that is should only be 3 successes.
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It does need to be made more explicit. The other examples in the book (which I’ve just been rereading in preparation for starting to GM the game for a new group) all seem to point to getting double successes for rolling equal or less than the Skill component with a focus.
Still… we need some clarification and/or that particular example to be corrected, please, Modiphius!
For some odd reason I cannot create a forum thread so I’ll try asking in this one.
I’m finding the magic section confusing. To cast a magic spell I roll 2d20 (and extra dice can only be added through momentum), and for many spells I need 3 successes? I’d also like to clarify you cannot use a skill focus for magic spells.
What am I missing? It seems like most spells are unlikely to be successful.
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Same as with any Skill Test you are free to spend Momentum (or Threat) to buy more 2d20’s to increase your chances of success. For Skills and Focuses, see page 141 Players Guide, which lists specifically magical skills and Focuses. Cyclone of Cernunnos has Survival as a Skill - which means you can use a Focus in Mysticism, while Gaze of Balor would use Persuasion, with Invocation as a Focus. This allows you gain Focuses for certain Spells. Although there are some gaps - there doesn’t seem to be a Focus for Fighting Spells, but the GM is free to create their own Fighting magical focuses.
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Thinking about it, I’d probably allow Focus that was something along the lines of the Base Spell Offensive Bonus and Directed Spell Offensive Bonus used in Rolemaster. Base Spell OB being general spells that attack nominated target(s) (curses, hexes etc) while Directed Spells would be bolt and ball type spells that have a chance of missing the target.
The two PC spells that use fighting oare Spear of Lug and Hammer of Thor. Pretty easy mod to make melee weapon the focus. For villain NPCs it was less straight forward. To Make it more or less consistent with other attack spells I changed Fighting to Persuasion if it was a mental attack (i.e. deals mental stress and carries effect riders that are “mental” in nature) or to Resilience if the attack deals physical stress. I changed the skill for Gaze of the Multiverse from Academia to Persuasion. The couple of medicine skills I changed to survival.
That’s interesting - because while both are fighting Spells they are both ranged attacks so I can’t see melee realistically being the focus: Spear of Lug being directed by the Casters Will (Resilience>Discipline perhaps to avoid being distracted while it travels) and Hammer of Thor being a lightening bolt directed at the target affecting an area around them. If it is lightening, it will direct/earth itself through the target…