Adjudication
AX.C.14.02 - Adjudication
Where AX.C.02 defines what the dice do, this section covers when to use them and how to interpret what they produce. Adjudication is the moment-to-moment translation between the fiction and the rules, the GM's most constant responsibility at the table.
When to Call for a Roll
The criterion for calling a roll: the outcome is uncertain, and both success and failure produce something worth playing. If either condition isn't met, don't roll.
Three categories that don't need dice:
Trivial actions, A trained character doing something well within their capability against no meaningful resistance. A skilled climber ascending a ladder. A soldier drawing their weapon. A scholar recalling a fact from their own specialty. Calling for a roll here communicates that the task is harder than it looks, which is either wrong, or a lie the GM will have to sustain.
Impossible actions, No pool size will produce the needed outcome. A character cannot pick a lock they have no picks for, or convince an NPC established as incorruptible to accept a bribe. Rolling and failing communicates the same thing as declaring it impossible, but wastes time and sets a misleading precedent that dice could have helped.
Inconsequential actions, The outcome doesn't change anything about the scene. Whether the character succeeds or fails at identifying the paint color on a wall, the scene continues identically. If neither outcome matters, the roll doesn't matter.
The over-rolling problem: Every roll carries an implicit stake, the table is paying attention because something might go wrong. Frequent calls for inconsequential rolls train players to look for risk where none exists, and to feel cheated when rolls produce nothing. Reserve dice for moments that deserve them.
Setting Thresholds
The Standard Threshold is 2, the default for most non-combat challenges. It produces roughly 75% success on a 6D pool and scales naturally as dice pools grow.
| Threshold | Difficulty | Typical Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Easy | Favorable circumstances, trained character, no meaningful resistance |
| 2 | Standard | Normal conditions, outcome uncertain |
| 3 | Difficult | Adverse conditions, active resistance, or missing tools |
| 4 | Hard | Severe conditions, strong opposition, multiple compounding factors |
| 5+ | Epic | Near-impossible; extraordinary capability required |
Threshold reflects the obstacle at hand, not a general desire for tension. The most common modifier is active resistance, when an NPC or threat is actively working against the character, add 1. Unfavorable environment (poor visibility, time pressure, difficult terrain) adds 1. Attempting without required tools or preparation adds 1. These stack, but threshold rarely needs to exceed 4 outside genuinely exceptional circumstances.
Example: Picking a lock is Standard (2). Picking an unfamiliar lock under time pressure without proper picks is Hard (4): +1 for the unfamiliar mechanism, +1 for inferior tools, +1 for the approaching patrol.
Set the threshold before the roll with the full picture in mind. Don't adjust it mid-roll because the fiction shifted.
Reading Results
Clean success (met threshold): The action succeeds as declared. Narrate what happened and move the scene forward. The size of the pool doesn't change the quality of the outcome, meeting the threshold is meeting the threshold.
Excess successes (exceeded threshold by 1 or more): The character succeeded with margin. This is the GM's invitation to add something, a piece of additional information, a positional advantage, a detail that carries forward into the next scene. Excess successes aren't a separate mechanical system; they are narrative latitude the GM can use or leave alone.
Narrow failure (1 success short): The character came close. This is where success with cost is most appropriate, the GM may offer the character what they were attempting, but something is spent, damaged, or compromised alongside it. The lock opened, but the pick broke inside. The NPC agreed, but overheard the wrong thing on the way out. Not every narrow failure warrants this treatment, but it is always available as an option.
Clear failure (2 or more short): The action failed and it was apparent. Narrate the failure directly, don't soften a clear failure into a near-miss. But the scene should still move. What did the character observe in failing? What condition changed? A failed roll that produces nothing, no new information, no shifted circumstance, no consequence, was a wasted roll. Something should be different after the dice land than before.
The forward principle: A scene should be in a different state after a roll than it was before, regardless of result. Success moves the fiction in the direction the character intended. Failure moves it somewhere else. Both are valid; stasis is not.
The Wild Die as Narrative Signal
The wild die produces four cases that warrant distinct narration beyond the arithmetic.
Explosion on success, Critical Success: The character met the threshold and the wild die exploded. Their next challenge is at Advantage (4+ counts as a success). Narrate the success as something exceptional, not just competent but a moment of genuine excellence. The Advantage that follows represents the forward momentum of that excellence and should feel like it was earned.
Explosion on failure: The wild die rerolled and contributed to the total, but the character still didn't meet the threshold. This is a dramatically close attempt. No mechanical effect beyond the failure itself, but the fiction deserves acknowledgment: the character tried harder than anyone expected and still came up short. That is a different story than a routine miss, and the narration should reflect it.
Implosion on success: The wild die removed a success, but enough remained to meet the threshold. The action succeeded, and the implosion tells the GM to narrate a success with a visible hitch. The door opened, but the noise it made was more than expected. The grapple landed, but the footing shifted awkwardly. This is not a mechanical penalty; the success stands. The attached complication is real but separate from the roll's outcome.
Implosion on failure, Critical Failure: The character failed and the wild die imploded. Their next challenge is at Disadvantage (6 only counts as a success). Something went wrong beyond the simple failure, and it carries forward. Narrate what specifically went wrong. A Critical Failure should feel distinct from a standard failed roll, the character is not just back where they started, they are in a worse position.
In all four cases, the GM's narration follows the mechanical result without overriding it. An explosion does not turn a failure into a success. An implosion does not turn a success into a failure. The wild die adds texture to whatever the pool produced.
Scene Framing and Rest Economy
Scene framing is the GM's primary pacing tool. A scene should end at or immediately after its peak moment, the revelation, the decision, the resolution of tension. Scenes allowed to wind down past their peak lose energy and make sessions feel slow. When the most interesting thing in a scene has happened, cut to the next one.
Entering scenes works the same way. Begin with the characters already in the situation, at the negotiation, inside the building, facing the obstacle. Travel, preparation, and approach rarely generate meaningful play on their own; stakes do. If nothing interesting can happen during the approach, skip it.
Rest economy is the GM's control over recovery pacing. The rules define what each rest type recovers; the GM determines whether conditions permit one.
A Short Rest (10–15 minutes) requires no active threat. Deny it when threats are ongoing, time is critical, or the characters genuinely cannot stop safely. Granting Short Rests freely reduces attrition between encounters; denying them entirely turns every session into a war of resource exhaustion. Both extremes flatten the texture of play.
A Long Rest (8 hours) requires shelter, food, and water. Use environmental and narrative pressure, not arbitrary refusal, to pace when Long Rests are available. A campaign that provides a Long Rest between every encounter removes the resource management that gives individual encounters weight. A campaign that never allows one turns survival into a grind rather than a challenge.
Rest is a pacing lever. Use it deliberately in both directions.
Resolving Edge Cases and Rule Gaps
Every session produces situations the rules don't explicitly cover. When they arise, work through the following in order:
Intent first: What was this rule trying to accomplish? Apply it in the spirit of that purpose. Most edge cases have a clear answer when the rule's function is considered rather than its literal text.
Precedent second: Has this situation come up before in this campaign? Apply the same ruling. Inconsistent rulings on the same situation erode the table's trust in the adjudication process. Consistency matters more than perfection.
Dramatic logic third: When intent and precedent don't resolve it, ask what outcome makes the most interesting result without undermining the players' investment in their characters or the fiction they've built.
When a ruling is made at the table, note it. Apply it the same way if the situation recurs. If a ruling proves unworkable, revise it between sessions, not mid-session, and tell the players it changed and why.
Genre Catalog mechanics are local rules. When a Genre Catalog defines a mechanic with no core analog, that mechanic governs its domain and does not imply changes to core rules outside it. A digital-space encounter system in a sci-fi catalog doesn't affect how physical combat resolves. Treat catalog mechanics as authoritative within their stated scope and silent outside of it.