Natural 10 and out of reach actions ...

[Gully]

The rules say ...

"... obtaining a natural 10 on his die roll (the “0” side of the die) will assure a close success in any attempted action with a Difficulty Threshold of 17 or less."

... does this include attack actions when the defense rating is 17 or less? How about mental resistance rolls of 17 or less? Just want to clarify.

Thanks!

[Deorman]

yes it's supposed to be.
In a roll on mental resistance it's even dangerous because natural 10 make you grow another mental disorder (which I don't renember the name in english but it must be something like "empty armor") because you resist so well your character become insensitive to the world.

[Clovis]

The basic rule is that for any roll with a "Difficult" difficulty or lower, a natural 10 will mean success, even if it does not allow the character to reach 17.

I'd say it works with Mental Resistance rolls, since they work according to the same principle of Difficulty Thresholds. However, Attack vs Defense is a more complex case since Defense is a special kind of Difficulty Threshold. However, my personal opinion is that yes, you can dictate that it works in combat too: it can represent a desperate attack that results in a glancing blow (a margin of only 1) through little more than sheer luck.

Does that answer your questions Gully?


About "Forteresse Vide", the translation is "Empty Fortress", Deorman.

[Gully]

Thanks Clovis it does answer it. I agree with the combat distinction ... of course if you have a minimum success in combat you might not do much damage. But I'm probably going to rule that the natural 10 only works with tasks that have a "Difficulty" threshold.

A follow up question dealing with Mental Resistance rolls ... If the PC rolls a natural 10 but the Mental Resistance threshold is 20 or 25 and he/she would not normally succeed with that roll ... Does the PC get the success and receive a hardening point, plus some minor temporary trauma points. Or does the PC fail (receiving the full amount of temporary trauma points) and gain a hardening point. In the second case the PC still outwardly "toughs it out" but receives the full trauma on the GL's card.

Thanks for all your help Clovis (and others!)

Gully

[Clovis]

If the threshold is above 17 and even a natural 10 does not allow the PC to reach 20, then no dice: short of a critical success, he suffers the effect full force and takes 5 Trauma points... as well as a Hardening point, if a 10 has been rolled.