Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some questions that commonly crop up on the Info channel!

How do the dice mechanics work?

Short version for people familiar with various dice mechanics: roll Stat + Skill, keep Skill + (Stat/2) + 1 (rounded down). 10s explode, 5% chance to double your final roll with a crit.

Long version!

Arx dice mechanics work on a roll and keep system. (It is similar to, but not actually inspired by, the basic dice mechanics used in the Legend of the Five Rings RPG system. Despite Arx's staff not having played it!)

When you use the @check command, or use other systems that invoke checks such as crafting, it rolls a number of D10 dice equal to your Stat + Skill. Then the system keeps X number of dice with the top results and drops the rest, where X = Skill + (Stat/2) + 1, with Stat/2 rounded down.

So in practice, say Bob is rolling a Stat + Skill combo he has maxed at 5/5. He'll roll 10 D10's (5 + 5) and then keep the highest 8 dice (5 + (5/2) +1). The 2 dice with the lowest results will get dropped, while the top 8 will have their results added together for a final result. For a check with Stat and Skill both at 3, you'd roll 6 dice (3 + 3) and keep 4 (3 + (3/2) +1).

There are two other important aspects of checks, which are exploding 10s and crits. Exploding 10s means that if one of the D10s in your roll pool rolls a 10, you get to keep that 10 and reroll the die! Which means you have a higher chance of rolling more high numbers for your final result.

A crit in Arx's system isn't based on what you actually roll, like some other systems. Instead, it's a percentage chance (probably around 5%) to simply double the end result of your check. This means that crits can range from pretty low to really high!

What can I use resources for?

Check out the Resource Guide!