D6 Pool Narrative System – Knights of the Seven

Circles
Basic System
Roll a pool of d6 dice (regular dice) to generate hit’s (5’s or 6’s) and misses (4 and below). A higher
amount of hit’s means a better success.

Basic System:
- Generate Base Pool: Attribute + Skill (+ modifiers)
- Generate Final Pool: Base Pool – Difficulty Value, Dv. (see Difficulty and Modifiers, pg. xxx)
- Roll pool: 5’s and 6’s are ‘hits’
- The number of ‘hits’ (or not) determine the result of the test.

Possible results:
- 0 hits = Failure
- 1 hit = Mixed success
- 2 hits = Full success
- 3 hits = Resounding success
A Resounding failure occurs when the roll contains 0 hits and at least one die showing a 1 (botch).

Interpreting Results

Results in Knights of the Seven Circles are slightly more granular and narrative than a binary
success and failure state. The following section helps to give some guidance about what they mean
and how to interpret them in your games.

Failure and Resounding Failure

A failure result on a test means that the action being attempted was unsuccessful. As tests in
Knights of the Seven Circles are player facing, this means that the status quo is maintained or the
narratively obvious consequence plays out, i.e. the door not opening when attempting to force it
with an athletics check (the status quo) or a lie being detected by a failed attempt at deception etc.
(an obvious narrative consequence)

A resounding failure means that the action was unsuccessful and something has gone wrong, the PC
has to deal with a ‘cost’ (in addition to any other consequences of the failure). Suggestions of
generally applicable costs can be found at the end of this section/chapter or found with the
description of the skills for more action specific examples.

Mixed Success

Mixed success is probably the most complex and interesting result of a test. A mixed success
represents a situation that has not gone badly but has also not gone exactly as the PC wanted. Some
sort of additional consequence or complication has occurred. There are two ways of dealing with a
mixed success, either or both could be applicable to any given action. The final decision on how
best to deal with a mixed success rests with the GM.

As Partial Success
A mixed success as partial success means that, if applicable, one part of an action succeeded while
another part didn’t. For instance, a character is attempting to sneak into a warehouse. A mixed
success might mean that they are able to gain entry but have left some evidence or raised some sort
of alarm (this need not mean that they have actually been spotted.) Alternatively, it could be that
they remain undetected but have not been able to get to exactly the location they intended. Another
example could be when attempting to deceive a guard, the guard buys the lie of why they are there
but not who they are/who they work for etc.

As success ‘at a cost’

Mixed success as success ‘at a cost’ means that the action being attempted was successful but that
some other form of associated cost has come with that success. This could be that the action was
more mentally or physically taxing than expected, or that an item has been dropped or damaged etc.
Costs should be narratively appropriate where possible. Suggestions of generally applicable costs
can be found at the end of this section/chapter while suggestions for more action specific examples
can be found with the description of the associated skill.

Where possible, GM’s are encouraged to come up with multiple possible interpretations of mixed
success and present these to the player. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, this helps to
provide players with a bit more narrative agency. Secondly, it is a way of trying to avoid situations
that may seem overly dramatic/contrived (if not wanted) or something just not in keeping with the
character taking the action (I just wouldn’t have left my father’s gun there etc.)