Difficulty Checks

Difficulty Charts

The Target number is determined most commonly by something called a Difficulty Chart, or DC. Nearly every activity in the normal course of play is going to make use of this chart or one similar to it – combat is a different issue and will be addressed in a bit, but the goal there is to hit an Armor Class rating which is a rating of difficulty as well.

The difficulty is determined by the DM for any given action. So, for example, to see if you are able to convince that Merchant to give you a piece of fruit, the DM might say that for that specific merchant in that specific moment the difficulty is very hard, while wanting to pay only half price might be merely hard. You would roll your d20 and then add your modifiers, bonuses, and penalties, and hope that the total of the roll is higher than needed.

Standard Difficulty Chart

The Standard Difficulty Chart is a simple expansion. Much of Wyrlde is like this, an expansion of the normal rules, a deeper dive, with layers of what is sometimes called “crunch”.

The basis for much of this is that Wyrlde is a harder place. The world of mortals is small and simple. The world of greater things is large and difficult, and adventurers seek to cross that boundary.

The DM decides on the difficulty, usually through using the phrase as a guideline, and then sets that as the DC. These are shown on the table below.

Variable Difficulty Chart

The Variable Difficulty Chart adds an additional layer of complexity because some tasks are easier to do than other ones, even within a particular specific task. An example is lockpicking. A Common DC Lock crafted by a Novice is going to be easier to pick than one crafted by a Grand Master as a result of experience and personal quirks. Wyrlde introduces 7 Variables: Inadequate, Adequate, Competent, Remarkable, Exceptional, Incredible, Amazing. This gives variability within a generalized degree of difficulty and enables a DM to be somewhat more precise. This is useful for objects and puzzles, enabling solving of complex things by roll of dice, or for crafting and complex clockworks or mechanical locks.

The Variable Difficulty lists the Standard Difficulty in the first column, then expands that difficulty by the row of how variable something is within that general difficulty. A lock made by a Master Locksmith, with a remarkably challenging mechanism, would be a DC 24. One made by a Novice Locksmith, with a similar mechanism, would be a DC 8.

Default Difficulties

On occasion, it will be necessary to know the default difficulties of something according to their degree of Mastery. For the creations of a PC, the default is always equal to their Level+3. For NPCs, the default difficulties are:

DC Penalties

Some actions may have penalties applied to them, such as trying to pick a lock during a battle under a timeline while losing blood from an injury. That penalty is a modifier – all the modifiers are added to the role, negative reducing it and positive increasing it.

Disadvantage and Advantage works the same way – the modifiers are still applied to both rolls.