2nd Edition NWOD Dice Rules

Vampire the Requiem - Dice Pools

When your character is trying to accomplish something and the outcome is in doubt, you roll a pool of ten-sided dice. The dice pool is determined by your characters relevant traits; the relevant traits will usually be a specific attribute and a specific skill. In the case of disciplines, and other worldly powers, the relevant traits will all be outlined in the power.

Example -
A law enforcement officer has approached your character, and is asking what you are doing in the area. Your character is casing the nearby home and needs to convince the officer that you belong in the neighborhood.

The situation above would call for a Manipulation + Subterfuge roll.

Our character has a Manipulation of 4 and a Subterfuge of 3. This means when our characters attempts to deceive the officer, we roll a total of 7 dice for our roll. These seven dice will determine our effectiveness and success at deceiving the officer.

Vampire the Requiem - Roll Modifiers

Our characters base dice pool for his roll to deceive the officer is seven, which is a decent amount of dice. There will be modifiers for a number of rolls in many cases though, which may add or subtract dice from your dice pool.

Example A -
Our character has a specialty in Subterfuge (Lying) which adds a +1 to our roll. The character also has 'Striking Looks 2' on his sheet, which means he looks trustworthy or classically handsome, adding another +2 to our dice poll (since this roll is social). The characters dice pool of 7 is now a dice pool of 10.

Example B -
Our character has recently been in a rough combat, and the house is he is casing is where the other individual lives. In the fight, our character took quite a beating and his health was reduced to the last three health boxes; this amount of damage subtracts a -1 from our roll. The character was also spotted while pushing on some windows, attempting to find one that is unlocked, which also subtracts a -1 from our dice pool. The characters dice pool of 7 is now a dice pool of 5.

There are a number of various modifiers that characters can use to add to their own rolls, subtract from others, and ultimately make the game a bit more dynamic. Quite a few modifiers can come from powers of the blood, mundane items purchased with resources, and even through working together with others.

The correct order of process is to apply your bonuses first, then apply your penalties.

Chance Dice: If you are reduced to a single die, or no dice, for a roll your roll becomes a Chance Roll. When you have a Chance Roll, only a 10 will count as a success. Any other result counts as a failure. If you roll a 1 on your Chance Roll, your character suffers a dramatic failure.

Vampire the Requiem - Roll Results

Once you have determined just how large or small your dice pool is for an action, you will simply roll those dice. When you are rolling dice you are looking for dice that roll 8, 9, or 10. These dice will add a success to your overall result. You want to avoid rolling numbers that are 7 or lower, as they add nothing to your roll.

Example -
Our character has a dice pool of 8 to deceive the officer, who has come up to question him. We make our roll and receive the following dice: 7, 3, 5, 9, 8, 8, 4, 9. In this result, we have a total of four successes (9, 8, 8, and 9). The result we rolled has the officers composure subtracted from it, which will be  Composure 2 in this situation.

4 Successes - 2 Composure = 2 Successes.

Our character succeeds at convincing the cop we belong here. The officer believes our character and leaves him alone, giving the character room to operate and get what he needs done.

The results of your roll will always fit into one of four categories: Success, Failure, Exceptional Success, Dramatic Failure. These results will help decide how the situation resolves or continues on after a specific action has been taken. The results we will be using are below and splits everything into a nice and easy to use reference chart.