Sample Target Number

[Darkfather]

While many target numbers for skill attempts are defined in the rules, there will be many times the game master has to wing it when figuring out what numbers need to roll above.

The average unskilled roll on a progressive die is around 4.6. This means half of all rolls will be 4 or lower, and half of all rolls 5 or higher. The lowest possible roll is 1, while the highest roll is potentially infinite.

That means with no other benefits, a random roll with be 5 or over half the time.

Characters under level 15 will have scores 5 or under, not counting any bonuses for the situation. This means a 1st level character with a skill of 5 will never roll under 6, and will roll over 10 half the time.

Knowing these facts the game master can adjust the target number as they feel it is needed. A first level character with a skill of 5 has about a 10% chance to roll over 15 on a progressive roll but has a 100% chance of rolling a 6 or more.

A good game master will say, what is the chance to do this act, and how experienced do you need to have even a small chance of doing it.