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This thread explains how dice and stats work!
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- #2
How do dice work?
Character stats and dice rolling in Pokémon Expeditions are very simple! There are no skills or derived values to worry about, just simple comparative rolls. Any time you're told to roll a stat, you'll roll that many dice; if your pokémon has 4 Strength, then you'll roll 4d6 - or four six sided dice - and then count your successes and compare to the difficulty.
Every die that you roll can end up as a success or a fail. If you roll 1, 2, or 3, then that die counts as a fail; on the other hand, if you roll a 4, 5, or 6, then that die counts as a success! You don't need to add up totals, simply count the number of successes that you generate in a single roll.
Once you have your successes, you compare that to the difficulty of the task you're attempting. This value is usually given to you, though sometimes you may need to randomize it yourself - the directions will always tell you what you need to do! If your number of successes equals or is greater than the difficulty, then you've passed that dice check!
Example:
In an expedition, you roll a task with difficulty 2 which tells you to roll your pokémon's Dexterity. They have a 3, so you roll 3d6 - three six-sided dice. Your rolls come up 2, 4, and 6.
Since you rolled two successes - 4 and 6 - and the difficulty was 2, you pass the check!
Difficulty rank will always be on a scale of 1-5 except in extremely niche, rare cases; if you'd like to roll dice for your own roleplays and writing, this is a good overview of what each point represents:
Required Successes | Difficulty Meaning |
1 | Troublesome. Not something done all the time. |
2 | Challenging. Some kind of obstacles or problems in your way. |
3 | Hard. The conditions of the situation are placing you at a disadvantage, or you're really out of your league. |
4 | Insane. The mere idea of trying this is ridiculous. |
5 | Almost impossible. Logic dictates that this really shouldn't be possible by most human standards. |
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- #3
How do I read stats?
Character stats are presented with two numbers; the first is the character's current value in that stat, while the second in parenthesis is the maximum value that character can have. All human characters have stats that start at one and max out at five; pokémon have different minimum and maximum values for stats depending on their species.
Here you can see examples of human and pokémon stats; notice the lack of Special for humans!
Strength 1 (5) | Vitality 1 (5) | Dexterity 1 (5) | Insight 1 (5) |
Tough 1 (5) | Cool 1 (5) | Beauty 1 (5) | Clever 1 (5) | Cute 1 (5) |
Strength 3 (7) | Vitality 2 (3) | Dexterity 1 (2) | Insight 3 (6) | Special 1 (4) |
Tough 1 (5) | Cool 1 (5) | Beauty 1 (5) | Clever 1 (5) | Cute 1 (5) |
As you can see, some pokémon can be stronger or weaker than humans in different ways simply because of their bodily capacity. The example pokémon can never have more than two points in dexterity, but could have up to seven in strength - much less agile, but also much stronger than a human being!
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- #4
What are physical stats?
Physical stats represent your character's gauged ability to perform tasks in different physical and mental ways. These range from a character's ability to lift heavy things to their natural flexibility and speed. The more points a character has in a stat, the better they are at it!
Strength:
Strength determines physical strength (shockingly). It's indicative of how much a character can carry, how hard a character can hit, and how well developed a character's muscles are. It doesn't necessarily indicate bulk, as lean people can be just as strong as those with larger mass; it only indicates raw capability.
Vitality:
Vitality is used to determine how resistant a character is to pain and weariness. It also indicates how healthy and vigorous a character is. Higher vitality means a character can take and deal with more before getting worn out.
Dexterity:
Dexterity is used to determine not only speed, but flexibility and coordination as well. People with high dexterity may be quite quick or bend themselves into and out of pretzels with ease.
Insight:
Insight is the ability to be aware, perceive, and understand yourself, others, and surroundings. It's the power of the mind to understand and see beyond the mundane. It helps both in physical observation as well as general acceptance or processing of the strange or unusual.
Special:
Special represents a pokémon's ability to store, channel, and manipulate energy. This can range from a psychic pokémon's telekinesis to a more elemental pokémon's ability to conjure or direct primal forces. Humans notably have no special stat, though some have been known to form bonds with particularly powerful psychic pokémon that gives the impression they do.
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- #5
What are social stats?
Social stats represent a character's capacity for acting or presenting a certain way, within the limits of their personal intelligence bracket. A bestial pokémon isn't going to be writing prose, and even the dumbest superhuman pokémon might seem smart to an average human, but they all have relative social scores all the same.
Tough:
Toughness is used to command respect and intimidate or coerce others. If a character needs to face something head on or stand in the way of others' aggression, being tough is the way to go.
Cool:
This attribute makes for a charismatic, confident, and trustworthy attitude, whether dealing with humans or pokémon. It can be used to break quarrels, influence people, and in making new friends!
Beauty:
Beauty can indicate physical beauty and good looks, but it can also indicate elegance and a classy demeanor. A high beauty score can help get others' favor and leave others impressed with a character's ability to make it seem easy to be perfect.
Clever:
Clever is the capacity of the mind to remember, comprehend, and solve problems. Characters need it to understand things around them and be capable of finding out the best solutions.
Cute:
Cuteness can indicate a sweet and innocent behavior that lowers everyone's guard. It gives a character an air of pureness that makes others want to protect them, though this sweetness may be deceiving as it's also good for manipulating through charm.
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- #6
My character's not a total beginner!
That's okay! While stats for pokémon should be considered absolute for them, consider stats for your human characters to be the ability they've been recognized to have on Nauwill. As they prove themselves capable and perform more in the region, they'll be allowed to do more and be thought of as more and more able by those around them.
Your characters should not be top-of-the-line, end-all be-all Champions, but they don't have to be a bumbling idiot just because they have a lower dexterity score. It could just mean they're not as good at that sort of thing and haven't proven themselves very well.
Consider it an abstraction for gameplay and in-character perception both - it's no fun if you can't make progression in a game, after all, right?