Rules Closeup #1 – The Maneuver Template
In the last rules closeup we looked at how the maneuver template is used and left Dutch hanging as he attempted to push himself and his fighter beyond their limitations. Now we’ll look at how the dice rolls work and resolve Dutch’s maneuver.
In Interceptor™ all rolls are resolved using a dice pool, with a maximum of 10 dice. The default Target Number is 7 for most rolls. Each die with a result of 7 or more counts as a success. The roll also has a Difficulty assigned, representing the number of successes required to accomplish the task.
Looking at Dutch’s situation, he performed a maneuver that exceeded his Safe Operating Thrust by 2. When Dancing With the Black, he adds his Piloting 4 to the fighter’s Resilience of 1 to get a pool of 5 dice (5d10). The Difficulty for the roll is the amount of Thrust exceeding the Safe Operating Thrust value, in this case 2.
Looking at the results [1,3,5,7,10] and counting each die that rolled a 7 or higher we have two successes. With a Difficulty of 2, Dutch successfully completes his maneuver and ends up in the location he wanted with no ill-effects.
However, what if Dutch had failed? In Interceptor™ greater risks can also bring greater disaster. If Dutch scored one success, his maneuver would have failed and he would need to make a Consciousness test. Had he failed by two successes, he would also need to make a Resilience test for his fighter. Luckily, the Difficulty wasn’t 3—if he failed by three successes, he would also be Out of Control.
Above is a picture of where Dutch would have ended up if the maneuver failed. It isn’t the worst outcome, but that perfect shot is out of the question.
