Hi there!
Reading through the rules for VDS (have not played yet), but how do you get a critical hit with a skill? It says “Any time your roll is 12 or more beyond the goal, you’ve scored a critical success”, but if I understand it, there is no “goal” for Skills. So is crits for Skills only when you get roll The Number of the Beast?
This is a fantastic question.
There are some SKILLS that allow you to roll against the Target Number instead of using your standard stats. If that ever does roll 12 over, then that’s a critical success and you can mark double.
What I personally do in my games is that if the effect states it is a CRITICAL HIT when you roll certain dice outcome, then that is a double success marker on that skill. However, I do limit by saying that you cannot gain additional success in that Combat or that Scene if you have already filled that skill up, until you can rest and gain that new 1D.
When it comes to skills that do not roll against the Target Number AND do not have a critical condition built in, I still use the 666 rule AND I just compare the dice total to the established target number. If Crit, then double success.
I hope this gives you an idea.
I see, thank you for your reply!
So for example, Dual Attack (see below) would get 2 Skill Bubbles if the attack was a critical hit. While something like Hell Lore (also below), you cannot roll a crit except if you roll 3 sixes.
DUAL ATTACK
You are trained in dual-weapon fighting. When you attack, any six in your attack roll inflicts an additional hit. You must have two weapons in hand to use dual attack.
HELL LORE
You are an expert on the long, storied history of Hell. Use this skill to identify ruins, trace factions, decode
runes, or navigate a Hellscape on any 4, 5, or 6 rolled.
That is how I would rule it. I would also say that HELL LORE could have another critical condition if it’s being used in combat and there is a SPEED.
That, or you can roll 3D against the total of HELL LORE roll. If HELL LORE is 12 over your 3D, then Critical, mark 2, get some awesome knowledge.
Another take here: there are not crit’s for skills. Hitting a target number/goal and rolling skills are designed as distinct pieces. Exceptions being where it specifically says roll in place of an attack and such.
My two cents on encouraging this would be to keep rolls and resolution fast! Rather than figuring out a goal, rolling skill, comparing to goal, doing math, etc. It’s just roll that skill, boom done.
Yeah, I’d say unless you want to houserule it (which is cool), Skills as written seem to either Crit (and thus get two skill bubbles) when you roll three sixes or if skill is not a separate roll, but tied to a regular stat/attack roll.