Adversary Rolls¶
Adversaries aren't limited to just the attacks and unique actions in their stat blocks; those represent their special abilities, but they can do most anything a PC would do, such as picking a lock or climbing a cliff. However, other than the attack rolls described in the next section, adversaries don't typically make action rolls.
When you want an adversary's action to have a chance of failure, you can offer the PCs the opportunity to make a reaction roll or otherwise respond to the situation. This highlights the agency of the PCs and keeps the story focused on them. For example, when a Kraken attacks the party's boat to throw them into the sea, you might have the PCs all make a Strength or Agility Reaction Roll to see if they're able to keep themselves from falling overboard. For dramatic or difficult tasks that the PCs can't influence, you might want to roll to see if the adversary succeeds. To do so, spend a Fear to utilise any relevant Experience the adversary might have, then roll a d20. These rolls are more interesting if you tell the players the Difficulty and roll where they can see the result.
Adversary Attack Rolls¶
When an adversary you're controlling attacks a PC, you'll make a simplified version of the attack roll made by players. Every adversary can make normal attacks using the weapon in their stat block, and some adversaries can also use special moves to attack.
Step 1: Choose Dice¶
You make your attack roll with a d20. If the adversary has advantage or disadvantage on the attack, add an extra d20 to that roll.
Step 2: Find the Attack Modifier¶
Unlike PCs, adversaries don't use traits on their attacks; instead, the stat block's Attack Modifier is the value added to or subtracted from the adversary's attack roll. You can also spend a Fear to add an adversary's Experience to the roll's result. Set aside a number of character tokens equal to the Attack Modifier and any applicable Experience you have spent Fear to add.
Step 3: Roll the Dice¶
Once you've gathered your dice and tokens for the Attack Modifier, roll them all at the same time. Counting each token as 1 (or −1 for a negative modifier), add the tokens and dice roll result together to determine the total. If you rolled with advantage (or disadvantage), don't count both d20s; only the highest (or lowest) one.
Step 4: Resolve the Situation¶
Share your roll total with the player who was attacked and compare it against their Evasion. If the attack meets or beats that value, it is successful and deals the damage indicated in the stat block for that attack. If it rolls below their Evasion, the attack misses and no damage is dealt; invite the player to describe how they avoided the hit.
Attacking Multiple Targets¶
By default, an adversary can only hit one target with a standard attack. When an adversary's action lets you make an attack against multiple targets, you make one attack roll and ask if it hits any of the targets. If yes, you make individual attacks with multiple adversaries during the same GM move, make an attack roll for each adversary.
Attack Rolls as Story¶
Every attack roll is an opportunity for you to show how that attack changes the scene. When your attack roll hits, you're taking away resources from the PCs (Hit Points, Stress, Armour Slots, etc.), so ensure you provide context for that depletion in the fiction. When your roll is a failure, it's an opportunity to celebrate the prowess of the PC and ask the player to describe how their character avoids the attack.
If a player's action tells you about how quick a character is, it's about how skilled they are at not getting hit. This could manifest as the sorcerer reaching out stealthily through a swirling mass of darkness and letting the axe pass through them, a ranger backflipping out of its way, or anything else that aligns with the character they built.
Adversary Reaction Rolls¶
Some PC moves can force an adversary or other NPC to make a reaction roll. When this occurs, roll a d20 to determine whether they succeed or fail. If you meet or exceed the roll's Difficulty, the NPC succeeds and avoids the consequences. If they roll below the target number, the NPC fails and suffers the consequences.
Because NPCs don't have traits, you can spend a Fear to add any of the adversary's relevant Experiences as a bonus to their reaction roll.
Example: Rune is chasing a Masked Thief and unleashes the Fireball spell to slow them down. The Masked Thief has the very relevant Experience of Acrobatics +3, so the GM spends a Fear and adds +3 to the reaction roll.
On the other hand, if you feel like the adversary would be particularly weak against the PC's move, you can instead impose a penalty on the adversary's roll.
Example: Rune the wizard casts Fireball on a Zombie Pack and their commander, a Skeleton Knight. The Difficulty on the reaction roll is 13. The GM rules that a Zombie Pack is particularly ill-prepared to avoid a Fireball, as they're weak against fire and unlikely to dodge quickly, so the GM imposes a −3 penalty on the roll.
The GM rolls a d20 for the Zombie Pack and gets ≥ 13. With the −3 penalty, they fail and take full damage. The GM rolls again for the Skeleton Knight and gets an 18, which passes the reaction roll. The Skeleton Knight takes half damage per the mechanics of the Fireball spell.