Totte - feats

Introduction

During game play, much time will be spent on conversing with player characters and non-player characters. This can be played out simply by talking, of course from the perspectives of the characters, not the players. At other times characters interact with the game world in a more physical way. Again this be played out by simple statements of intent, like "My character picks up the shiny orb and examines it". But not all actions will succeed so easily. If for example you state "My character jumps over the gorge" there may be a chance that he will fail in the attempt, crashing with damage on the other end, or even falling into the gorge! This where elements of skill and chance come in. Totte calls this feats.

Ability, difficulty and effect

To determine if a feat will succeed, two scores are compared. The first is called ability, which combines all factors that may contribute to success. The second is difficulty, which sums up all factors that can impart failure. If ability as equal to or exceeds difficulty, then the feat will usually succeed; the other way around it will usually fail. There may also be a small random factor involved that allows a character to rise above herself and succeed despite lack of ability, or cause failure for a feat that would normally be achieved.

Ability

Totte rates all feat abilities on a scale that normally runs from 0 to 6. There are always three abilities that take part, adding up to a range of 0 to 18. In some cases one ability is used twice together with another single, or even one ability three times. Factors that can make an ability are:

Talent: These can be either physical or mental like strength, dexterity or intelligence. For a full list see talents.
Skill: A skill encompasses knowledge and experience in a specific field. For a full list see skills.
Equipment: Many feats are attempted with help of a tool of some kind. Both its suitability for the feat and its general quality play a role.

Difficulty

Like abilities, feat difficulties are rated by adding up several factors. Here there are no fixed ranges of 0 to 6 or 0 to 18; difficulties can range from no-brainers to downright impossible. There are several factors that can contribute to difficulty:

Base: Every feat has a base difficulty. Some are dead easy, others extremely difficult. For example the base difficulty of walking is zero for a healthy character.
Ailments: Wounds, diseases, fatigue, intoxication and other ailments hamper a character's ability. This increases the difficulty of almost all feats.
Environment: The environment can make feats harder or easier. For example cooking a tasty meal in a well-equipped kitchen is much easier than in the wilderness, with a single pan, a fickle fire and only a few ingredients.
Opposition: This means active opposition by other characters. Hitting a man who is standing still may be easy, but becomes hard once he starts to defend himself. In this case, the ability of the other, itself a combination of factors, works as a difficulty for the attacker. These kind of feats are called contested feats.

Effect

A positive difference between ability and difficulty signals success; zero or negative failure. For some feats that is just that. With others the feat score shows how good or poor the result is.

Example

Luigi the would-be cook tries to skin a hare and roast it over a campfire, though he has no clue how to do that. His ability is a meager 2, the difficulty 7, so the feat result is 2 - 7 = -5. In the game, this probably means that the hare is either charred black or half cooked, with bits of skin and hair still attached to the meat - yuch!
Next Paolo, who is an expert cook, arrives on the scene and shows how it should be done. His ability is 10, so the feat score is 10 - 7 = 3. In game terms this means a well cooked hare, the meat tender and spiced with some herbs found in the vicinity.

Chance

In most feats, there is an element of chance involved. This is worked out by rolling a d8. If the result is high (7 or 8 on the die), 1 point is added to the feat score; if low (1 or 2 on the die), 1 point is subtracted. The die is then re-rolled and the chance factor is increased or decreased by 1 point with every roll. This goes on until a medium value (3, 4, 5 or 6 on the die) or reversed value comes up. There is no fixed limit to the number of die rolls, though the chance of evading non-medium and non-reversed values decreases steadily with the number of rolls.

Example

Paolo the cook is trying to prepare a delicious meal to impress the local baron. His ability is 10 and the difficulty is 11, so the feat score is 10 - 11 = -1. Normally this is out of his reach, because a zero or positive result is required. But he rolls a 7 on the random die roll, increasing the result from -1 to 0. Because of the success, he may roll again and the die comes up with an 8, further increasing the result to 1. Once more he may roll the die, but this time it comes up with 2, signaling a decrease. This final roll decrease is disregarded, but it causes the series of die rolls to be halted. The final feat result is now established at 1.

Randomness

As explained above, normal randomness means a 1/4 chance of decrease, 1/2 of no change and 1/4 of increase. But the degree of randomness varies per type of feat. Some are less random or not at all, while others are so unpredictable that ability and difficulty are largely at the whim of chance.
The table below shows which die values increase or decrease the feat score, depending on the degree of randomness. Red signals a decrease; green an increase; gray no change.

Randomness	Die value
none	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
low	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
normal	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
high	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
extreme	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8

Alternatives

Instead of a d8, a d4, d12 or d20 can be used to cover normal randomness. For example on a d12, 1 - 3 signals a feat score decrease, 4 - 9 no change and 10 - 12 an increase.
Some GMs might want to use d10, d12 and d20 to cover degrees of randomness that cannot be covered with a d8, for example a 1/5 chance of feat score increase / decrease.

Classes of feats

Retries

A failed feat does not always indicate total failure; sometimes it can be retried. Totte discerns the following categories:

Singular feats can be attempted only once. An example is an attempt to lift a heavy object. If a character fails at this, he is just not strong enough. Subsequent attempts are doomed to fail also, unless something boosts the ability or lowers the difficulty.
Fading feats can be retried. For example a minute spent trying wriggle open a lock with a needle may fail, but subsequent tries might yield a new angle of attack that works. But with each attempt the bag of tricks is emptied further, decreasing the chance of success. In Totte this is represented by an increasing penalty to the ability, for example -1 on the second attempt; -2 on the third; -3 on the fourth; and so on.
Repeatable feats can be retried again and again without penalty, sometimes even with increasing chance of success. An example is an attack in a melee that tries to break through the defense of an opponent. If one fails, another can be attempted as the defender has to raise his defense again. If the defender tires, his defense may slacken, increasing the chance of success. Then again, the attacker may tire too.

Assistance

Most feats are attempted by a single character, but there are some where others can play a part too.

Personal feats can be attempted by a single person only. An example is the one mentioned above, where a character attempts to jump over a cliff. If others try too, each must attempt a feat of her own.
Supported feats benefit from the assistance of others. Here one character takes the lead in the attempt and others may lend support, boosting the ability of the prime character a bit. An example is an attempt to decipher a piece of text written in ancient, half-forgotten language. The character with the highest skill in the language will make the attempt, but if others have knowledge too, they will add a small bonus.
With Cumulative feats the credo is the more, the better. Abilities of multiple participants all add up. An example is trying to lift a heavy cart with a broken axle; more people means more strength.

Feats in play

Normally, players come up with their ability and the GM with the difficulty for a feat. The player makes the randomness die roll. For NPCs, the GM handles both. In some cases the GM also takes over for the player, if the difficulty is secret. An example is an attempt to pickpocket an NPC, where the GM does not want to reveal the NPC's alertness skill level, which acts as a penalty to the pickpocketing feat.