Age of Sigmar rpg : Soulbound, test mechanism revealed

Hello everyone !!

Soulbound is the Age of Sigmar RPG (pen & paper) in preparation at cubicle7 in a recent post we looked at the archetype inside the core rulebook : here . Today let's check what the Test mechanism will be.

What are Test in Soulbound

Test will be the core mechanism of Soulbound, it will be used for combats, skills, roleplayings (?), explorations. For such a core mechanism I expect it to be well thought and polished!

Test in Soulbound will be resolved by rolling a pool of six-sided dice (d6s) and try to roll equal or greater than the Difficulty Number (DN). It's exactly like Warhammer 40 000, Age of Sigmar, or Shadowrun (ed 1 to 3) if we consider RPG.

Attributes in Soulbound

In Soulbound only 3 attributes, Body, Mind, Soul. Body will represent physical capacity of your character, Mind will be a mix of intelligence/perception/wits and Soul will be your willpower. Average joe in the Mortal Realm will be at 1 or 2.

When rolling for a test, your dice pool will equal the corresponding attributes. Ie: You want to do a test for running you will roll a number of dice equal to your Body.

Skills in Soulbound

Skills represent a level of training and expertise in a particular area, such as arcane lore, athletics, crafting, and combat.
Skills have 2 aspects: Trained and Focus, both can be LvL up.

Trained in a skill : Each level of training in that skill will grant one extra dice on your test roll.

Focus in a skill : Each level of focus in a specific skill will add a +1 to the result of one Dice (ie: if you roll one dice and get a result of 4 you can increase it to 5)

Simple test

The Simple Test in Soulbound is common. A Simple Test has a DN from 2 to 6 (chosen by the GM), with 4 being the average difficulty. To roll the Test, gather up a number of dice equal to the Attribute plus any ranks of Trained you have with the Skill. The test is a success if any dice equal or exceed the DN.

Extra success are used to improve the effectiveness of your test.

Example by Cubicle 7 :

Imren, an Isharaan Tidecaster, is inspecting an ancient Agloraxian device buried deep underground. She wants to try to understand what the device was used for so the GM tells her she must make a Test. The GM decides that inspecting the device uses the Mind Attribute and that the Arcana Skill is appropriate. Knowledge of the Agloraxian Empire is hard to come by so the GM determines the difficulty of the Test is 5. The GM tells Ímren she must make a DN 5 Mind (Arcana) Test.

Imren has Mind 3 and one level of Trained in Arcana, so her dice pool for the Test is 4 (3 + 1). She rolls and gets a result of 1, 3, 5, and 6. This gives her two successes (5 and 6). The GM tells her she has passed the Test and decides that the additional success is worth a little more information. She tells Ímren that the device was used to lift large structures into the air, and that there may be a way to reactive the device…

Complex test

Same as a simple test but the GM asks for a certain numbers of success to pass the test. It's not clear from the article if the test is a single roll only or can be made in multiple rolls (for a prolonged task like repairing an armour)

Example by Cubicle 7 :

Example: Ímren has managed to reactivate the Agloraxian device. Unfortunately, it has caused the ancient structure to crumble and begin to fall apart. She and her companions race for the exit, hoping to avoid being sealed inside a tomb. Vel Arturious, the Knight-Questor, reaches the exit first. She tells the GM that she wants to hold the archway up so that her allies can escape. The GM tells her that she is going to have to keep it up for a number of rounds while the others flee. The GM calls for a DN 3:3 Body (Might) Complex Test– the task is not difficult (DN 3) but it does take time (3 successes).

Vel has Body 4 and one level of Trained in Might, giving her a dice pool of 5 (4 + 1). She rolls and gets a result of 1, 2, 2, 5, and 6. An unlucky roll that gives her only 2 successes. Luckily, Vel also has a Focus in Might. This allows her to add +1 to the result of one of her die. She uses this to increase one of the results of 2 to a 3. This now gives her 3 successes, just enough to pass the Test. Her companions race by as she braces herself beneath the weight of crumbling stone. With everyone safely through, she releases the archway and sprints to safety.

From the example, it looks like that Complex test are a lot harder to pass than Simple test. For now I am just not sure if they are limited to one roll dice or also used for "Prolonged task" that could take a few days (ritual ?) and involve multiple rolls.

That's it for now, So far we learned that Souldbound will play a lot like Shadowrun old edition or GW wargames.

Cu next week for more info on the Age of Sigmar RPG.

/Cheers.
Bob.

Cubicle 7 is now the Pen & Paper boss for the Warhammer IP. They are the one behind the Incredible good Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game WFRP that we reviewed last year there is also a free adventure that you can get, the Night of Blood (awesome story). On the Age of Sigmar front, they are currently finishing Soulbound, an Age of Sigmar pen & paper RPG, we already have some details about the mechanism of Soulbound . Cubicle 7 even revealed more info on opposed test and group test in Soulbound Age of Sigmar RPG.
Recently they also acquired Wrath And Glory rpg for Warhammer 40000