Resistance

Often, players will be called upon to make a resistance roll. A resistance roll is a Versus Challenge made using a specified Attribute to resist an effect triggered by a spell, a toxin, a disease or some other vector.

Resisting Spells

To resist a spell, the target must roll a Versus Challenge against the caster's spell roll using the resistance Attribute specified by the spell. Note that when casting spells, criticals and catastrophes must be considered independently for both the caster and the resistor. In theory, a caster could critically succeed in casting a spell, and the resistor could also critically succeed their defense.

Example: a successful Resistance Roll

Caster casts a Zap spell (skill 15), and rolls an 11, for a total of 26.
Zap is resisted using Stability, and target’s Stability is 13. Target rolls a 14 for a total of 27, so they resist.
Caster rolls 3d8 for damage, and gets 13. Target takes only half (7) because they resisted.

Note that some spells may be latent, delayed, or have prolonged effects that might need to be resisted later. It is important that whenever a spell is cast, the result of the roll to cast it is recorded. If the result is not recorded, and the information is needed later, do not re-roll - instead, treat the roll to cast the spell as though it were 21 (the minimum).

Example: delayed resistance against a spell with a duration

In the first turn of a combat encounter, a caster casts the Magic Trap spell (skill 15), and rolls a 12, for a total of 27. The result is 3 hex radius Magic Trap (27) that will remain in effect for 18 turns.
Fourteen turns later, the powerful enemy wizard decides to flee, running into the radius of the trap, as they attempt to cast Fly to hasten their escape.
The enemy wizard spends their 8 Concentration for the Power 5 spell, but the spell automatically fails.
The player who cast the Magic Trap rolls 5d4 for damage, and gets a 14.
The enemy wizard can resist the damage from Magic Trap (27) using their Mental Attribute (which is 15). They roll a 13 for a result of 28, and succeed.
The enemy wizard takes 7 and falls.
Had the caster failed to record the result of 27, the Magic Trap would have defaulted to Magic Trap (21) and would have ended after 12 turns. The enemy wizard would have made a clean getaway.

Resisting Toxins

Every time a subject is exposed to a poison or toxin, the subject must immediately roll a Versus Challenge to resist. The Director rolls for the toxin using its toxicity and records the result. The subject then rolls using the resistance attribute specified by the toxin.

If the subject resists, the frequency at which the toxin does damage is halved. If the subject rolls a minor critical when resisting, then the both the frequency and the rolled duration of the intoxication are halved. A major critical means the subject resists the intoxication entirely and will suffer no effects.

If the subject fails to resist, they are immediately put into the intoxicated state. They also immediately suffer the damage of the toxin and will continue to suffer the damage at the frequency defined by the toxin for the entire duration or until they receive an antidote.

A minor catastrophe when resisting means the toxin is in effect for the maximum duration, and a major catastrophe means the damage is doubled for the maximum duration.

Example: a Giant Centipede sting

A fierce warrior is stung by a giant centipede, which backs off, hoping its venom will do the work.
The Director rolls 5 and adds the toxicity of 14, recording the result of 19.
The player rolls 2d10 to resist and gets a 9. They add the warrior's 15 Adaptability to the roll for a result of 24 - so they resist.
The Director rolls 3d4 for the duration of the toxin and gets an 8.
Instead of taking 1d2 damage every turn for 8 turns, the warrior will take 1d2 damage every second turn for 8 turns, (on turns 2, 4, 6 and 8)
After 5 turns, the warrior has taken only 2 damage. The giant centipede decides to sting again and succeeds, so the Director rolls for the toxin a second time.
This time, the Director rolls a 16 and adds the toxicity of 14, recording the new result of 30, replacing the old result of 19.
The player rolls 2d10 to resist and gets a 9 again for a result of 24. This time they do not resist.
The warrior immediately takes 1d2 damage from the venom and is put in the intoxicated state.
The Director rolls 3d4 for the duration of the second dose of toxin and gets a 7.
The next turn (which is the sixth turn of the original sting) the warrior takes 1d2 damage from the first sting, and they also take 1d2 damage from the new sting.
The warrior will continue to take 1d2 damage every turn from the second sting, and will take an additional 1d2 in the 8th and final turn of the duration of the first sting.
Because giant centipede venom can paralyze, we must keep track of the total damage the warrior has suffered.
In the sixth turn after the second sting the warrior has taken 13 total damage from the venom - this exceeds their Stability of 12.
In the sixth turn after the second sting the warrior has taken 13 total damage from the venom - this exceeds their Stability of 12.
The player rolls 2d10 to resist and gets a 10. They add the warrior's 15 Adaptability to the roll for a result of 25 - this is lower than the current strength of the venom which is 30. The warrior fails to resist and is paralyzed.
With its lunch immobilized, the giant centipede moves in and attacks against a helpless opponent with both a bite and a sting, both hits result in minor criticals, doing maximum damage (11 and 10), bypassing all Protection.
The warrior falls.

Note that the Antidote spell can immediately halt the effects of a poison, venom or other toxin, and the Poisons skill can be used to make antidotes or protective serums.

Resisting Diseases

Unlike a venom or toxin, exposure to a disease only occurs once each time it is encountered. For example, being bitten several times by giant rat will only lead to a single exposure to Hair Lung. Disease resistance can be resolved after any combat encounter is over because diseases do not express their effects on a timescale that would affect the outcome of an encounter.

Following exposure to a disease, the subject must roll a Versus Challenge to resist. The subject rolls using the resistance attribute specified, and the Director rolls for the disease using its virulence, recording the result. If the subject resists this initial infection, they do not contract the disease. If they fail to resist, however, the disease starts to run its course.

Once infected with a disease, the subject will typically need to resist repeatedly to slow the progression of the disease, mitigate its ongoing effects, or to potentially recover. Some diseases will run their course naturally, others might require repeated successful resistance rolls to overcome, and still others may be terminal unless they can be cured using the Cure spell, which allows the subject to re-roll their initial resistance and overcome the disease if successful.

Example: a fearsome disease

An unfortunate young priest is asked to clean and sanctify the home of someone who died from Black Rot.
Because contact with surfaces in the home is enough to cause exposure to Black Rot (mild), the priest must roll to resist.
The Director rolls 2d10 and gets a 13, then adds the virulence of Black Rot (mild), to get a total of 22.
The young priest rolls 2d10, adding their Stability of 10, but rolls an unfortunate 4. They are infected.
After 1d4+1 days (the Director rolls 4, for a result of 5 days), the young priest becomes fevered and begins rapidly losing Stamina at a rate of one per hour. Half a day later, they are at zero Stamina, and they enter the exhausted state.
Twice per day, the poor priest must roll to a 21C using their Stability to slow the progression of the disease. Each time the priest fails, they lose a point from a random Stability stat (slowly reducing their Stability and making them less likely to succeed).
Also, during this time, the priest will be overwealmed with the desire to feast on the dead. If they abstain or are prevented from doing so for 4 consecutive days, then recovery can begin.
Four days later, the priest has failed six of their eight resistance rolls, and has lost 6 points from randomly selected Stats that comprise their Stability.
Fortunately, the priest has abstained from feasting on the dead, so they can now roll to resist the disease again to begin recovery.
Unfortunatey, the priest's Stability Attribute is down by 2 to 8. They roll 2d10 and get a 13, adding their Stability of 8, for a result of 21 - not enough to overcome the virulance of 22.
Three days and five failures later, the priest has a Vitality of only 3, and their Stability is now down to 6.
Another priest comes to help and casts Cure, allowing the dying priest to roll their initial resistance again to defeat the disease, this time at +5 due to a successful casting of Cure.
The sick priest rolls an 11... adding their 6 Stability and the +5 from the spell yeilds a 22, which ties the Versus Challenge against the 22 the Director rolled for the Black Rot initially. Ties go to the player.
The young priest is cured. Thier stats and derivatives begin a slow return to normal and many days later, the priest has made a full recovery.

Overwealming Resistance

As when a character suffers penalties to defend when faced with multiple attacks in the same turn, characters also suffer penalties if forced to resist multiple times in a turn.

If forced to resist multiple spells in the same turn, a character suffers a penalty of (-1, -2, -3, -5, -8, -13 etc) for each resistance roll. The same goes for resistance rolls made against diseases or toxins. These penalties do not combine - a character who resists a spell and then a toxin in the same turn will suffer a penalty of -1 to resist a second spell, or -1 to resist a second toxin, but would not be penalized to resist a disease.