Transformers E20 Core and Attack Prompt Systems

1 The Roll Ladder
2 The Attack Prompt System
- 2.1 For the GM
- 2.2 For the Player

The Roll Ladder

The E20Core system works off of rolls interacting with the Die-Shift Ladder. Your attacks, skills, abilities, and gear, will interact with this table by rolling an initial die on from the table. Then gear, players, and npcs, will be able to “Upshift” or “Downshift” your roll on this ladder.

For Example: If you attempted to attack with a weapon that had a d6-chance to hit, you would start with the d6 die queued and ready to roll. The DM would then review your roll on their screen, and take into account any Upshifts/Downshifts you would apply to the roll, any Upshifts/Downshifts the environment would apply to your roll, and then any Upshifts/Downshifts your opponent would be using to stop your roll from benign successful.

If you were to Upshift +2, your d6 would become a d10-chance to hit (d20 + d10).
If your opponent or environment Downshifted -3, you would roll a base die of 1d20.
If you are to use a “specialized” roll, you will roll a d20 + your ladder die (in this case, we’ll use a d8), and every die below it. So a specialized d8-chance to hit would be d20 + d8 + d6 + d4 + d2. You would then take the d20 + Highest Results as the chance to hit results.

The Attack Prompt System

GM’s will have access to an attack prompt system when using any E20Core based game. The Attack prompt system is located at the bottom of the Combat Tracker panel. Attacks made by players or NPCs will be queued up for the GM to review in this list.

As players and NPCs make their attacks, BEFORE the dice are rolled, the attack will be queued up in the Attack Prompt System for the GM to review. When the GM is reviewing an attack, players are invited to “negotiate” the roll with the GM. Chances to add additional effects to the attack that may help the player or hinder the npc, convincing the GM to apply EDGE or remove a SNAG, using a perk or ability to increase your chance to hit with a modifier, or shifting your roll to give you a better chance to hit, or switching the attack to a Specialized Attack, are all possible actions that can happen during this roll-negotiation.

For the GM

Attacks will appear in the Attack Prompt Queue in the order they are rolled, but do not have to be resolved in the order they are sent. Any attack in the queue can be resolved before any other attack in the queue.

Attacks can be cleared from this queue by either resolving the attack, or by pressing the “Clear All” button to remove every attack from the Attack Prompt Queue at once.

An attack in the queue is broken into several parts for the Players and GM to see. However the GM will see additional information that the players will not be able to see to help them manage the attack.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Avatar Icons: The far left of an attack prompt are the icons of the two people involved in the attack. The left icon is the Attacker, the right icon is the Defender. If an attack would attack multiple people, then multiple prompts will be added to the queue. One for each person the Attacker (left icon) is attacking. This is visible to both the Players and the GM.

Attack Description: The attack description will give a brief summary for both the Players and the GM to see what the status of the attack was when it was rolled. It will be rolled with the modifiers, shifts, and edge status that the attacker had when the roll was made, not with what they may have gotten since the roll.

The description of the attack will cover the NAME of the attack, the TYPE OF DAMAGE the attack will deal, the NATURAL ATTACK DIE + MODIFIER, and the SHIFT VALUE applied to the natural attack die.

SPECIALIZATION: Attacks can be specialized to give them a better chance of success when rolling. A player’s character sheet will determine if they are able to specialize a roll, or a GM may give a player a temporary specialization during a prompted attack roll.

One way to give an attack a specialization in the quick-view is to just click on the purple specialization icon on the right-hand side of the prompt. The Diamond-Shape attack icon is a normal roll. The Attack will roll the die + modifier that is shown in the description. The Circular-Shape icon is a specialized roll. The will still roll the die + modifier that is shown in the description, but will also roll any additional die that is below it in the roll-ladder, then take the highest roll of all of the dice thrown.

For instance, if a [ d8 + 0 ] attack prompt is specialized. Then when the dice are thrown it will roll the base d20 + the natural d8 die + d6 + d4 + d2. Then it will take the highest die from the specialized die pool [d8,d6,d4,d2], and add it to the base d20, to determine your overall roll. In the image below, the Natural Attack Die was a d4 that was “Upshifted” twice, and then specialized. The upshift makes the Natural Attack Die a d8, and then the specialization given to the attack roll also rolls the [d6,d4,d2] dice with the attack. The game will automatically evaluate the dice and let you know which was the highest value by graying out the dice not used, and highlighting the die that was chosen with a BLUE box.

Detailed View: GMs are given an option to view an attack with a details menu. This menu will offer more information on the attack than the quick-view can show, such as the target DC value the attack must succeed at. It will also allow the GM to add any modifiers that may affect the attack (or modifiers the players have negotiated for). As well as adjust the Shift-Value. The GM can also CLEAR the individual attack without clearing the entire queue from this details menu. The Details Menu can be accessed by clicking on the DETAIL VIEW button [ … ] on the right hand side of an attack prompt.

The left-hand side of the details menu is the information about the attack being made. A GM can give the attack EDGE/SNAG, adjust the SHIFT bonus, Change the attack to Specialized or Unspecialized, or apply Effects/Modifiers to attack, before pushing the roll through.

The center of the details menu has an icon to denote if the attack is Specialized or Unspecialized. Clicking on this icon will toggle it between the two states.

DM’s can also change which Essence stat is used as the Target DC from the combobox on the right-hand side of the details menu.

NOTE: Some effects, like Shifting and Modifiers, only benefit the attacker in this scenario. So assigning them to the defender will still roll out like nothing happened. However, if players/npcs have effects attached to their characters in the Combat Tracker when an attack is made, the “Additional Effects” list will be auto-populated with those effects (and the icons set to who they are targeting). The automated roll system will ignore effects that have no impact on the attack itself, so GMs don’t have to spend time cleaning up this list or micro-managing the targeting.

For the Player

The player view will be limited compared to the DM/GM View. Players will still see the Attack prompt section and be able to read the details of the attack. However they will not be able to set the Defensive Essence Value the attack is targeting. And the Details Menu will only show a summary of the Effects/Modifiers that are being included with the attack, instead of the entire suite of information the GM gets.

Players will only see the red “ROLL ATTACK” button for their own attacks. Attacks not made by them will not show any attack button or details menu button.