In Hack100, a Task Roll is required for any action that has a non-negligible chance and consequence of failure. A routine activity such as walking up a flight of stairs would not require a Task Roll. Running down a flight of stairs whilst pursued by an enemy probably would – there would be a chance of stumbling with the possible consequence of injury. Another consequence of failing a task might be lost time, e.g. repeated failures to pick a lock.
The procedure for performing a Task Roll is as follows:
- Select the Ability or Specialism that is most relevant to the task at hand. This is the base Target Percentage.
- The Referee may then adjust the base Target Percentage by a Difficulty Modifier.
- Roll 1d100. If the roll is less than or equal to the Modified Target Percentage, the task is successful.
- A roll of 01-05 is always successful. A roll of 96-00 is always a failure.
- A roll that is a success and a double is a Critical (e.g. 11, 22) and brings extra benefits. A roll that is a failure and a double (e.g. 77, 99) is a Fumble and there will be additional consequences.
It can be seen that Hack100 is entirely conventional in its approach to Task Rolls. Most other d100 systems have a near-identical approach. In the upcoming blogs, I’ll provide some further commentary on specific aspects of Task Rolls including Difficulty Modifiers, Criticals & Fumbles, and Opposed Tasks in which two competing rolls are compared (e.g. Perception versus Stealth).