When it comes time to use the stats that you have put into unique skills, it's important to understand how the stats work. First and foremost, we'll explain a little math.

Our skill system takes inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons, particularly from the fifth edition. We balanced our skill rolls based on the same way D&D handles skill checks. When you submit a skill attempt on a post, you are rolling a 1d20 and applying a modifier based on how much you have in a skill. It is then calculated as a percentage, and output as a success or fail. 50% or lower is a failure, a 1 is a critical failure. 51% or higher is success, and a 20 is a critical success. We're not giving you the exact math, that's enough to garner an understanding. We gotta keep some mystery to it after all.

Critical Success or Failure When it comes to being the best (or worst) at something, you can flavor it how you like. If you are in a fight and attempting to bite someone's tail and you fail miserably, then maybe you bit your tongue or a plant or fell on your face. If you were super successful then you most definitely grabbed their tail. The result is flavored based on your roll.

How skills affect posts

To prevent the abuse of skills, you cannot roll and then edit your post to implement the skill. The skill roll determines how your next post goes, and how the post of the character after yours goes. For example: you cannot roll 100% successful for hunting something and then edit your post describing how badass your character is. The proper process for utilizing rolls is:

Create a post describing what your character is doing and thinking in the moment, and describe the action they are trying to take. One skill roll is equivalent to one action. The action should come near the end of your post, and it should be clear what they are doing. In addition, you can use shortcodes to provide more context at the bottom of your post.

When creating the reply, make sure to check the box to indicate that you are making an Attempt Roll and select the skill you're rolling. When you click reply, the system will roll for you and display the result at the bottom of your post. It will be color-coded and tell you how successful you were, and what your resulting percentage is.

After your post is written, the next character can respond to it (if its something they can respond to). If you are hunting with them and fail to grab the prey, then they get to do their roll and see how well they perform. When it's your turn again, you adapt your next post based on how your previous roll went. In this way, we are using rolls to help the flow of the thread in an organic way.

Skills are balanced so that someone with maximum in a skill can still fail. This also means that someone with nothing in a skill can still succeed. It is unfair to all involved if a character can beef up their skills and thus always win. Please honor the rolls.

Skill rolls are required if you are attempting to perform an action in which the stats you've applied to a skill would be factored in. If your wolf is trying to heal someone, you must roll medicine. If your wolf is taking a look at their surroundings, you should roll observation. If you forget to roll, you can edit to apply a roll. You can not edit a post to remove a roll, however.

Interpreting Skill Rolls The system does most of the work for you here, but we'll break it down anyway. The skill results will tell you something like "Result: 80% | Effective". You or the person after you, on the next post, uses this to flavor how that roll went. This is especially important in a fight and you should read the Fighting Guide for how to properly utilize the fighting skill. When it comes to interpretation, please stick to what the skill roll states. If it says it was effective, then it should be effective. If it says it was ineffective, that should be reflected. If in doubt, ask those you're writing with what they think about what you have in mind.