Marks & Tiers

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” — Ecclesiastes 9:11

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Kodranni uses three action dice. A given roll uses only one type for the whole pool — pure d6, d8, or d12 (plus the separate Omen d20).

d6

Harder · Disadvantage

6-sided · Mark on 5–6 · ~33%

d8

Ordinary · default

8-sided · Mark on 5–8 · ~50%

d12

Easier · Advantage

12-sided · Mark on 5–12 · ~67%

These three are the die tiers. Context does not add modifiers to Marks — it moves you up or down this ladder (see Advantage and Disadvantage).

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Marks of Success

Any die that lands on 5 or higher is a Mark of Success, or simply a Mark. Higher tiers make Marks more common; they do not change the “5 or higher” rule.

Die	Faces that Mark	P(Mark)
d6	5–6	~33%
d8	5–8	~50%
d12	5–12	~67%

Target numbers vs Marks — a change of mindset

Most systems ask: did you hit the number? Pass or fail. The Storyteller holds a hidden threshold; the table waits for a binary answer.

Kodranni’s resolution is interpretational. You do not keep strict margins for a binary succeed/fail decision. Marks are information — how much of the intent landed, how cleanly, how deep the reading goes. The Storyteller decides incremental results from the count of Marks (and, in opposed rolls, from the margin between two counts). There is no single secret target the player is trying to “clear.”

That requires a shift: less “did it work?”, more “what does this many Marks tell us about how it went?” Zero Marks is still a result with colour. Four Marks is not merely “better pass” — it may open facts a thinner success would never have revealed.

Players act under incomplete knowledge. The Storyteller scales reward, cost, and what the fiction discloses to the Marks on the table.

Scenario: The Scout

Scene: A young warrior is sent at night to observe an enemy camp. As he draws close, the Storyteller calls for Perception + Scouting — a pool of 4 dice. There is no hidden target number. Depending on how many Marks he rolls:

0 I II III IV

2 Marks — The Scout observes the camp from a distance: notices approaches and weak points, but finds no safe way to get closer.

Do not pre-assign arbitrary success margins and targets. If possible, decide on a few possible outcome tiers, then let the dice pick which one lands. Opposed rolls use the same idea: the margin is how far one side overcame the other.

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Advantage and Disadvantage

Context that affects a roll is often innumerable — weather, footing, numbers, tools, reputation, injury, surprise, a Trait that fits or hurts. Stacking those as pluses and minuses becomes bookkeeping. Kodranni refuses that path.

Judge the edge once. Encode it as the die type.

The Storyteller names a die tier for the pool. There is no automatic map from Skill rating to d6 / d8 / d12.

Die tier ladder

One judgment: who has the edge on this action? Select a tier to see odds and an example.

Harder ← Disadvantage Ordinary Advantage → Easier

d6 d8 d12

d8 Mark on 5–8 · ~50% per die

Ordinary — safe default for a competent attempt when nothing special presses the odds.

Example: a carpenter patches a roof in fair weather with dry timber → d8.

Default	d8 — competent attempt, nothing special pressing the odds
Advantage	Upgrade one step (d6→d8, or d8→d12)
Disadvantage	Downgrade one step (d12→d8, or d8→d6)
Who decides	The Storyteller, every roll
Stacking	How hard fiction pushes, whether edges cancel or climb two steps — ST call for that moment

Traits, terrain, numbers, armour-as-context, and reputation feed the judgment. They are not extra modifiers on Marks. You do not add “+2 for height and +1 for cover.”

In multi-party messes, each action still stands alone. Read Advantage and Disadvantage from that action’s context — not an average of the field. Collective pressure lives on the Tide.

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The Makeup of the Dice Pool

Pools assemble from three sources:

Source	Range	Role
Foundation	typically 1–3 (effective value after Harm)	Inborn potential; nearly static
Skill	0–3	Practiced ability matching intent
Exertion	0–1 dice (2 with matching Echo)	Optional player spend

Pool size = Foundation + Skill + optional Exertion dice

Primitive actions (run, jump, haul, see, recall, composure, and similar animal-tier acts) use Foundation only (+ optional Exertion). No Skill die is added. Primitive rolls grant no Practice.

Who decides which Foundation and which Skill? The Storyteller. Always. The player describes intent freely. The Storyteller picks the best pair. Players may propose a better pair; the Storyteller’s call is final.

The roof of the grain store is leaking into the seed barley. Tomas is a capable carpenter. He has dry planks and pitch; the weather is fair; nothing special about the job. Ordinary tier.

1. Intent: patch the store roof before the next rain.
2. Storyteller names: Strength + Carpentry & Masonry, d8.
3. Pool: Foundation 2 + Skill 2 = 4d8 (+ Omen d20).
4. Result: 2 Marks — the leak is stopped for the season; not fine work, not a rebuild.
5. Practice: only if he spent Exertion (see Skills).

Additional effects that shrink pools (these are not die-tier shifts; they change how many dice you throw):

• Empty Exertion: –2 dice (floor 1) — see Exertion
• Decadence (no Echoes): –1 die on every roll
• Over-capacity Echoes: –1 die on rolls that involve any of the character’s Echoes

Related: Dice Mechanics, Omens, Tide.

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