Attribute Rolls

Created by Benn Williams
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One evening we were playing Robotech® and a friend of mine wanted to be able to seduce a young officer while off duty. He had no skill in seduction, and just an average (13) in his PB. Since Palladium makes no system to resolve such actions I was stumped. I thought that maybe it was just an oversight, but no. There is no mechanic for performing an action unskilled, or using an attribute to resolve such things. Consequently, we started using our own system which has been reproduced for you. It is based around the perception rules found in the Nightbane^tm RPG (page 66).

Note: This file is quite similar to something I was working on in the past - I personally think this file is a good start on tackling some MAJOR game system problems. If you want the full rules for perception but do not want to go buy another book, just click here.

-- Brett Hegr

Attribute Roll: On 1d20, these are the target numbers that must be rolled and their associated difficulties.

Easy (4 or better)
Moderate (8 or better)
Challenging (14 or better)
Difficult (17 or better)

Modifiers: Just like the I.Q. bonus given in the perception rules each attribute also has a bonus associated with it for high (17+) rated attributes. They are listed below:

I.Q. - use the I.Q. bonus (drop the %)
M.E. - use the M.E. bonus vs psionic attack
M.A. - use the M.E. bonus vs psionic attack
P.S. - use the HTH damage bonus
P.P. - use the parry and dodge bonus
P.E. - use the vs magic/poison bonus
P.B. - use the M.E. bonus vs psionic attack
Spd. - No bonus (no rolls are made for this attribute)

Non-skilled Rolls: There are going to be times when a PC needs to see if he can perform a task without the proper skill. It makes sense, you want to try to break into the computer lab, but you don't have any Espionage or Rogue skills (your O.C.C. won't allow you to have them). What do you do? If you try to attack the door, a major MONDO security system will trip, and Emporer Prozek gets to watch you die slowly from his new "Gooifier" weapon. What do you do?

Well, under the current set of rules, you are S.O.L. But now, you can simply roll a percentile, as if you had the skill. Simply look-up the skill you wish to use, take the base percentile (without the +x% per level), subtract 20% and roll under that! So you have a high chance of failure (typically 90% or better) but hey, you are unskilled in this. If you have any bonuses for high I.Q. you can add that bonus. The key to remember is this, you don't have the skill, so you only have a slight chance of performing the skill. For easy reference, this process is outlined below:

Step 1: Look up the skill and find the base percentile.
Step 2: Subtract (-20%) from the percentile.
Step 3: Roll under this, on a d100.