Project Rolls

Projects are a system intended for long-term goals. Does your character wish to woo the Harpy of your local Elysium? Knock off the chief of police and instate their own puppet? Bankrupt a local business asset of the Ventrue they hate? Of course, such ventures are risky, but it is good to think of projects in these terms rather than as dot values or what Backgrounds might be achieved. Generally, you will only need to do project rolls for Backgrounds if you are wanting to buy the third dot or higher.

To begin a project, you must first set a goal (create a local power grid, form a gang from nearby vagrants, cause a divorce to increase a Resonance). This goal is given a Scope- a number representing how difficult your chosen task is and what mechanical reward your character might receive should they succeed. This is, of course, in addition to any narrative reward.

You and staff then determine a timeframe of how long this project should take; if it will takes days, weeks, months, or years. Divide this total completion time roughly by ten to get your project's increment frequency (for example, a project that takes 10 days has a daily increment, one that takes 10 weeks would be weekly).

Next, you will make a Launch roll. The hardest part of any endeavor is getting it off the ground! This roll is a combination of a Skill and a Background, for example a bank heist using a coordinated team might be Leadership + Allies. This can benefit from teamwork bonuses, boons, or creative Discipline use. You may not use Willpower or Blood Surge. The Difficulty of this roll is 2 + the Scope of the project.

If you succeed, you must stake some of your Backgrounds as they are tied down to the task (in the above example of a bank heist, it could be staking your character's Resources that they're paying the Allies with, or the Allies themselves who are planning and mapping out the bank itself). The amount you have to stake is equal to the margin of successes on your Launch roll minus the projects Scope + 1. If you fail, you may try one last time at a +1 Difficulty as you try to force the project to succeed! However, if you score a Total Failure, disastrous things could happen to your character or their Backgrounds.

Once you have succeeded the Launch roll, a timer begins. Every time the decided upon increment passes it goes down by 1. Once it hits 0, you character succeeds on their project! If you wish to get it done faster, you may at any point make a contested roll known as a Goal roll against the timer. This will use a Skill + Background (which may be one of your character's staked Backgrounds) against the number left on the timer; if 6 ticks were left, the staff member would be rolling 6 dice. You cannot use Willpower or Blood Surge, and you cannot critically succeed on this roll- 10s count as normal successes, here. Your margin of successes reduces the timer by that many increments. If the roll ties, nothing happens. A failure costs your character a number of Background dots equal to the margin of failure. Should you lose all of your staked Backgrounds, the project collapses and fails. You may only restart a project once it's time increment has passed again.