Genesys Narrative System
Narrative Dice System by FFG / Edge Studio
The Dice Bag
Current Pool
Select dice from the bag above to build your pool…
Latest Result
Build a pool and roll to see your result.
No rolls yet.
How Genesys dice work
Genesys uses six dice marked with symbols instead of numbers. You roll positive and negative dice together as one pool, cancel the opposing symbols, and what is left tells you whether you succeeded and what else happened along the way.
The dice
Ability (green d8)
Your character's skill or characteristic. The basic positive die.
Proficiency (yellow d12)
An upgraded ability die, for a character with both training and talent. The only die with a Triumph.
Boost (blue d6)
Something in your favor: good gear, time to prepare, an ally's help.
Difficulty (purple d8)
How hard the task is. One die per step of difficulty.
Challenge (red d12)
An upgraded difficulty die, often for a skilled opponent. The only die with a Despair.
Setback (black d6)
Something working against you: darkness, injury, bad footing.
Building a pool
Compare the skill's rank with its characteristic. Take ability dice equal to the higher number, then upgrade as many of them as the lower number into proficiency dice. Brawn 3 with Athletics 2 rolls one ability and two proficiency dice.
The GM adds difficulty dice for how hard the task is, and may upgrade some to challenge dice. Then add a boost die for each thing in your favor and a setback die for each thing against you. Boost and setback don't cancel out: both go in the pool.
A player can spend a Story Point to upgrade one ability die to proficiency, and the GM can spend one to upgrade a difficulty die to challenge.
| Difficulty | Difficulty dice |
|---|---|
| Simple | 0 |
| Easy | 1 |
| Average | 2 |
| Hard | 3 |
| Daunting | 4 |
| Formidable | 5 |
Reading the result
- Success
- Success. Each failure cancels one success. If at least one success is left, the check succeeds, and extra successes make it a better success.
- Failure
- Failure. Cancels a success. Failing by a lot is no worse than failing by one.
- Advantage
- Advantage. Each threat cancels one advantage. Leftover advantage buys a side benefit, whether the check succeeded or not.
- Threat
- Threat. Leftover threat buys a complication for the GM to narrate, even on a success.
- Triumph
- Triumph. Counts as one success and also triggers a big positive effect. A failure can cancel the success, but not the effect.
- Despair
- Despair. Counts as one failure and also triggers a big negative effect, which nothing cancels.
Triumph and Despair don't cancel each other, so a check can succeed with a Despair or fail with a Triumph. The roller does all the cancelling and shows you the net result.