Basic Dice Mechanics

When you perform an action, you roll a pile of d6s called a Dicepool. Dice which come up as a 5 or 6 are Hits. A task's required number of hits is its Threshold. Any hits gained in addition to that are Net Hits. If a die roll generates enough hits the attempt is a success, otherwise it's a failure.

Dicepools: Your dicepool is generally speaking a pile of d6s with dice equal to your character's Attribute + Skill, and circumstantial modifiers increase or decrease the number of dice rolled. A human's attributes and skills go up to 6. A supernatural creature's can go up higher than that, both in that their Potency increases their Attribute maximums and that some of their disciplines (magic power groups are called disciplines) further increase their attributes or skills. As such, it is expected that supernatural critters will roll more dice on actions that their powers apply to than normal humans do.

The effects one can expect out of getting a number of Hits are proportionately more awesome as the number of hits increases:

Resistance Tests: Sometimes a character will be allowed to resist something being done to them. This is done by rolling dice like normal, save that rather than generating an awesome result, the character is merely reducing the number of hits against them, making whatever is being done to them take less or even no effect. In general, a Physical Resistance Test is simply a Strength roll, a Mental Resistance Test is an Intuition roll, and a Social Resistance Test is a Willpower roll. If a character has an Edge score, it is added to these Resistance tests. When a character is struck with an attack they may be called upon to make a Soak roll, which is a special kind of Physical Resistance Test that also adds their appropriate Armor value to the roll (if any). In most cases, if the Resistance Test reduces the number of hits on a test to zero or less, the original attempt has failed.

Basic Attributes: Physical, Mental, and Social

Characters in After Sundown have six basic attributes that can be divided into Physical, Mental, and Social attributes. These basic attributes range in value between 1 and 6 for normal humans.

Physical Attributes:

• Strength: Strength determines how physically strong and tough you are.
• Agility: Agility is a combination of precision and speed.

Mental Attributes

• Intuition: Intuition is a combination of empathic and physical perception.
• Logic: Logic is a combination of scientific know-how and logical intelligence.

Social Attributes

• Willpower: Willpower is a combination of determination and domination.
• Charisma: Charisma is one's ability to convince and ingratiate.

The primary purpose of basic attributes is to set the dicepools for actions. A character with a high Agility will have a bunch of extra dice to roll for every skill test that invokes Agility. A character with a high Charisma will have extra dice on every test that uses Charisma, and so on. A character's basic attributes represent a broad aptitude in a wide variety of actions.

Basic Attributes: Offensive and Defense

The six basic attributes can also be divided into Offensive and Defensive attributes. Offensive attributes reflect a character's ability to interact proactively in the world, while Defensive attributes reflect a character's ability for self-preservation in various ways.

Offensive Attributes:

• Agility
• Logic
• Charisma

Defensive Attributes:

• Strength
• Intuition
• Willpower

Special Attributes: Edge, Power, and Potency

Edge is a measure of narrative importance that Luminaries have. Extras have an Edge of zero. You can "spend" it in a few ways

• You can reroll all the dice on a test that didn't get a hit.
• You can add a number of extra dice to a test equal to your Edge score. If penalties would reduce your normal dice pool to zero or less then you can spend an Edge to try anyway with dice equal to your Edge score.
• You can take an extra Initiative Pass. You should announce that you're going to do this after the last Initiative Pass that you'd normally take in a round. No matter what, you still can't take more than 4 Initiative Passes total within a round.
• You can "escape" an otherwise lethal situation in a narratively appropriate way. At this point you are having fate intervene to save you in a narratively plausible fashion. This will require a negotiation of some kind with the MC to determine what is plausible under the circumstances. Maybe it's the police showing up before the Trolls have the opportunity to put the boot in, maybe it's the floor collapsing and dumping your comatose character into the basement before the flames have an opportunity to burn them to death. It is advisable that a character being saved in such a manner be inconvenienced in some fashion. It's intended as a last ditch save-your-ass moment, not something to be smugly relied upon.

Spent Edge doesn't subtract from your Edge value, just from the number of times it can be spent. Edge refreshes between chronicles. An important thing that Edge also does is that it adds to Resistance Rolls. You do not have to spend Edge to get bonus dice when soaking a stab wound or resisting mental domination - the extra Edge dice are automatic and free. Whenever an ability says that the target resists with their Strength or Willpower (or whatever) you can assume that it means "plus Edge if the target is a Luminary and actually has an Edge stat". An Edge can also be spent to gain an extra turn during a combat round or avoid seemingly certain death.

Every two points of Edge a character has increases the absolute maximum they can raise their skills to during play. While characters start with skill ratings of 6 or less, a character with an Edge of 2 or 3 can eventually raise them to 7, while a character with an Edge of 4 or 5 could raise their skills to 8. A character with an Edge of 6 can potentially get a skill of 9. Six is the maximum Edge for any character (regardless of Potency, as it is a special attribute).

Spending and Recovering Edge: When you want to spend an Edge to gain a benefit on a single test, all you really have to do is say that you are doing so. Mark the Edge off and you'll see it again when a new chronicle starts. Your actual attribute does not fall, so if you are called to roll your Edge (for example, during Resistance Tests and Recovery Tests), it is unmodified by how many Edge you "have left" for purchasing lucky breaks.

Power Reserve in After Sundown is a special attribute similar to Edge. Power Points are generally spent to activate specific supernatural abilities that a character might have. Power Points by themselves do not refresh. Characters will have things to do with their Power Points and ways to refresh it if they are a supernatural creature. Characters have a maximum Power at any given time of 10 points plus 3 points per point of Potency. This means that most player characters (who have a Potency of 1) will have their Power Reserve fill up at 13. Mortals and other Potency 0 creatures have a Power Point maximum of 10, but likely have no ability or reason to acquire Power Points.

Example: Genevra is a Vampire with the Quickness ability from the Power of Celerity. As a vampire, she has the Vigor ability from the Clout discipline, and can spend Power Points to increase her Strength for a scene. In addition, she can spend a Power Point to take extra actions during a scene with her Celerity discipline. Because she is a vampire, she can refresh her Power Points by drinking blood from other people.

Potency When a character's powers increase they may get a special attribute called Potency. A character's Potency is added to the maximum (but not necessarily the actual value) of each of their Physical, Mental, and Social attributes, and every point of Potency increases their maximum Power Reserve by 3. Normal humans and some weak supernatural creatures (such as Mirror Goblins) have a Potency of zero. Starting supernatural creatures of a playable type such as Vampires or Witches have a Potency of 1. This rating gradually rises as the creature ages and grows in eldritch power, and can rise quite abruptly by slaying powerful elders Highlander style, or by attuning to powerful artifacts, completing mighty rituals of vast power, or otherwise reaching the kinds of breakpoints in a story in which a monster might become nearly unstoppable. The most powerful named characters in the setting (such as The King with Three Shadows or Echidna) have a Potency of 10, and player characters can expect to have a Potency much, much lower than that.

Genevra is a Vampire with Potency 1. This means that her maximum value for raising her Agility, Willpower, and other attributes is 7. Six maximum for having started as a human, plus her Potency of 1. Her maximum Power Reserve is 13 (10 + 3*1).