Action resolution
Adjudicating whether an attempted action succeeds and how the result is graded and interpreted, independent of which randomiser (if any) is used.
19 entries. Tie-break question: Is it about adjudicating success?
Aim and Recoil
The player steers a reticle onto a target in real time while spread, recoil, and sway perturb it after each shot, so whether a shot lands is decided by continuous pointing precision and recovery rather than by a roll.
Combat Results Tables
An attack is resolved by computing the ratio or difference between attacking and defending strength, finding that column on a printed table, rolling a die, and reading a graded result such as eliminate, retreat, or exchange.
Critical Hits
A rare band of the attack roll, usually the die's maximum face, that amplifies a successful hit with multiplied damage or an added effect, as an exception layered on an otherwise binary hit-or-miss check.
Degrees of Success
A resolution procedure that grades the result of a check into three or more ordered bands, such as critical success, success, partial success, failure, and fumble, each with its own consequence.
Dexterity
Physical manipulation of components, such as flicking, stacking, balancing, or throwing, resolves an action directly, so success depends on motor skill rather than on a randomiser or a chosen option.
Fail Forward
A resolution principle under which a failed check must change the situation, introducing a cost, complication, or new development, rather than leaving the state as it was before the attempt.
Hit Location
After an attack hits, a further roll or a called shot assigns the damage to a specific body part or component, and each location has its own damage capacity, armour, or impairment effect.
Lock-On Targeting
The player designates a target and the system then holds the camera, facing, or attacks on it until the lock is released or switched, so attacks connect without continuous manual aim.
Morale and Rout
When a unit takes losses or faces a shock, a test against its morale rating decides whether it holds, and a failed test makes it break, flee, or surrender, so battles are decided by nerve giving way before every unit is destroyed.
Opposed Rolls
Two parties each make a roll and compare results, so the number one side must beat is set by the other side's roll rather than by a fixed threshold, and the higher result prevails.
Parry and Dodge Windows
A defensive input succeeds only if it is entered within a short window relative to an incoming attack, negating the hit and often opening a counter-attack opportunity.
Player Judge
One player, usually in rotation, serves as the sole arbiter of a round, choosing which other player's submission wins according to personal taste rather than a fixed rule, and the role then passes on.
Progress Clocks
A segmented circle or track that is filled in increments as actions succeed or threats advance, so that a complex task or looming event resolves only when every segment is marked.
Quick-Time Events
A prompt appears during a scripted sequence and the player must enter the indicated input within a short window; success continues the sequence and failure branches to a penalty or a death.
Referee Adjudication
The success and consequences of a declared action are decided by a designated neutral person applying judgement under published guidance, rather than by a table or randomiser alone, and that ruling is binding on play.
Rhythm Action
Notes shown ahead on a track or bar meet a judgement point in time with a piece of music, the player enters the matching input as each arrives, and every input is graded by its timing, so a song's result sums many graded timing tests.
Saving Throws
A defensive roll made by the target of a harmful effect after the effect is triggered; success negates or reduces the effect, failure lets it apply in full.
Social Conflict
Characters settle a dispute through a structured exchange of argumentative moves that wears down each side's position until one yields, and the losing side is bound by the result, often softened by a compromise.
Target Numbers
A single roll succeeds if it reaches a fixed threshold set by the task or read from a table, so the chance of success is fixed before the roll by the gap between the threshold and the roller's modifier.