Degree of Success - LunarNeil/Call-of-Cthulhu-Campaign GitHub Wiki

Many contests will yield a simple "Yes or No" response on your action, but some contests are complex and exciting enough to require a "Yes, and..." response that says not only that you DID succeed in some way, but describe how you succeeded, and if there were any complications. This is called your Degree of Success, and helps make the results of contests more interesting and can even help raise the stakes for the entire scene.

To figure out the Degree of Success you need to figure out the amount rolled over over the cut-off number. If you needed to roll a 10 and you rolled a 14, you succeeded by 4 points. If you needed a 10 and you rolled a 10 you succeeded by 0 points. Simple!

Once you know how much you succeeded by, compare that number to this chart:

Chart Only Available in PDF Version -- Sorry, this wiki has limitations

So if you rolled 4 over the target you get a Third Degree Success. If you rolled 0 over you get a First Degree Success. Every degree of success is approximately twice as "good" as the one preceding it, with a First Degree Success offering little more than a bare margin of victory and a Fifth Degree Success equivalent to perfection with a little good luck mixed in.

The Success Meter is one of the few charts a player ever needs in a Realms of Mythos and Madness campaign, and an easy reference version of it is right on their Character Sheets. The Success Meter is only a tool though, not a universal rule. The Moderator only needs to apply it when the resolution of a contest is interesting or when it helps figure out "what happens next?" with a minimum of complexity. If the group finds it more fun, dramatic, and scary to roll many times and not use the Degree of Success rules then the Moderator is free to do that.