Complex actions...

Considering my new dice-pool system a bit more, and I realise that again, for the sake of expediency, the results of complex actions can be determined by a single roll of multiple dice.

For example, a player wishes to climb a cliff.  The cliff is craggy and covered in vegetation making it reasonably easy to climb.  But it is 200 feet high.  So climbing will take some time.

Because of the ease of climb, the player only needs to roll a four or more to succeed.  They have four ranks in climb, meaning they get to roll four dice in their pool.  But as the cliff is 200 feet high, the player needs to get at least three fours.

In this situation the game is now making use of the possibility of multiple successes to determine a complex action.  This robust mechanic also provides the GM with a lot of information from which to interpret success or failure.  Imagine the player rolls only two fours, but rolled a tweak die of 19.  I'd interpret that as the PC made it up the first two thirds of the cliff (two of three successes obtained) and then slipped and fell.  However, the tweak roll of 19 suggests they manage to grab hold of a tangled root on the way down.  They strain their shoulder a little (as this should be incorporated into further actions involving that shoulder - i.e. combat, or climbing or swimming will now be slightly harder for them - they need a five rather than a four).

I'm liking this new system.  =D

But in the example above, what would an epic fail on the tweak die conclude?  Well, say the player made all of the rolls needed to climb the cliff, but rolled a tweak of 1.  The tweak cannot indicate a fall, as the player succeeded in their rolls.  Remember, the dice pool indicates success or failure.  And the tweak die tweaks those results.  In this situation, I'd look at the bigger picture.  For example, lets says that the player was climbing the cliff in order to catch someone.  You could thus say that despite them climbing the cliff, they crest the top just in time to see their quarry escape by horse.  Or be rescued by masked riders.  Or indeed, you could have them merely waiting at the top of the cliff to strike the player when they are at their most prone.  Or another creature, incidental, is waiting for them.  So despite having made the climb, the epic fail on the tweak die illustrates that something bad has happened, that the bigger goal is now in jeopardy.