Using the Get Answer buttons

[Mark]

The "Get Answer" buttons are the heart of solo role-playing.



See below for what the acronyms stand for. If you forget what an acronym stand for just hover your mouse over the button for a second.

Using the buttons consist of three steps:

1) Ask your yes/no question (either writing it in the text box or just in your head.)
2) Come up with the likelihood of the results.
3) Click the appropriate button.

Most of the time you will probably be using the "50/50" button. However, if you think the odds of the event being "yes" are slightly better than 50/50, then click the "SL" (Somewhat Likely) button.

Even if you think an event is a sure thing there is always the chance, however small, that something crazy will happen and there will be failure. For example:

-- "I ask my wife if she knows who I am." (click the "Get Answer" button "ST" for sure thing. The results return...)

No, and...

-- "She replies, 'I'm sorry, I've never seen you before in my life.' I realize that the strange thing that just happened might have been a stroke."

[Talmor]

I have a question on the results. You can get the obvious answers of "yes" or "no." But, you can also get the following, correct:

yes, but...
yes, and...
no, but...
no, and...

What do the "modifiers" represent? Sorry, I'm used to Mythic, where you have yes, no, exceptional yes, and exceptional no. I'm trying to wrap my head around what the "but" or "and" represent. Is "but" a "not as bad a normal no" and "and" a "ramp things up?

For example, my Ranger heads to the tavern to meet his long lost friend, Carlos the Dwarf. Is Carlos there?
Yes, and..."Carlos is there, and he brought along another friend to help out!"
Yes, but..."Carlos is there, but he's wounded, and seems unhappy to see me."
No, and..."Carlos isn't there, and the place is full of mercenaries, eyeing me warily."
No, but..."Carlos isn't there, but the barkeep said he left a bag for me."

Is that right?

[samuelcollins1]

You are spot on!

[pandrizzo]

How does this work with reversed negations?

I am currently fighting a gnoll warband along with a small group of soldiers. Since I want to know if I have to expect a bad outcome, I ask the game if the gnolls are outnumbering us.
I assume the level of likeliness and roll

No, But...

The "but" here is supposed to give me a slight advantage, but the fact that i got No as a basic answer implies that the gnolls are less than we are (in other words, I was hoping to get a No to this question).
I assumed I have to treat this answer as a "yes, and.." in terms of advantages in the game

"no, you are not outnumbered, and you can hear the horns of the gnolls for retreat"

However, I could also interpret the "no" as a general negative outcome (i.e. no = bad stuff happens) to which I have to add a positive effect, which would give me this interpretation:

"you are outnumbered, but you can hear a warhorn sound behind you calling for a charge. Reinforcements are here!"

my question is: is it up to me to interpret the answer based on the question? Is this rule-bending?
If there is a correct way, which one is it supposed to be?

[Mark]

You make the rules so you decide if it's rule-bending.

However, for simplicity and flow I would keep it at face value as in your second example where No answers your question, are the gnolls outnumbering us, and the But indicates that despite their numbers they have some sort of advantage, e.g. they have a cave troll, they have the high ground, they have a laser cannon.

[Lana]

Hey Mark, I was just wondering how the chances for success change as you switch between the different options. For example, I just asked a question with a VU chance, and I got this result:

(Very Unlikely | 6[d10]) Yes, but...

I always assumed that depending on the button you pressed, the number you'd need to roll for a success would have to change (so for a VU, you might have to roll an 9 or higher to get a Yes answer). But it looks like 1-5 is always no, and 6-10 is always yes. So I'm just curious how the likelihood actually changes if the responses to the rolls are always the same.

[Mark]

Hi Lana,

Correct, 1-5 are always some form of no and 6-10 are always some form of yes. However, the algorithm is such that as you go up the "Unlikely" scale the odds of getting a higher number reduce. So really, getting a six, like you did, is Very Unlikely but not impossible. Even for "Almost Impossible" there is a very slim but possible chance of getting a 10 (Yes, and...).

However, I may need to put even more weight on one side of the scale and less on the other. I'll take a look at it.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Mark

EDIT: Made a change to the algorithm. Please see change-log 5.09 for the details: https://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Change-log

[Lana]

Ahh, interesting. Thanks for the response and also for the great site! I'm really enjoying it.