Emerald Coven Chronicles uses a slightly modified version of the mod dot system used in other Emerald Chronicles games. The modifications are intended to more accurately represent the difficulty curve, particularly at the extreme end.

The system works as follows. The character takes their final dice pool after all additions and subtractions and divides it in half, rounding up. This sets the character’s base successes. The character then tests twice using Rock, Paper, Scissors. The results of these tests modify the base results. So if the character tests up once and down once, he stays at his base successes. If he tests even once and down once, he gains one less success than his base. If he tests even once and up once he gains one more success than his base.

For example, Luigi Lasombra is attempting to hit someone with a baseball bat. He has Dexterity 3, Melee 4, and Celerity 2. He also has a Melee Specialty of bats, granting him an extra die. This gives him a total dice pool of 10. He divides this dice pool of 10 in half giving him 5 base successes. He tests even once and up once, meaning that he hits his target with a total of 6 successes.

If the character tests up twice, he may continue to test for more successes, stopping as soon as he tests either even or down. Testing down during this process does not reduce the successes acquired, only stopping the process. A character may only test up to a maximum number of successes equal to double his dice pool.

If the character tests down twice, he must continue to test for more failures, stopping as soon as he tests either even or up. Testing up during this process does not gain additional successes, only stopping the process. If a character tests down into negative successes, the roll is considered a botch.

For example, Tatiana Tzimisce is attempting to seal someone’s mouth with Fleshcrafting. She has Dexterity 4 and Medicine 5 with a Specialty in Fleshcrafting. This gives her 10 dice which she divides to get 5 base successes. She tests up twice. She then continues to test, testing up 3 more times before testing down on the fourth. This would give her 10 successes on the roll.

Now say that Aziz Assamite wanted to sneak up on his target. He has Dexterity 4, Stealth 4, and Celerity 3. He also has a Stealth Specialty of Stalking. This gives him a dice pool of 12 which divides for 6 base successes. Aziz tests down twice and thus must keep testing. He tests down a further 5 times which gives him -1 success, resulting in a botch.

The above system assumes a difficulty of 6, which is the base difficulty. This is where this system differs from the standard mod dot system used in other Emerald Chronicles games. For every difficulty variance from 6, the character adds or subtracts one base success as shown below:

Difficulty 2 +4 base successes
Difficulty 3 +3 base successes
Difficulty 4 +2 base successes
Difficulty 5 +1 base success
Difficulty 6 No modification
Difficulty 7 -1 base success
Difficulty 8 -2 base successes
Difficulty 9 -3 base successes
Difficulty 10 -4 base successes
Difficulty 11+ -5 or more base successes in the same pattern

Regardless of difficulty, a character may not start with more base successes than his total dice pool for the action. Nor may he start with fewer base successes than -1.

For example, Harold Harbinger of Skulls wants to use Aura Scan on a target. He has Perception 3 and Empathy 3. This gives him a dice pool of 6, which divides for 3 successes. Since the difficulty is 8 he loses 2 base successes leaving him at 1 base success before he tests. The testing system follows as normal, he tests up once and even once and thus gets 2 successes on his Aura Scan.

Now say that Tara Toreador also wants to use Aura Scan, but she isn’t very good at it yet only having Perception 2 and Empathy 0. The dice pool of 2 would divide for 1 base success, which is reduced by 2 for the difficulty 8 to -1 base successes. This means that Tara would have to test up at least once to not botch the roll. She tests even and the roll is considered a botch.