Quality Ratings & Yield

One-pager. Every resolved task returns not just success/failure but a Quality Rating — how well it went. One roll, read three ways depending on what was at stake: how fast, how good, or how much.

The QR scale

A success is graded QR1 (superb) → QR2 → QR3 → QR4 (it worked, barely). Failures continue the same scale as QR7 and QR10 (bad and disastrous). The odd numbering isn't arbitrary — see PM, below.

You read the QR off your D100 roll against fractions of your success chance (SC):

Two hard limits, whatever your SC: a roll of 100 is never better than QR7 (so even a near-certainty can fail), and a roll of 99 is never better than QR4 (you can always succeed, never brilliantly, on a 99).

(The character sheet's Resolution Table precomputes the four success thresholds so you never divide at the table — look up your score and EF, read the numbers. The table holds only those thresholds: Yield, Time, and PM are flat values keyed to the QR itself, below.)

Read one column, not three

A QR1 is fast or fabulous — never both. Decide before the roll what was at stake, quantify that, and let the rest be narration.

If speed mattered, read Time. If the quality of the product mattered, read PM. If the amount mattered, read Yield. A superb dance is in time with the music; a superb quick repair is done early — not both at once.

Never penalize the same choice twice

If a player accepts an ease-factor penalty to do something a particular way, the success already includes that thing — don't also make them earn it on a QR column.

• Picking the lock fast because the guard is coming: take the penalty for haste, and then success means they were fast (the guard didn't catch them); failure means they couldn't do it that quickly. You don't penalize for hurrying and require a good Time QR on top.
• The called head shot, or shooting the one part not behind cover: take the penalty for the small target, and a hit lands where they aimed. No second hit-location roll to "confirm" it.

The up-front modifier is the price of the special outcome. Pay once.

The three readings

Yield — how much did you get? A percentage of the maximum: QR1 100%, QR2 80%, QR3 50%, QR4 25% (failures yield as a QR4). Used for damage (damage = Yield × DC ÷ 2), and equally for intelligence gathered, gold panned, ground covered, rope salvaged.

Time — how long did it take? A percentage of what a competent practitioner would estimate up front. QR4 takes roughly twice as long; QR1 is quick. This is what answers "did you pick the lock before the guard rounded the corner?" — a time-critical task where QR is the whole story.

PM — how good is the product, for later use? When a task makes something used in a later task (a built weapon, a forged document, a set-up security system), the QR carries forward as a modifier: PM = 4 − QR. So QR1 → +3, QR2 → +2, QR3 → +1, QR4 → +0, QR7 → −3, QR10 → −6. (That's why the scale is numbered this way.)

Failures yield like a QR4

When players can't tell success from failure (hidden results — was the alarm well installed? did the panning find anything?), a failure yields and takes time exactly as a QR4 would. The dice stay quiet; the GM knows.

Why QR4 is so common — and so mediocre

Half of all successes are QR4: twice the time, a quarter of the take. That's not a flaw, it's life. How often is the plumbing fixed well? How often does the job come in on the estimate? How much of a newspaper article is the 25% that's both true and relevant? Life is full of QR4s.

"Why can't I just try again?"

The bane of skill systems — players lining up worst-to-best to retry a lock until someone makes it (we're looking at you, RuneQuest). ForeSight answers it with the time mechanic, no special rule required:

• A failure already cost you time. A QR7 takes ~200% of the estimate — the same as a QR4 success. So you can try again, but the clock has already run, and it keeps running. When time matters (and in tense situations it does), endless retries aren't free; eventually the guard rounds the corner.
• QR10 closes the door. A disastrous failure means you've fouled the approach — for yourself and often for the next person (the pick snaps in the lock; you've convinced yourself the safe opens left when it opens right). There's no "try the same thing again": find another way.

So the conga line never forms. The first failure is slow, the next is slower, and a bad enough failure spoils the method outright.

Open-ended resolution: oppose or build

Any result can be opposed or built upon — this is what makes the system chain. (Full treatment, including the blocking table, is on the Opposed Resolution page.)

• Oppose a prior result two ways: use its QR as the base ease factor for your counter-task, or simply roll your own opposing task and compare QRs.
• Build on a prior result by adding +(5 − QR) as a modifier to your follow-up: QR1 → +4, QR2 → +3, QR3 → +2, QR4 → +1. Even a marginal success gives a successor something to stand on. (Distinct from the PM column above, which rates a finished product's own quality at 4 − QR — see note.)

Random QR

When you need a QR out of nowhere (area damage on a bystander, how well an unseen NPC did their job): roll D10 — 1→QR1, 2→QR2, 3–5→QR3, 6–10→QR4.

Designer's Note: this one table is the secret engine of the whole game. Combat damage, a chase's gained ground, an interrogation's leaked truth, a forged passport's quality — all of it is "read the QR in the column that matters." Learn it once and most of the rest of this book is just examples.