Questions re: Sorcerer System

[angelfromanotherpin]

If a character is rolling a single die and succeeds, is it automatically a total success?  There seems to be no room for any other result.

Also, the main book states that a Humanity check is made for every Contact, Summon and Bind ritual.  Does Pacting require a Humanity check?  Or does it have that as an additional bonus over the Bind ritual.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

If a character is rolling a single die and succeeds, is it automatically a total success? There seems to be no room for any other result.

That's correct. However, do realize that "total success" is not the equivalent of a critical hit in other games. It only means that if there's some way for the result to be special or interesting, then the dice are saying "go for it." If there isn't any reason for a special or interesting result, then it's no big deal.

In other words, if you roll a single die and succeed, it doesn't have to be special.

Also, the main book states that a Humanity check is made for every Contact, Summon and Bind ritual. Does Pacting require a Humanity check? Or does it have that as an additional bonus over the Bind ritual.

Pacting does require a Humanity check. It's a specialized form of Binding.

Best,
Ron

[greyorm]

Another thing to keep in mind (if this is even a concern) is that a Total Success with one die is going to be as comparably rare as a Total Success with multiple dice, for the simple reason that just succeeding with one die is rare -- most of your opponents will be rolling multiple dice, and thus your chances of success are lower (it's all about the mathematical percentages). Hence, this feature of the rules is not unbalanced, though "common sense" might tell one otherwise.