There are two primary kinds of rolls you'll be making while playing The Burning Isle; Tests and Contests.
Tests
A Test challenges your characters Distinctions, Skills and Attributes. The difficulty comes not from an opposing force, but predominantly by the circumstances and inherent difficulty of the task they're attempting. Scaling a castle wall, deciphering an ancient text and reciting ancient war ballads to a lukewarm audience are all examples of Tests.
To begin, the GM will set the difficulty between 2d4 (for Very Easy tasks) and 2d12 (For extremely challenging affairs.) Any Complications, such as Stress and Trauma you are currently suffering from, might also get added into the the GM's pool if they're relevant. It's harder to scale a castle wall if you're bleeding, for example. The dice are rolled, and the GM chooses two dice to form the Result. Effect dice are typically not relevant in Tests.
The Player then assembles their own pool, makes their roll, and either succeeds by beating the GM's result or fails by rolling equal to or under it. Effect dice are typically not relevant in this case.
Contests
When you engage in a contest and you're the one initiating the action (hereafter referred to as the Aggressor) you pick up your dice and roll first, choosing your dice for your Result and Effect. The person you engaged in the test (hereafter referred to as the Defender) can then decide if they want to oppose you after seeing what you rolled. If the Defender declines to roll, you get what you're after automatically. If the Defender decides to oppose you, they assemble their own dice pool and make their roll.
If the Defender doesn't beat the Aggressor's roll, the Aggressor gets what they want. If the Defender does beat the Aggressor's total, the ball goes back to the Aggressor's court. They can choose to give in, defining the failure on their own terms and earning a plot point, but they cannot immediately engage their target in another contest. Or, they can choose to escalate, rolling their dice pool again to try and beat the new total set by the Defender. If they fail to beat the new total, the Defender gets to define how they stopped you, which often means they'll inflict Complications, Stress or Trauma on you.
Contests go back and forth until one side gives in or fails to beat the difficulty. Whomever wins narrates the outcome, which will invariably change the status quo of the situation.
