What happened, stays Happened.
(Or, what happens when things go bad)
Generally, the story progresses just fine, and the game's dangers are manageable on a macro scale. You upset the locals; you move on. You steal a pie; you spend time in the pokey. You steal a horse; they want to hang you. Okay, so that is what we mean by consequences.
In terms of gameplay, most die rolls are perfunctory numeric yes/no procedures, just determining how long it will take to break a lock or how long until the Goblin snitches on his allies. Right?
Well, a little less so and a little more realistic are the consequences in Passages. First off, never forget the primary rule of the Passages system is that no die roll, ever, is required of the Director, and only a Director requests it is one dictated. So if a situation is not under the stress of additional actions, if the player's skills are not being tested under adverse conditions, and if the resources upon which the action is predicated are adequate, success is generally a foregone conclusion.
Therefore, if there is going to be a failure in an Action, Contest, or Condition, there has to be a process for resolution that makes sense. Granted, a one-off catastrophe from time to time can make for a good story, but random results that are forced to drive the story off its original course must at least be mitigated by coherency and reason.
Further, the foibles expected when the characters are young and inexperienced should occur with decreasing frequency as experience overcomes these factors. So it is in the Passages because as the characters increase their skill, they naturally reduce the chances of incidental failure. In essence, the numeric value of a failure is the numeric difference between the actual die roll and the intended Die Roll Target.
The Target number is equal to the Degree of Difficulty (Max), aka, dMax, as determined by the Director. dMax is the numeric value that the player must overcome to achieve success. In other words, it is the percentage chance of failure. THIS IS CRUCIAL... if the Director thinks a given Action SHOULD or SHOULD NOT FAIL, he DOES NOT NEED A ROLL, but instead can just adjudicate it DOES SUCCEED OR FAIL as he or she desires.
An Action the Director doesn't want to happen should not be left to chance, as it will inevitably happen if players roll dice...
So, assuming that the event was supposed to be 'randomly determined', the basic C rule is "LET THE DICE FALL WHERE THEY MAY"
