Forum

If I have Wits 4 and Observation 1, and I take a critical injury that causes my Observation to be -2, what do I roll for Observation checks?

If your number of dice after modifiers = 0 you cannot attempt it, correct?

Thanks!

Ok, so when you lose “Observation” that also causes a negative modifier in the corresponding ability score (wits in this case)?

Thanks! Missed it in the book

Rolling a skill means rolling dice equal to the skill itself (if any) and the associated attribute.

So, say you have WITS 3 and OBSERVATION is untrained.

If MU/TH/UR asks you toll roll OBSERVATION, you'll roll 3 dice (plus any Stress)

If you have -2 to OBSERVATION, and MU/TH/UR asks you toll roll OBSERVATION, you'll roll 1 die (plus any Stress).

If, instead, you have WITS 2, but everything else is the same (OBSERVATION is untrained, and you're taking a -2), you cannot roll OBSERVATION.

Thank you, appreciate you all

Technically — and this is speculative and not part of the day-to-day table experience — you can also reach negative dice territory if there are multiple negative modifiers, such as Difficulty + Injury, etc. that would cause the base dice pool to fall under 0. While not mentioned in Alien (IIRC), other Year Zero Engine games will turn negative dice numbers into negative dice i.e. their 6s (or 1s, if you prefer) counter successful 6s in the roll.
You would only be rolling stress dice vs. negative dice, though, so such a situation wouldn't be possible with an android character.