Era d10 has been designed for one simple purpose: Many people, when playing a tabletop role-playing game, do not want to spend too much of their playtime checking the rules. I, personally, am included in this and I’ve created the rules with this in mind. The majority of the complexity has therefore been focused in character creation, and a number of characters will be provided for those who prefer a quick start.
This rule set has been created to find the balance between this group of people, but also for those who wish to have a more representative ruleset. The basic rule set is simple, and easy for anyone to pick up, even novices. However, there is also a hardcore rule set, allowing those players who are willing to use more complicated rules to help design a more representative (and challenging) rule set, requiring fine-tuning and careful planning to optimise their character.
What form does it take?
The rules could be described as “a Success-counting dice pool system where you roll Attribute + Skill in d10s and the difficulty of the task determines which numbers count as Successes.”
In case that was a bit too brief or jargony, here’s a bit more detail:
The system is based around multiple dice – the more skilled you are, the more dice you have – and a variable goal based on activity difficulty. Using an Attribute and Skill system which each define their own areas of influence, you roll your dice depending on what you’re attempting – whether Dexterity + Engineering for a precision piece of work, Intelligence + Engineering for a more theoretical problem or Luck + Engineering for a complete long shot, you’ll be able to adapt to your circumstances and focus on your strengths.
Although you roll more dice the more skilled you are, the number you are attempting to reach varies depending on the difficulty of the action – if shooting someone in clear conditions, the GM would as for a 7. If someone was laying a mine, more likely a 6. Firing over your shoulder at someone 30 metres away while crouching behind a low wall would definitely be a 10!
How many d10 dice do I need to play?
Not less than 1!
In seriousness, we usually find that around 10-12 covers most actions. In theory, however, you could need to roll 30 or more for some actions if you are adequately skilled with the right modifiers – but who doesn’t love to roll a “bucket of dice” from time to time?
