ORE Mechanics
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The basic dice mechanic of ORE is designed to provide all of the information needed to determine the speed, quality, and effect of an action with a single roll, rather than the multiple sequential rolls found in many other systems.
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The Cardinal Rules
- Roll only when you need to. There's no sense in rolling for trivial tasks or for anything that doesn't make for good fun.
- NEVER roll more than 10 dice. If you roll more than 10 dice, you are guaranteed at least 1 match. Even if your pool is greater than 10d, roll only 10. Pools greater than 10 do have an advantage (see below for more).
Dice Pool
Character abilities, skills, and contests or conflicts are resolved using a Dice pool composed of 10-sided dice (indicated, of course, as d10's, or just "d").
The dice pool for any action is the sum of the appropriate Skill and it's linked Stat (each skill is linked to a Stat; for example, Knowledge Skills are linked to the Intelligence Stat). In some cases, the pool can be augmented by additional dice.
Example: John Doe, our example character, has a Body (this is a Stat) of 3 and an Unarmed Combat (which is a Skill) of 4. To hit someone in hand-to-hand combat, John's player rolls 7d10 (3 from Body and 4 from Unarmed Combat).
As mentioned in the Cardinal Rules, you may never roll more than 10 dice for any contest or action. However, if your pool would normally be greater than 10, any penalties toward your dice pool (from multiple actions, etc) are first absorbed by the dice in excess of 10, before they affect the rolled pool.
Example: Master Li, a wizened but frighteningly powerful martial artist, has Coordination 6 and Acrobatics 6, and is attempting to make three actions in a single round. The penalty for such an action is -2d to his dice pool. He cannot ever roll 12d, despite his Stat + Skill total - however, the -2d penalty is first absorbed by the 2 extra dice beyond 10d. So, even though he's taking multiple actions, he can still roll 10d.
Sets
ORE uses the concepts of sets, that is, matching dice. When a player rolls dice, the results are examined to see if any dice match, and those matching dice are called Sets. A set is described in terms of Width and Height, and is written as W x H when it's described. The Width of set is how many dice came up matching, while the Height is what number is matched.
Example: John Doe takes a swing at a mugger. The results of the roll are 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 8, and 10. Since three dice came up 4, he has a Set. The set's Width is 3 (three dice are in it), and it's height is 4. This is written as a 3x4 set.
Sets indicate a number of things about the roll. The Width of the Set indicates, in general, how quickly the task is performed, while the Height of a set indicates how well a task is performed. Wider sets are faster, while taller sets are better. This distinction comes into play in all types of tests, but especially in combat, as described below. Finally, in standard ORE, the height of the roll indicates Hit Location (damage is tracked by location in ORE).
As you probably guessed, if your roll results in no Sets, your attempt to perform a task fails. How bad a failure depends on how low your dice are - more low dice tend to indicate a more serious failure.
Static and Dynamic Contests
Static contests occur when a character is attempting a task, but is not competing with any person or other entity to complete it. Dynamic contests mean that you have an opponent, usually a person. For example, hotwiring a car is a Static test, while a fistfight is a Dynamic Contest.
For Static contests, you want the tallest set possible, but Width isn't as important. You want to do it well; speed is secondary.
For Dynamic contests, you ideally want wide, tall sets. On the other hand, sometimes the first hit is better than the best hit, since a successful hit (one that deals damage) on an opponent "steals" one die from his or her tallest set, which can ruin an attack, if it takes away
Example: John Doe's opponent rolls Body + Unarmed Combat of 5d, and gets 1, 5, 7, 7, and 8. This gives the mugger a 2x7 set. It's taller than John's, but not as wide, so John's attack gets there a little faster than his assailant's. John's roll - 3x4 - indicates that he hits the mugger in the left arm, and given John's Stats, he does 2 points of Stun damage. This is enough to take one die out of the mugger's highest set - 2x7 - meaning that the mugger no longer has a set! His blow misses John completely.
If two opponents end up with equal-width rolls, the tie goes to the taller set. Had John's set, in the above example, been 2x4, the mugger would have landed the first blow.
As a final note, Ranged Combat is considered a Static test, because very few people can truly dodge bullets. However, if you see a Ranged Combat attack about to take place (you notice someone pointing a gun, etc) you can attempt to dive to cover before it happens. In such a case, you would roll the appropriate dice pool, and if your set was wider than the shooter's, you get behind cover before the shot goes off. You will not be dodging bullets in flight.
Difficulty
Typically, any roll that results in a set is sufficient to succeed at a task (even if only barely). However, for very challenging tasks, the Gamemaster may decide to set a Difficulty for the roll. The Difficulty of any task is the minimum Height required to succeed.
Example: John Doe is trying to crack a safe. The safe has a Difficulty rating of 3. John's result will need to have a height of at least 3 to succeed.
Special Dice
There are two "special dice" available in this version of the ORE: Expert and Master dice.
Expert dice are dice that are set prior to rolling your dice pool, to whatever number you wish. Then, you roll the rest of your dice pool, and see if your Expert die is matched by any other dice in your pool. This does not guarantee a match, of course, but it does allow a character to designate exactly how proficient they are with any skill. Obviously, the major advantage of this feature arises during combat, since you can use an Expert Die to call a shot without any penalties. In situations where you are using a skill outside of combat, there is no reason to set the Expert Die at any number other than 10.
Furthermore, Expert Dice "buy off" penalties (such as wound penalties, or called shots). When this happens, they remain in the pool, but are rolled normally (i.e., they are not set prior to rolling). However, note that the buy off is AUTOMATIC - if you have Expert Dice and you face a dice pool penalty, the ED automatically becomes a normal die, and buys off the penalty.
Master dice are much more powerful. They're essentially Wild Cards, since they can be set to whatever value you want, after you roll. Thus, you can set them to make wide or tall sets as you see fit. They are also the most expensive dice to acquire during Character Creation, but that's to be expected. Expert dice can be promoted to Master dice at a cost of 5 build points, or 40 Edge.
Limitations
There are some limitations to Expert and Master Dice:
- If you are forced to drop dice from your pool (for instance, because of injury), Master dice are dropped before normal dice.
- Both types count toward the 10d limit on any dice pool.
- As mentioned above, the Expert Die buy-off happens AUTOMATICALLY.
- Only one special die (of either type) can be in any pool (for example, you cannot have a pool with 1ed and 1md in it). Likewise, you can only buy one die of either type in any cybersystem, program, magic spell, or adept power.
Multiple Actions
Performing multiple actions is simple: declare multiple actions, and if you roll multiple sets, allocate them as you desire to the actions you wish to take (if you only roll one set, you'll need to decide which action you wish to perform). There is no penalty for multiple actions, but the actions must be mutually compatible and fall in the same "time scale" (in other words, shooting a gun and writing a software program do not happen in the same sort of timeframe, and so would not be compatible actions).
Working Together
Characters can cooperate to perform a task, provided two requirements are met:
- The task can be accomplished in a cooperative fashion.
- The combined dice pools are for the same Stat + Skill.
To cooperate on a static contest, the two characters simply combine their pool (to a maximum of 10d), and the pool is rolled normally. This method is also used for dynamic contests where time is not a factor.
In dynamic contests where time is a factor, both individuals roll separately, and combine their results for the best set (however, one character must get at least one set, or the attempt fails).
Time
Time is generally fast and loose in ORE, but may occasionally become important (usually in combat!). Since each combat round consists of all involved characters performing their actions, the time of any given round is variable. However, in most cases (unless you can come up with a good reason), a combat round should be estimated to run about 6 seconds, and no more than 10. Remember, six seconds is a long time when bullets are flying.
