Quote Originally Posted by LecternOfJasper View Post
That's pretty neat, is that tied to a particular system I can check out? I've been making my own d6 system and could use some inspiration.
FASA's Shadowrun used the Dice Pool mechanic. The newest STAR WARS is the most recent version. The White Wolf "worlds of Darkness" series (Vampire, The Maskerade) uses D10s for their dice pool systems.

Savage Worlds actually pushed a "Die Pool" system and Free League expanded upon it. In Savage Lands, you roll a single DIE for an Attribute or Skill but there are certain characters who get an additional die (D6) for being a "wildcard." During play, the die can step up to the next larger die size (ie a D4 to a D6) with bonuses or be reduced to the next lower die (ie a D8 to a D6) with penalties. any roll of 4 is a success and rolling 4 over that base chance of 4 (the game's universal target number) gets you additional successes.

Free League's system uses only D6 and above but they give you a Die for any Attribute plus a Die for any Skill (some game versions give a Die for equipment or magic too). These step up or down just like Savage Worlds but the target numbers are different. They start with 6 being a Success with each increasing die size adding Successes (D8 can have 2, D10 can have 3, D12 can have 4). Each die can have multiple Successes and penalties and bonuses step the dice you are rolling in tandem (you first step up a lower die to match the higher one) as well as stepping them down in tandem (the higher die is always reduced first).

We actually modified SHADOWRUN 1e/2e to a D10 dice pool method. Our version went like this...

You rolled a number of D10 for success equal to your Attribute or Skill. We DITCHED THE DICE POOLS. D10s could "explode." On a roll of 10, you would roll ANOTHER D10 for added successes. Thus a person with a lower level of skill COULD succeed at a harder Task through the use of "exploding" rolls of 10. A Catastrophic Failure occurred on a roll of all "1s." Thus, Skill was the gatekeeper here. Rolling one D10? You have a 10% of a Catastrophic Failure. Rolling 3 D10s? Not as likely to occur.

Target Numbers were set from 2 to 10. Any roll equal to or greater than the Target Number succeeds. We set the number of SUCCESSES needed based on the color codes for Decking security ratings. The chart below gives the number of Successes needed to complete a task...

GREEN = 1 Success needed
YELLOW = 2 Successes needed
ORANGE = 3 Successes needed
RED = 4 Successes needed
BLACK = 5 Successes needed

By using these color codes, we could quickly establish a Task's difficulty. For example, you might say: "Opening that door is a 5 GREEN Task." and I instantly know that I need to roll a 5 or more and get one Success. If you said: "hacking that terminal is a 4 RED Task." I'd immediately know that I need a 4 or higher but also need FOUR Successes! The system was a fast and intuitive hack of SHADOWRUN!