Basic Game Mechanics

In this chapter you will learn: what dice are used, how to roll them, what the results mean and the mechanical basics of how to play Pneumatica.

Dice, The Ladder & Roll and Keep
Pneumatica uses 10d10; that is ten dice with ten sides each. You will never need more then 10d10 to play and most often you will use less. Rolling dice is a way of resolving what actions succeed and fail. Its a mix of luck and character skill rather then the story teller just making up the results.

The Ladder
Pneumatica uses a descriptive ladder systems for traits and broad skills. During game play you may refer to them by their name, number or both depending on how your group decides to use it.

Legendary +8 Epic +7 Fantastic +6 Superb +5 Great +4 Good +3 Fair +2 Average +1 Mediocre 0 Poor –1 Terrible –2

When you create your character you will assign a descriptor to traits and skills and this ladder descriptor will determine the number of dice you roll and keep during game play.

Basic Dice rolling
When you roll in Pneumatica you will roll a number of d10s based on certain criteria and keep a number of them. Adding the highest kept dice together. In most cases you will roll a number of dice equal to your trait associated with the skill + the skill you are using + any special bonuses and you keep a number of those dice equal to the relevant trait. For example: Shen wants to shoot something with his pistol. He has a Reflex of Good (+3), a Firearms skill of Fair (+2) and a +1 specialty bonus for extended pistol training. He would pick up 6d10 (3+2+1) and roll them keeping the highest 3 (his reflex trait). This is expressed as 6k3; the number before the 'k' is number of dice rolled and the number after 'k' is the number of dice kept. E.g. 6d10 rolled 2,5,6,6,2,3 add the 5,6,6 (6k3) for a total of 17. If 17 is equal to or higher then the Target Number (TN) of your target then you hit, otherwise you miss.

Negative modifiers
A negative dice modifier removes dice from your roll and keep pool. Eg. If Shen wants to repair his steam bike but has no mechanical training or experience he may have a Good (+3) intelligence but a Terrible (-2) mechanics skill. He can still attempt to repair the bike but would only have one dice to keep.

Rolling less then you keep
If your dice pool is lower then what you can keep you may only keep a max of what you rolled. e.g. Shen has a +3 Intelligence but a -1 in science he would roll 2k3 but since he only rolled 2 dice he cannot keep three. Each dice kept beyond what you rolled falls off unless you are rolling over 10k10 (see below).

Dice pools bigger then 10
As Shen progresses he gains exceptional skill and agility when using his katana. At this point he has an Agility of +5, a Melee skill of +6 and a sword specialty bonus of +3. His dice pool is now 14k5 when striking with his sword. However you cannot roll more then 10 dice so every two rolled dice over ten converts to a keep. In this case 10k7 (14-10=2 extra kept dice).

Epic dice pools
Its been awhile and Shen has continued to increase his skill with his sword. His Agility is +7 but his melee skill is +8 and his sword specialty is +4. He now has a dice pool of 19k7. As we know he converts every two over ten into kept dice. However this means he has a 10k11. You can never keep more then 10 dice. For each extra kept dice over 10 you gain a static +5 bonus to the final result. Shens dice roll when using his sword now looks like this 10k10+5. He rolls and keeps all 10 dice and then adds 5 to the total.

Exploding dice
Magic, heroism, fate, love and just plain luck (good or bad) make extraordinary circumstances come to reality. This is manifested more so in exploding dice. When you roll your dice pool for each dice that rolls a 10 you may add it to your total value and then roll again adding the new number to your total. e.g. Shen cannot possibly fix his steam bike as he has only a 1k1 to do so and the TN is 15. Stranded and not wanting to abandon his expensive investment he toils with it anyway. Shen rolls 1k1 and get a 10. He rolls the 10 again and get a 6. His total is 16. Although not normally able to repair the bike Shen's desperate effort ended in a stroke of luck and he gets the bike running long enough to get back to the city.

Dice explosions can create some exciting and plot twisting events but to limit the potentially impossible result you may not have more exploding dice then you can keep. e.g. Shen has a Intelligence of Good (+3) and a History of Fair (+2). He rolls 5k3 and gets 10, 3, 10, 8, 10. Three dice explode so he adds 10 to his total and re-rolls the 10s. The three exploding dice result in 10, 3 and 2. Normally Shen could roll the 10 yet again but since his keep is 3 he cannot; hes already rolled 3 explosions.

Not keeping the highest
There may come a time when you do not wish to succeed. Maybe you are being force to fight someone you don't want to kill. You may, if you choose, keep any of your dice instead of the highest ones. You must still keep a number of dice equal to your keep. e.g. Shen and his party have been captured and forced to face each other in gladiatorial combat. Shen wants to take a fall so that his companion will win. Shen rolls to strike (10k7) 1,2,3,3,4,5,8,9,10,10 but pulls the swing short keeping only the 7 lowest numbers so he has less of a chance of harming his companion but does not get punished for refusing to fight.

Game Play
Pneumatica is a table top role playing game using dialogue and imagination to tell a story. Your tools to record character development, and decide outcomes are pencil, paper, dice and your creativity. Like many role playing game Pneumatica has a gamemaster (GM) or storyteller. His or her part in the game is to narate, provide information to the players, play non-player characters (NPCs) and guide the story. The players (PCs) take on a role of a character(s) in the world and create dialogue with each other and NPCs, make decisions based on their characters' traits, background and life. PCs are almost always the protagonists of the story and the GM provides antagonists and supporting characters along the way.

Styles of play can very widely based on the group of players and GM. From politics, mystery, and intrigue to war, hunting and mass combat how the story flows is decided by the players and facilitated by the GM.

The players part: Players usually only take on one character role at a time. Some GMs may have several story arcs running side by side and allow players to create characters in each arch. The level of depth and involvement of players in different archs should be left to the GMs discretion. As a player you should strive to actively push the story forward by doing things, anything! Try to do anything your character would want to do. Some may not be within grasp and often a characters goals will change of the course of a story but a player should try to remain proactive by striving to get things done. After all a character who never does anything is rather boring. If you don't know what to do or run out of ideas as to where to take your character look to the GMs subtle (or not so much) clues as to where the action is. Listen for rumors, listen to the other players, the NPCs. There will always be some lead to follow.

The GMs part: While the GM can and should have a basic idea of where the story is going I highly advise GMs to let the players make decisions and go and do what they want to do. If the players need a guide or helping hand provide interesting NPCs to offer direction but otherwise a GM should have a good overall sense of the state of the world and story but leave the details and how to the players.

Communicate: It is always important for the GM and Players to communicate outside of game play. After sessions GMs may ask for feedback, if not players should speak up. Let the GM know what ideas you liked, didn't like, where you'd like to go from there, what if? is this possible? what about this? GMs need fuel to add to a story and there is no greater source then the players.

The end?: Stories can be short, only consisting of a few hours of game play or take literally years to come to an end. How long a story will run should be something the players and GM decide together. Maybe the story is a series of short stories or chapters or a collection of books. Some characters may fade out over time as the player can no longer participate only to later come back when real life allows. Players may want to play different characters or time periods and stories may be place on hold while they pursue that option. Often a GM will end a story and because of a desire by the players to continue will take a break, collect new ideas and begin another story using the characters the players want to play. So is there a true end to the story? Be flexible, communicate and have fun; the story may never end.