Dice Pool

A dice pool is a game mechanic that does not look for a specific number, but instead successes. Successes are generated by rolling multiple of the same kind of dice, the number rolled is most commonly determined by a stat of some type with beneficial modifiers and negative penalties taken into account. The most common way to "count" successes is to cast the dice and see how many of the dice roll over a predetermined value. A less common example is counting successes as matching dice, or even sequences of numbers.

Examples

• Inquisitor If a player was trying to perform a dangerous action as part of his turn (all actions had to be declared before the player checked to see how many were successful) he was obliged to then roll less 1's than 6's otherwise he would fumble the action, often with humorous results (guns exploding, premature detonation, setting off alarms or falling to their death were common fates for characters who failed.)
• Shadowrun uses d6.
• Reign uses d10, and you look for pairs, triples & other matched sets. See One Roll Engine.
• World of Darkness uses d10 and variable target numbers and exploding 10s.
• Exalted uses d10s with '7' as the target number and 10s count as doubles.
• Donjon uses d20s.