Skill Rolls
The basic mechanic in the game is the skill roll, which consists of rolling one or more ten-sided dice and adding various modifiers; the result is then compared to a target number to see if the skill use was successful. Only one die is read, generally the highest; however, each other die showing the same (or higher) result may add +1 to the end result. Thus, if three dice are rolled, showing 2, 8, 8, the player uses one of the 8's, but has a final result of 9. If the majority of the dice show a 1 the attempt automatically fails; if all dice show a 1 the attempt is a critical failure or botch. Both of these conditions assume a stressful situation.

Rolling Zero Dice
It is possible to be required to roll zero dice for a skill check, due to penalties or low attributes. If this occurs, there is still a chance of success. The character is allowed to roll one die, but a result of 1 or 2 are critical failures (instead of simply a 1). Naturally the GM decides how much of a botch actually occured, but a 1 result should be worse than a normal botch. The GM is also free to declare that the PC could not even make the attempt, depending on the reason he had 0 dice. An example of this is a PC who has been crippled trying to sprint; it is simply impossible.

Success and Failure
Once the character has generated a skill roll, this is compared to a target number to determine how successful the action was. A total on the roll equal to or better than the target number indicates success. If the character fails to reach this number, they may still have a partial success (or partial failure, depending on how you look at it). If the character was attempting something that could logically have been performed less well at the lower rolled number, than the character will achieve that lower result. For example, if the character was attempting to compose a piece of music but rolled too low, they may have simply created a piece that is less impressive. Certain skills will specifically indicate if this is appropriate or not; in other cases it will depend on the situation. In general, this only applies if the result of trying and missing is logically safe. For example, failing a long jump roll into a sand pit just results in less distance; failing such a roll when jumping over a chasm results in falling! In situations where it is unclear or too cumbersome to apply this rule, consider any roll that failed by no more than 25% of the TN to be only a minor failure. For example, rolling a 6 or 7 against a TN of 8 would lead to some less severe failure. If the skill being used were Balance, say to walk along a beam, this might represent falling onto the beam, rather than completely off of it. This is called a partial success.

Many skills allow for the character to have improved perfomance if their roll is significantly better than the target number. The player could, of course, have simply tried for a better result if he thought it was likely he would have a high roll; however, sometimes one is surprised at how well things turn out. With some skills, such as long jumping, this is factored in; but with many others it is open to adjudication. Consider improving the activity's result if the character rolls more than 50% over his target. This is a great, or solid, success.
In long-term activities, particularly mental efforts, an Intelligence or Perception roll can be a good way to see if the character realizes the potential inherent in his work.

Advanced Skill Rolls
There are many situations in which multiple skills may be used simultaneously for one task. In these cases one skill will be primary and is rolled in the same fashion as a basic skill, and the other skill will secondary. Secondary skills modify the results of the primary roll in various ways depending upon the type of roll the situation calls for.
The first type of advanced skill roll is additive. In this case, the level of the secondary skill is simply added to the primary roll. In some cases, this level may be modified prior to adding it (often by halving it).
The second type is subtractive, where the level of the secondary skill is subtracted from the primary result. This type of roll is generally used when the character's skill use is producing a target number for his allies. For example, a subtractive roll is made when providing instuction; the primary is the subject matter and the secondary is the teaching skill.
The third type of advanced roll is the cumulative roll, where the character must make several skill rolls in an attempt to reach either a very high TN or a certain number of successes. In many cases only a single skill is used for this type of roll. In this case, solid successes can take the place of two regular successes (GM's discretion).

Time
The shortest unit of time in the game is the phase, which is 3 seconds long. Two phases, 6 seconds, is a round; 2 rounds, 12 seconds, is a turn; and 10 rounds or 5 turns is a minute. Actions are described in terms of how much time they require. For example, a phase action is one which requires one phase to complete. Characters may not attempt multiple actions at the same time; therefore, engaging in a round action precludes attempting phase actions within that round. The exception to this is the free action; one free action may be taken each phase regardless of other actions, unless those obviously prevent the free action. For example, characters may normally say a few words as a free action; however, they cannot if they are attempting to hold their breath. Use common sense on this.

Actions
Most things that characters attempt are Actions: any time they use a skill, or try to do anything difficult, or anything that might be covered under a skill, they are making an Action. Each phase, a character may declare a new action, provided they are not waiting for an action to resolve. Actions resolve at the end of the time period they require, with shorter actions resolving before longer actions, i.e. a phase action is resolved before a round action, a round action before a turn action, a turn action before a minute action. This applies to actions resolving in the same phase. All actions of a given type resolve simultaneously.
Actions are declared in order of Initiative, lowest to highest.

For example, two enemies enter a bar and see each other. The encounter begins on Phase 1. Leroy has an Initiative total of 16, while Earl totals 21 (so Leroy must declare actions first). Leroy declares that he will draw and ready his sidearm, a phase action; hearing this, Earl declares the same, but adds that he is going to attempt to use his fastdraw skill, which would make it a free action. He rolls and succeeds. This means that he still has a phase action available here, so he declares that he will target Leroy's head. At the beginning of phase 2, Initiative is rolled; Earl again wins. Leroy declares that he will drop his gun back in its holster and uses his free action to tell Earl he surrenders.

Sample Actions
The cumulative column indicates whether or not an action can be extended over multiple time periods, adding to its effect each time. If this column has a number, that is the number of periods it can be taken and still add to the effect.

Action	Time or Type	Cumulative?	Notes
Fastdraw	Free	No	makes drawing a weapon a free action if successful; if failed, this phase's action is lost.
Ready Firearm	Free	No	if required, this cocks or otherwise prepares a gun to fire.
Speak	Free	Yes	a short phrase (how much can you say in 3 seconds?)
Aiming	Phase	3	+1 per Phase
Firing Semi-Auto	Phase	No
Draw Weapon	Phase	No
Targeting	Phase	No	allows accurate firing at a new target.

Conditional Modifiers
The following situations reduce the number of dice the character rolls by one:

• Unfamiliar Equipment - This applies when the character would reasonably have some idea of the function and application of the device, but has not used the specific type. For example, outdated or brand new models, trying to drive a British-style car, etc. This penalty normally only applies for a short while, and might be waived if the character can pass a relative skill check, such as history for obsolete items.
• Distractions - This only applies to distractions that are unexpected during the normal use of this skill. For example, the noise and confusion of combat does not cause a distraction in the use of combat skills, but does affect an attempt to solve a difficult physics problem.
• Fatigue
• Mild Intoxication
• Zero Skill - If a character possesses a 0 in the relative skill, he loses one die from the attempt.