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<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css" type="text/css" charset="utf-8" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="title">DIME STORIES</div>
<div class="subtitle">AIN’T NOTHIN’ FOR FREE</div>
<div class="credits">
<em>Writing and Layout:</em> Joseph Blomquist<br />
<em>Creative Input:</em> Mary Blomquist, Geoff Bottone, Jonathan Lavallee, Jeph Lewis Editing: Amber Hines<br />
<em>Art and Photography:</em> Colin Brown and Louis Porter Jr. Designs<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 90%;"><em>Fonts Used:</em> Creator Credits and Swing Set (by Nate Piekos, www.blambot.com), Anderson Four Feather Falls (by Steve Ferrera), Bleeding Cowboys (by Last Soundtrack), and Saddlebag (by Dieter Steffman)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 80%"><em>Playtesters:</em> Joseph Blomquist, Mary Blomquist, Katie Bond, Melissa Dunn, Joseph Fiorello, Adam Lake, Jeph Lewis, AJ Metzger, Christopher Moody, Heather Vigil, Todd Wernicke<br />
<br />
Special Thanks to Ryan Macklin for the inspiration that caused Kingdom Come’s creation.<br />
<br />
Originally created for the blog <em>“Underwear on the Outside”</em><br />
<a href="http://www.UnderwearOnTheOutside.com">www.UnderwearOnTheOutside.com</a></span>
</div>
<div class="contents">
<h1>CONTENTS</h1>
<h2><a href="#CharacterBuilding">Character Building</a></h2>
<h2><a href="#NonPlayerCharacters">Non Player Characters</a></h2>
<h2><a href="#Play">Play</a></h2>
<h2><a href="#PersonalGrowth">Personal Growth</a></h2>
<h2><a href="#HealingAndDeath">Healing and Death</a></h2>
</div>
<div class="license clearfix">
<img src="a.png" width="150" style="float: right;" />
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to: Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041
</div>
<h1 id="CharacterBuilding">Character Building</h1>
<p>Creating characters in Dime Stories is meant to be simple. Player Characters are a blend of concepts and numbers corresponding to the dice the player will roll when their character tries to do something. The rules-lite design is meant to open the player up to some serious roleplaying opportunities, and the concept descriptions used as Traits give the players the details about their characters in a very concise manner.</p>
<p>Most roleplaying groups prefer to have their characters seek similar goals - be it money, fame, or power; in Dime Stories, that type of group is called a Posse. However, players aren’t limited to making a Posse; at times it is quite interesting and fun to set the characters at odds with each other.</p>
<h2>Concept:</h2>
<p>Start with a concept, a clear image of who and what your character is. Anything you can imagine is fair game, and it’ll help you to drive your Traits and Loot later. This also gives you the chance to create your own alien race of magical properties if you like, since there are no limits to character creation.</p>
<h2>Abilities:</h2>
<p>Each character has three Ability scores measured in the dice assigned to them: DRAW, GRIT, and THINKIN’. Distribute a D4, D6, and D10 between the three Abilities.</p>
<p>DRAW is the character’s natural speed and skill, and it can be used for running, shooting, or or even piloting a craft or buggy. DRAW also determines who goes first in a combat situation.</p>
<p>GRIT is the character’s resolve to avoid damage, and to keep from being mentally dominated or forced to cower in fear and run away. The highest value of the dice issued to GRIT also acts as the character’s HEALTH (e.g. a D6 GRIT is 6 HEALTH). GRIT is also rolled when avoiding the effects of dangerous substances, poisons or even stun blasts.</p>
<p>THINKIN’ is just that, the character’s ability to think and reason, or to come up with a witty way out of a fight. If a character is trying to use their intellect or charm, Thinkin’ is the Ability score to use.</p>
<h2>Luck:</h2>
<p>Each character starts with one (1) LUCK Token and at any given time can have a maximum of three (3) LUCK.</p>
<h2>Traits:</h2>
<p>Each character also starts with three TRAITS with a rating of D4, D6, and D8 respectively. TRAITS can be anything a player can think of in to add spice and flavor to their character; they can be something as simple as Smart D4 or Fast on his Feet D6, or they can be more specific like Imperial Contract D6, Plugged in Piloting D8, Ghost Sense D4, even Gears for Guts D6.</p>
<p>However, TRAITS are a double-edged sword as explained in the section called Play.</p>
<h2>Loot:</h2>
<p>Each player starts with Three (3) pieces of LOOT. Each LOOT piece is given a LOOT TRAIT with a rating just like regular TRAITS: one at D4, one at D6, and a one at D8. LOOT falls into three categories: LOOT can be Gear (e.g. Synthrope - Tie ‘em up D6), Vehicles (Hoverbike - Fast D8) or Weaponry.</p>
<p>Unlike other LOOT, Weaponry has an additional rating for DAMAGE. Depending on its Damage rating, a weapon subtracts 1, 2, or 3 health points from the target’s HEALTH. With starting character’s weapons, the rating of a Weapon relates to its DAMAGE (a DAMAGE 1 weapon has a D8 TRAIT, DAMAGE 2 is D6 and DAMAGE 3 is D4). For example, a knife might be DAMAGE 1 but have Cut Through Ship Hull D8 while Sniper Rifle with DAMAGE 3 could only have a D4 in Night Vision because of its high DAMAGE rating. In combat situations, the Weapon’s LOOT TRAIT is added to the player’s Dice Pool.</p>
<h2>Example:</h2>
<p class="example">Mary decides she wants to make a former professor turned archaeologist researching the ancient aboriginal Laddoc that inhabited the planet Backwater while the Vitressien peoples were still in their infancy. She wants her archeologist to be something of an adventurer and while human-like, not completely human. The idea of a green skinned, cold-blooded human - like race with with a body temperature that stays similar to her surroundings appeals to Mary. She calls the race Degfan and makes it part of her Concept.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Concept:</em> Adventurous Degfan Female Archeologist</p>
<p class="example">Mary figures that her Degfan has been highly educated, and can probably hold her own in a fight, but being cold-blooded, she might be more fragile than average and prone to camouflage instead of taking a hit. She assigns her ability dice based on these choices, and that automatically creates her Health rating as well.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Abilities:</em> Draw d6, Grit d4, Thinkin’ d10, Health 4</p>
<p class="example">Now to Traits. Mary already laid out one of the Degfan racial abilities that would make a great Trait - an ability for her body temperature to mimic her surroundings. That would make it hard for infrared scopes to see her, but might make her a bit cold now and then. She also wants the Degfan to have a strong personal belief as to what should happen with her discoveries, especially when it comes to selling or displaying finds. And finally, she wants a trait that references her character’s profession. Mary puts her Degfan’s personal beliefs ahead of her education and natural camouflage when assigning dice to the Traits.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Traits:</em> Degfan Natural Temperature Camouflage d4, It Belongs in a Museum! d8, Leading Mind in Archeological Studies d6</p>
<p class="example">Finally, Mary decides on some Loot for her archeologist and gives her a name. She thinks a scanner would be a pretty major asset for the archaeologist’s dig sites, and a hover disk that can be used as a vehicle as well as a way to move materials unearthed in her work would be excellent choices. And a whip. Any good archaeologist has a whip. She wants the whip to be middle ground of damage, and it should be pretty useful on top of that. Finally, she decides on a fitting name, Indi.</p>
<p class="example">Loot: Holoscanner (Can see in All Directions d8), Hovercart (Slow but Strong d4), Laser Whip - (Stronger than Steel Cable - d6, Damage 2)</p>
<h1 id="#NonPlayerCharacters">Non Player Characters</h1>
<p>The average Non-Player Characters, or NPCs for short, are made up of three Traits with one at D4, one at D8, and one at D10. Health for the NPC is calculated based on the Trait the GM deems most fitting. Weapons get a similar Damage Rating to Player weapons with D10 weapons at 1 Damage, D8 at 2 damage, and D4 at 3 Damage. For example, an NPC might look like this:</p>
<h2>ROBOTIC SENTRY</h2>
<div class="example">Arm Mounted Laser D10 (Damage 1) Armor Plating D8</div>
<div class="example">Sensor Array D4</div>
<div class="example">Health 8</div>
<h2>We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Gun</h2>
<p>Just because NPCs are the same jumble of stats as Player Characters, they do not always get held to such high esteem. More often than not, NPCs come in sizes stronger and weaker than the Player Characters - in most cases, the latter.</p>
<h3>Weaker NPCs</h3>
<p>For every sheriff, there’s a dozen or so deputies, and every gang leader’s bound to have a gang of thugs itching to do his bidding. These are those weaker characters. They are just as likely to hold a gun and do damage with their lot of Traits as any other NPC, but Weaker NPCs will only have one (1) Health point to survive a firefight. They might be easy to kill, but in large numbers and they can do a lot of damage.</p>
<h3>Tougher NPCs</h3>
<p>These are the Big Guns. These are the guys that make you leave town when you even hear they have come around. To show the greater threat these NPC’s represent, their three Traits can be any variation of 10s, D8s, and D6s at the GM’s discretion - possibly even going up to 3 D10s. Their Health can be up to twice their highest Trait rating for a maximum of twenty (20) Health.</p>
<p>Tougher weapons are possible as well. There is always a chance that serious weaponry could do 2, 4, or 6 damage rather than the normal 1, 2, or 3. However, this should be pretty rare and unless an NPC is a MAJOR end of the world type of foe, you should not mix heavier weapons with NPCs of that caliber. If the game is filled with massive damage, characters will usually die too quickly and that is not fun for anyone.</p>
<img src="b.png" height="389"/>
<h1 id="Play">PLAY</h1>
<p>To do anything, roll one (1) die from the applicable ABILITY, one (1) die from any one (1) TRAIT that might apply. If it makes sense, you can also add one (1) die from any one (1) LOOT TRAIT that might apply. These dice make up your Dice Pool. Roll the entire Dice Pool and keep the single highest result to either compare it to the DIFFICULTY or use it against a TRAIT roll from an NPC.</p>
<p>In contested rolls, where the GM is also rolling dice for an NPC, ties always go to the player, but against a DIFFICULTY, if a player ties the number required, they fail.</p>
<h2>Difficulty:</h2>
<p>DIFFICULTY is assigned by the GM from the following:</p>
<ul class="leaders">
<li><span>Routine</span><span>No Roll</span></li>
<li><span>Easy</span><span>2</span></li>
<li><span>Less than Easy</span><span>3</span></li>
<li><span>Hard</span><span>5</span></li>
<li><span>You Gotta Be Kiddin’ Me</span><span>6</span></li>
</ul>
<h2>Example:</h2>
<p class="example">Indi is stuck in a town called Varmit, trying to check the old, dried-up mine for any residual Tyrium.</p>
<p class="example"><em>GM:</em> Ok, the mine is so well excavated that serious professionals have given up on it. So it’s going to be pretty HARD to find anything.</p>
<p class="example"><em>The GM has set the difficulty at HARD (5)</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary:</em> Well, Indi is using her brain for the task so I’ll use her Thinkin’ ability.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary starts her dice pool with a d10.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary:</em> Mining work like this isn’t that different from archeological work. So I’m going to use Indi’s “Leading Mind in Archeological Studies” Trait.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary adds a d6 to her dice pool</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary:</em> Indi is surprisingly well prepared for this situation. She brings the Holoscanner strapped to her arm to life so I can add the Holoscanner’s “Can See in All Directions” Loot Trait.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary adds a d8 to her Dice Pool. She rolls her d10, d6, and d8 for the various Abilities and Traits getting a 4, 2, and 7. The 7 is the highest roll, so she keeps it.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>Since the 7 meets or beats the HARD difficulty (5), she is successful.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>GM:</em> Indi’s scanner reveals a source of Tyrium behind an unworked wall in the mine. All they have to do is knock through the east wall... well, if the supports will hold, that is.</p>
<h2>Combat:</h2>
<p>Combat Situations are contested rolls. Players roll their Draw ability against whichever of the NPC’s Traits the GM decides is applicable. Whoever rolls higher acts first in a fight, but ties always go to the player. Player Dice Pools for combat usually include Draw, one Trait that seems applicable, and the Loot Trait of whichever weapon the character is using. As usual, the player keeps the highest number revealed on one of the dice.</p>
<h2>Combat Example:</h2>
<p class="example">The villainous El Desperado has ambushed the archeologist Indi and her trusty robot assistant, Murderbot 9000.</p>
<p class="example"><em>GM:</em> El Desperado pulls his gun on the both of you, he seems to think he’s got the drop on you. Roll your Initiative.</p>
<p class="example"><em>The GM rolls El Desperado’s d8 for “Unsavory Bandito” and gets a 6.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary:</em> Indi lights her whip and eyes him menacingly.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Mary Rolls Indi’s d6 Draw and gets a 4 so she will go after El Desperado.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>Jeph:</em> Murderbot 9000’s Eyes light up at the chance to kill something.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Murderbot 9000 has a d10 Draw. Jeph also rolls a 6. Players always win in ties for Initiative, so Murderbot 9000 will go before El Desperado.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>Jeph:</em> Murderbot is shooting rockets at El Desperado.</p>
<p class="example"><em>GM:</em> Rockets!?</p>
<p class="example"><em>Jeph:</em> Yep, Rockets. So I’ll use Murderbots d10 Draw, his d8 “Murderbot Murdering” Trait, and the Rocket’s D8 “Heat Seeking” Loot Trait.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Jeph Rolls his Dice Pool and gets a 5, a 6, and a 2 respectively. The 6 is the highest so that’s his score.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>GM:</em> El Desperado has a “Slippery as a Space Eel” Trait.</p>
<p class="example"><em>The GM Rolls a 7 with the Trait’s D10.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>GM:</em> Looks like the missiles miss. El Desperado didn’t like that. He shoots at the Murderbot with his “Unsavory Bandito” Trait.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Jeph:</em> I’m going to spend a Luck Token to step my roll up while Murderbot tries to dodge out of the way. So Murderbot’s Draw stays a d10, but his “Murderbot Speed” Trait goes up to d8 and his Shields go up to D6.</p>
<p class="example"><em>Jeph Rolls his Dice Pool and gets a 7, 7, and 6 and hands the GM one of his Luck Tokens.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>The GM Rolls a D8 and gets an 8.</em></p>
<p class="example"><em>GM:</em> OH! Nasty hit despite how fast Murderbot 9000 is. He takes 2 damage from the hit. Now Mary, it’s Indi’s turn.</p>
<h2>Improvised Weapons:</h2>
<p>Sometimes a character gets into a fight, but they do not have the right tools for the job. Sometimes a chair can be the best club you can find. In cases like that, the item is less effective in combat than a normal weapon. The GM will come up with a Loot Trait rating and Damage rating for your improvised weapon (ie. Old Wooden Chair D6, Damage 2). To use it in a fight, all other dice (except for the Loot Trait of the item) in the dice pool are stepped down (dice cannot go down to less than D4) because the item usually isn’t well balanced for combat.</p>
<p>In our chair example from above, the towering Zonian powerhouse Mitsie grabs a chair in the middle of a barfight to slug it over the head of a guy that spilled his drink on her. Normally she has D10 Draw and a D8 Trait called “Stronger than Plasteel.” But since the chair isn’t something she’s used to using as a weapon, her dice pool becomes Draw D8, Stronger than Plasteel D6, Old Wooden Chair D6. Her Draw is also stepped down to D8 when figurin’ who goes first.</p>
<p>There is a way around this penalty. If a character has a Trait that is something along the lines of “Everything is a Weapon,” they do
not have to step down their dice in combat.</p>
<h2>Traits:</h2>
<p>If players choose to use TRAITS in this fashion, TRAITS can be used against their character’s rolls. In that case, subtract the TRAIT result from the ABILITY result, and the player gains one (1) LUCK token for a later roll.</p>
<p>For Example, Ghost Sense might give you a heads up from the Supernatural, but they see you too. And that just opens you up to a whole mess of new troubles.</p>
<p>Or one we used before: Plugged in Piloting. In most cases, this TRAIT would help you outmaneuver Imperial Customs Frigates and have the reaction time of a brain synapse since you are literally plugged into your ship. But what if your ship’s sensors die, or worse, there is a fire on board and you are forced to race against time to try to get out. That’s when a TRAIT like that would be less than beneficial.</p>
<p>If a character’s TRAIT is being used against them during a contested roll (such as combat), the GM rolls that TRAIT as part of the NPC’s dice pool and a LUCK point is still awarded to the player.</p>
<h2>Lending Assistance:</h2>
<p>A player can always help out another member of his Posse or friendly NPC in a task. The player spends one of his LUCK Tokens and can add one (1) of his TRAITS or one (1) of his LOOT TRAITS to the friendly character’s Dice Pool.</p>
<h2>Getting Lucky:</h2>
<p>The GM will award LUCK Tokens for several reasons. The easiest way to gain a LUCK token is for a player to use their character’s TRAIT against them. GMs can also award LUCK for excellence in roleplaying, doing something really cool, or when the GM makes a choice that puts the Posse in dire straits or somehow negates whatever they just tried to do.</p>
<p>At no time can a character’s LUCK go higher than three (3) LUCK Tokens.</p>
<h2>It’s Your Lucky Day:</h2>
<p>Luck Tokens can be used in a few ways.</p>
<h3>STEP UP DICE POOL:</h3>
<p>Players can spend a LUCK Token to step up their dice pool. All dice in the pool step up one size to a maximum of D10. For Example, Tinch the mechanic is working on a drill to get the mine up and running again. His Dice Pool consists of his THINKIN’ (D10), his “Ain’t Nothin’ I Can’t Fix” TRAIT (D8), and his Handy-dandy Multi - tool (D4). It’s REALLY important that this mine gets up and running so the Posse can make some money. Tinch’s player spends a LUCK Token to step up the dice pool. The D4 and D8 become D6 and D10 respectively, but the THINKIN’ D10 stays a D10 since it can’t be stepped up any higher. His Pool becomes THINKIN’ D10, “Ain’t Nothing I Can’t Fix” D10, Handy-dandy Multi-tool D6.</p>
<h3>STEP DOWN NPC DICE POOL:</h3>
<p>Players can spend a LUCK Token to step down an NPC’s Dice Pool in much the same manner as stepping up their own Dice Pools. However, the lowest a die can
be stepped down to is D4.</p>
<h3>ADDING AN EXTRA TRAIT OR ABILITY:</h3>
<p>LUCK Tokens can be spent to add another TRAIT, LOOT, or ABILITY die to a Dice Pool. Normally a dice pool can only consist of one die from each category, but extra dice added to the roll helps the chances of succeeding. However, the LUCK Token must be spent prior to rolling dice.</p>
<h3>LENDING ASSISTANCE:</h3>
<p>A Player can spend a LUCK Token to add one of their TRAITS or LOOT TRAITS to a friendly character’s dice pool. As above, the LUCK Token must be spent prior to rolling dice. See Lending Assistance in the Play section for more details.</p>
<h1 id="#PersonalGrowth">Personal Growth</h1>
<p>Characters do not stay the same very long; through experience, they grow and expand their abilities. To measure this growth, we choose not to use antiquated methods like experience points, we use the one thing that can’t never lie: cold, hard cash.</p>
<h2>Reward:</h2>
<p>Every single dollar attained, whether earned, stolen, scavenged from a kill, or swindled from a mark is recorded on the character sheet where it says (cleverly enough) REWARD. As the REWARD is used to advance the character’s abilities, subtract the cost of the advancement from the current REWARD. Simple enough, right?</p>
<h2>Advancement:</h2>
<p>Costs for Advancement are found on the list to the right, but a few things should be made straight first.</p>
<p>Stepping up a Die (for a TRAIT, LOOT TRAIT, or ABILITY) is simply changing’ the Dice type to the next larger type of dice. Stepping up happens in this order: D4 -> D6 -> D8 -> D10 Each increase must be bought separately. Nothing can go higher than a D10.</p>
<p>New TRAITS always start At D4. Stepping them up to D6 (or then D8) has its own Cost.</p>
<h2>Advancement Table</h2>
<ul class="leaders">
<li><span>Step Up a Trait</span><span>$2000</span></li>
<li><span>Step Up a Loot Trait (non Weapon)</span><span>$750</span></li>
<li><span>Step Up a Weapon Loot Trait</span><span>$1000</span></li>
<li><span>Step Up an Ability</span><span>$2000</span></li>
<li><span>Buy a new Trait</span><span>$1500</span></li>
<li><span>Buy New Loot D4 (non Weapon)*</span><span>$1000</span></li>
<li><span>Buy New Loot D6 (non Weapon)*</span><span>$2000</span></li>
<li><span>Buy New Loot D8 (non Weapon)*</span><span>$3000</span></li>
<li><span>Buy a New Weapon*</span><span>$5000</span></li>
</ul>
<p><small>*If new item is found in game, it can be added to a character sheet for free.</small></p>
<h1 id="#HealingAndDeath">Healing and Death</h1>
<h2>Dying:</h2>
<p>If a character’s Health falls to 0, that character is dead. There’s pretty much no coming back from that… unless you’re a robot, but even then you would need a new body.</p>
<h2>Healing:</h2>
<p>Without proper medical care, the best a character can hope for is that they will heal a little bit. A character that stubbornly refuses to get to a hospital or at least get some first aid will get back one (1) Health per day for a maximum of three days. After that, if they are still hurt, it is too much for their body to heal on its own unless they have a Trait that allows for it (something like Mutant Healing Factor or Internal Repair System). In that case, the player rolls the Trait die and the character heals up the amount on the dice in addition to the normal one per day up to their regular maximum Health.</p>
<p>If they do not fully heal in a single day, a character with a healing Trait and can keep healing every day until they are fully healed.</p>
<p>If a character is receiving proper medical care, the GM (or caregiving player) rolls the caregiver’s Trait (for example: Medic or Advanced Robotics, or Internal Medicine) and their Thinkin’, if the caregiver is a PC. The highest number rolled is the number of Health recovered.</p>
<p>Treatment like this takes one hour and if all the necessary supplies are on hand, can be attempted again after another hour has passed. If there are no supplies, another attempt cannot happen until the next day.</p>
</body>