Many games, including the Salvage Space setting for Chronology, use die rolls to introduce a random element of chance to the Adventurer's attempts to succeed at many tasks.
Obtain two pair of differently-colored six-sided dice, commonly called “d6”.
White and red six-sided dice are recommended and extremely common.
The colors white and red will be used in the examples below, but Role-player may substitute any preferred colors instead since the order the dice roll matters.
Role-players can gather dice from board games they may already have.
Role-players can also purchase dice inexpensively at many toy stores or toy sections of pharmacies and discount stores.
Online retailers offer custom and specialized dice in all materials, colors, and numbering patterns imaginable.
Roll the two white six-sided dice and two red six-sided dice together.
First, add up the total of the white dice.
Second, add up the total for the red dice.
If using other colors, designate which color totals first before rolling.
Subtract the second (red) dice total from the first (white) dice total to find the final result of the rolls.
Salvage Space refers to this dice roll with the short-hand notation 2d6 - 2d6.
Roll 2d6 - 2d6 for a result between -10 to +10.
The result will fall in the range of negative ten (-10) to positive ten (+10), centered on zero (0).
Salvage Space may call for several variations of the Core Mechanic using just six-sided dice:
Roll 1d6 - 1d6 for a total between -5 to +5.
Roll 1d6 for a total between 1 and 6.
Roll 2d6 for a total between 2 and 12.
Roll 3d6 for a total between 3 and 18.
Roll 4d6 for a total between 4 and 24.
Roll 2d6 to generate a 2-digit number of 36 possibilities between 1-1 and 6-6 where the first digit is 1-6 and the second digit is 1-6.
Roll 3d6 to generate a 3-digit number of 216 possibilities between 1-1-1 and 6-6-6.
Roll 4d6 to generate a 4-digit number of 1296 possibilities between 1-1-1-1 and 6-6-6-6.
Many games include the concept of circumstances where one side has some “advantage” over the other “disadvantage” side.
In conditions of:
Major Advantage: roll 3d6 - 1d6 for a total between -3 to +17.
Minor Advantage: roll 2d6 - 1d6 for a total between -4 to +11
Minor Disadvantage: roll 1d6 - 2d6 for a total between -11 to +4.
Major Disadvantage: roll 1d6 - 3d6 for a total between -17 to +3.