This is a quick and dirty way to generate results for many separate dice pools without actually rolling a bucket of dice.

First determine the dice pool for the roll in the usual way, the power’s dice or the characters Stat + Skill. Do not include Wiggle Dice, Hard Dice or Expert Dice—we handle those below in “Special Dice and Called Shots”—only the normal dice in the dice pool.

Now roll 2d10, preferably in two colors or two sizes. Designate one die as the “Height Die” and the other as the “Width Die.”

Width Die: On the “Rolling for Width” table, look up the result of the Width Die in the column for the dice pool of the power or Stat + Skill. A result of “0” means there’s no set. A number greater than “0” gives you a set with that Width.

Height Die: If you get a set, the Height of the set is the value of the Height Die.

Example: A character with a 7d pool attempts an action. The Width Die comes up 5, for Width 2. The Height Die comes up 6, for Height 6.

Special timesaving trick: If you’re rolling for lots of NPCs who have small dice pools, roll all their Width Dice first. Then roll Height only for those that come up with a set.

Special Dice and Called Shots

Wiggle Dice, Trump Dice, Hard Dice, Expert Dice and called shots add interesting twists to a dice pool.

Wiggle Dice (Wild Talents and Godlike), Trump Dice (Nemesis), Master Dice (Reign), and “Awesome x2” (Monsters and Other Childish Things): Roll an extra Height Die for each Wiggle Die. Each Wiggle Die can be assigned to one of the rolled Heights; or two or more Wiggle Dice can be given whatever Height you want to create a separate set. All Wiggle Dice can be assigned to the same height if you like.

Hard Dice (Wild Talents and Godlike): If you roll Height 10 on the Height Die, expand the Width of that set by the number of Hard Dice in the pool. Otherwise, two or more Hard Dice create a separate set at Height 10.

Expert Dice (Nemesis and Reign), “Awesome” (Monsters and Other Childish Things), or called shots: Remove the Expert Die or the called shot die from the dice pool before rolling for its Width, and designate the value of the called shot or Expert Die. Then roll the Width Die and Height Die to determine the set.

If you roll a set at Height equal to the value of the Expert Die or called shot, expand that set’s Width by 1.

If the Height Die rolls “10,” you can choose to change its Height to the value of the Expert Die or called shot, or you may keep it at 10.

Multiple Actions

Use the smallest of the dice pools involved. Reduce that dice pool by 1d, then roll the Width Die and Height Die as usual for the first action. If you get a Width of 2 or more, that applies for the first action. Now reduce the dice pool again by the first action’s Width, and roll Width Die and Height Die again to see if there’s another set for the second action.

Example: A character wants to perform two actions, one that has an 8d pool and one that has a 6d pool. The player uses the 6d pool and reduces it by 1d to 5d, then rolls Height Die and Width Die. The Width Die comes up 6; with 5d, that’s a Width of 2. The Height die comes up 3. That gives a set of 2×3. For the next action, the player drops the dice pool from 5d by the Width (2) of the first set, to 3d, and rolls Width Die and Height Die again. The Width Die comes up 4, which yields no set on the 3d column, so the second action fails.

Written by Shane Ivey, based on the One-Roll Engine rules by Greg Stolze. © 2009.