Gameplay — Awfully Cheerful Engine! A roleplaying game of action comedy!

Dice Pools

ACE! is a dice pool game. When you attempt a task, you roll a number of six-sided dice and try to beat a target number.

Fun fact -- did you know that 1986's Ghostbusters RPG, by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford, was the first ever dice pool RPG? Also Sandy Petersen has written an awesome foreword for the AWFULLY CHEERFUL ENGINE!

Stats

You have four Stats -- Smarts, Moves, Style, and Brawn. If you have a Moves score of 3, you roll three six-sided dice when you try to jump a motorcycle over a ravine. If you roll high enough, you succeed. It's pretty simple!

Focuses

For each Stat you also have a Focus. For Smarts it might be a science, or chess, or history. For Style it might be bluffing, singing, or fashion, and for Brawn it might be brawling or swimming. You can choose from plenty of focuses. Foci. Focuses. Whatever. Anyway, if the thing you're trying to do relates to a Focus, you get to roll an extra two dice.

Traits

You choose a trait, like Angry or Cheerful or Rebellious or Despondent. This, combined with your Role, makes you a Gullible Vampire, a Brave Turtle, or a Squeamish Scientist.

Karma

Finally, you have a bunch of Karma points. These can be spent for extra dice or to absorb damage from attacks, and they're recovered by using your trait. They’re like a combination of hit points and hero points.

Target Numbers

Difficulty	Target Number	Example
Easy	No roll needed	Pick up a book, drive down the street, climb a ladder
Normal	10 or more	Climb a rope, build a campfire, parallel parking
Hard	20 or more	Break down a door, scale a cliff, pick a lock
Herculean	30 or more	Walk a tightrope, fill out a tax form, jump a car across a canyon
Impossible	40 or more	Lift a car , derive the Theory of Relativity

Sixes Explode!

When you roll your dice, any sixes that you roll you can roll again, adding the new number to the original six. If that reroll is a six, you do it again, until you stop rolling sixes. In this way, there’s always a chance, however small, of you accomplishing any task.

Calamity Die

What, I hear you ask, is a CALAMITY DIE?

The Calamity Die is how you find out that your friends really aren't your friends. You see, when you make a roll, one of those dice is a different color, and is called the Calamity Die. And if your roll fails, and also the Calamity Die rolls a 1, your so-called 'friends' decide what happens to you. It won't kill you or anything, but...

Well, we'll leave that thought with you.