The Basics
Take20 provides a framework for your imagination to create adventures. It has rules to help you decide what happens in your stories and to resolve conflicts between characters and the challenges they face. With it, you can experience adventure as a hero fighting against the forces of evil. Any adventure you can imagine is possible.

The Core System
Take20 uses a standard, or core, system to resolve actions. Whenever a character attempts an action with a chance of failure, do the following:

• Roll two ten-sided dice (or 2d10).
• Add any modifiers (for things like skills, abilities, powers, or conditions).
• Compare the total to a number called a Difficulty Class (abbreviated DC).
• If the result equals or exceeds the Difficulty Class (set by the GM based on the circumstances), your character succeeds.
• If the result is lower than the Difficulty Class, your character fails. So a DC of 10 requires a result (die-roll plus modifiers) or 10 or greater to succeed, meaning someone with a +0 modifier has a 50/50 chance of success.

That’s it: as easy as 1-2-3!

This simple system is used for nearly everything in Take20, with variations based on what modifiers are made to the roll, what determines the Difficulty Class, and the exact effects of success and failure.

Dice
Take20 uses 2 ten-sided dice — available at game and hobby stores — to resolve actions during the game. References to “a die” or “the die” refer to a ten-sided die unless stated otherwise. The die is often abbreviated “d10” (for ten-sided die) or “1d10” (for one ten-sided die). So a rule asking you to “roll d10” means, “roll a ten-sided die.”

Modifiers
Sometimes modifiers to the die roll are specified like this: “d10+2,” meaning “roll the ten-sided die and add two to the number rolled.” An abbreviation of “d10–4” means, “roll the die and subtract four from the result.”

The Gamemaster
One of the players in a Take20 game takes the role of Gamemaster, or GM. The Gamemaster is responsible for running the game, a combination of writer, director, and referee. The Gamemaster creates the adventures for the heroes, portrays the villains and supporting characters, describes the world to the players, and decides the outcome of the heroes’ actions based on the guidelines given in the rules. It’s a big job, but also a rewarding one, since the Gamemaster gets to create the whole world and all the characters in it, as well as coming up with fun and exciting stories.

If you’re going to be the Gamemaster, you should read through this whole document carefully. You should have a firm grasp of the rules, since you’re expected to interpret them for the players to decide what happens in the game.

Rule Number One
Like all games, Take20 has rules. At a first glance through the main rulebook, it might seem like there are a lot of rules, but most of them are just variations on the core system. Once you get the hang of how the game works, the rules are pretty straightforward.

The first, and most important, rule of Take20 is:

Do whatever is the most fun for your game!

While every effort has been made to ensure Take20 is as complete a game system as possible, no system can cover every situation an imaginative group of players might dream up. From time to time, the rules may give you strange or undesirable results. If so, ignore them! Modify the outcome of die rolls and other events in the game as you see fit to make it fun and enjoyable for everyone. It’s your game, so run and play it the way you want!

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