Rules

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Dice
Unlike most other roleplaying games, Ubiquity does not use a specific type of dice. Any die will work, as long as it has an even number of sides. When making an Attribute or Skill check, roll a number of dice equal to the dice pool and count up the number of even numbers used. This total is the number of successes rolled. Odd numbers do not subtract from the number of successes.
Example: Rolling seven dice give a result of 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8, and 11. Tally up the even- numbered dice (4, 8, and 8) for a result of three successes. (I have tried this out on Invisible Castle and the dice roller handles it okay)
Dice Rolls
Dice rolls are made by rolling a number of dice equal to the appropriate Skill or Attribute rating, and counting the successes. If the player gets successes equal to or more than the Difficulty of the task, she succeeds. Weapon, equipment, and situational modifiers may increase or decrease the number of dice rolled.
Taking the Average
If a character’s average skill rating is greater than or equal to the Difficulty rating, the player may choose not to roll the dice and automatically succeed instead.
Players may not Take the Average during combat, or in stressful situations (as determined by the Gamemaster). On the other hand, the Gamemaster may choose to Take the Average for non-player characters’ dice rolls in order to speed up combat. If a Skill or Attribute rating is listed with a “+” sign, the character rolls a single die. A success adds one to the average rating, a failure does not.

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Combat Rules

Initiative: Each player rolls a number of dice equal to their Initiative rating and counts their successes. The Gamemaster does the same for each of the non-player character groups. For example, if the players were fighting
a squad of hostile natives, the Gamemaster would roll once for the entire group’s Initiative. The player or NPC group with the highest number of successes acts first. If there is a tie, the tied player with the highest Initiative
rating acts first. If there is still a tie, the tied player with the highest Dexterity rating acts first.

Actions: On each turn, a player may make a single Attack action, a single Move action, and as many Defense actions as are required. Refer to the charts on the back of the character sheets for a list of Attack actions. Each player must make their Attack and Move actions on their turn. Players may move up to the distance allowed by their Move rating.

Attacking: When attacking, a player selects one of the weapons listed on the character sheet (for this purpose, natural attacks such as Punch and Bite are considered weapons) and rolls a number of dice equal to the attack’s rating. For simplicity, the appropriate weapon and equipment modifiers have been already included in the weapon’s attack rating.

Defending: The defender rolls a number of dice equal to his Defense rating (again, adding or subtracting any appropriate modifiers) and counts the number of successes. If the attacker scores more successes than the defender, the defender takes a number of points of damage equal to the extra successes. If the attacker scores less than or equal to the defender’s number of successes, the attack misses, or hits and does no damage.

Damage: There are two types of damage: Lethal (L) and Nonlethal (N). If a character suffers enough Lethal or Nonlethal damage for his Health to fall below 0 he is knocked unconscious. If he takes enough Lethal damage for his Health to fall to –5, he is dead. For ease of play in this adventure, any NPC reduced to 0 Health is considered out of combat and effectively dead.

Healing: First Aid (through use of the Medicine Skill) removes one point of Nonlethal damage for each success rolled. Once the Nonlethal damage has been healed, further successes will convert one point of Lethal damage into Nonlethal damage.

Stunned: If your character takes more damage in one blow than his Stun rating, he is stunned and loses his next action. However, he may still perform reflexive actions (automatic reactions to another character’s or creature's actions, detailed later) and defend himself normally.

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Style Points
Arguably the most important resource in the game, Style points may be spent to give your character a boost and allow him to perform extraordinary feats. You can buy bonus dice, reduce damage, and even boost your
character’s Talents with Style points. They may also be spent to help your character’s friends and allies.
At the end of each adventure, all Style points are lost. At the start of each session, a player may be given extra Style points for real-world actions like hosting the game (see below). There is no advantage to hoarding Style points.


Earning Style Points
The Gamemaster may award Style points as he sees fit; however, Style points are normally earned through roleplaying and other activities that generally benefit the game. As noted above, Style points not used during an adventure are lost.
You may earn Style points during play for a variety of different reasons:
* Pursuing your character’s Motivation: 1 pt.
* Succumbing to your character’s Flaw: 1 pt.
* Heroic actions (Cool tricks, daring stunts, brave acts, etc.): 1 pt.
* In-Character (Roleplaying, humor, etc.): 1 pt.
* Out of Character (Game report, diary, etc.): 1–3 pts.
These points are earned at the start of the session the game report, diary, or whatever is handed to the GM.
* Miscellaneous (Hosting the game, bringing treats to share, etc.): 1 pt.

There is no limit to the number of Style points you can earn during play; however, to keep it from getting out of hand, the Gamemasters may limit you to earning five Style points per game session.
Note: Style points may be tracked on paper, just like a character’s Health. Because Style tends to come and go much more frequently than any other trait, some players will prefer to track Style points with poker chips or some other physical object.


Spending Style Points
Style points may be spent during play for a variety of benefits.
Bonus Dice: The most common use of Style points is purchasing bonus dice for a particular action. You re¬ceive one bonus die for every Style point spent
Boosting Talents: Talents may be temporarily boosted with Style points. Your character’s Talent is improved by one Level for every two Style points spent.
Damage Reduction: Damage inflicted on your character may be reduced with Style points. Your character takes one less point of damage for every two Style points spent.

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Motivation
A character’s Motivation is the main driving force behind the things a character does. When your character acts according to his Motivation, the GM may reward you with a Style point.
Glory: You earn a Style point whenever your character enhances her reputation or encourages a friend or adversary to enhance her reputation.
Honor: You earn a Style point when your character protects his reputation or inspires someone to act honorably.
Truth: You earn a Style point whenever your character makes a discovery or persuades someone to share a secret.
Justice: You earn a Style point whenever your character rights a wrong or convinces someone to do the right thing.
Wisdom: You earn a Style point when your character gains insight into the mysteries of life or helps someone else do so.

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Degree of Success

Compare the number of successes achieved (gained by rolling dice or Taking the Average) to the Difficulty rating (Target Number) of the action being attempted. The result of the comparison is called the Degree of Success. If the number of successes equals or exceeds the Difficulty, the action is successful and the number of additional successes determines how masterfully the action is accomplished.
On the other hand, if the number of successes achieved is less than the Difficulty, then the action fails and the difference between the two determines how dismally the action fails.

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Skill Specializations

Skills cover a broad range of topics and activities, but you may choose to have your character specialize in a specific aspect of a Skill. A Skill Specialization represents a specific topic, activity, or item that your character is par¬ticularly familiar with. For example, your character may be better with pistols or rifles than with other firearms. Whenever your character’s Specialization applies to the action being taken, you receive a bonus die to your Skill roll. You must have at least one Skill Level in a Skill to specialize in it, and you may not purchase more than one Specialization in a particular Skill during character creation.
There are countless different Skill Specializations for each Skill; the ones most common to Leagues of Adventure are listed below. Feel free to come up with your own Specializations, but be sure to get Gamemaster approval first.
(From the core rules)

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Untrained Skill Rolls

You may normally make a Skill roll even if your charac¬ter has no Skill Levels in a particular Skill. Your character’s untrained Skill rating is equal to the associated Base Attribute with a –2 penalty, plus or minus any conditional modifiers. If this lowers your dice pool to zero or less, you’ll automatically fail the roll unless you get some help, take more time, or spend Style points on the roll.

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Talents

Talents reflect your character’s aptitudes and special abilities. They cover a wide range of activities and give your character a new ability or improve one he already has. Talents also let you “break the rules” by ignoring certain penalties, or by doing something normally not allowed.
There are two types of Talents: standard and unique. Unique Talents can only be taken once, while standard Talents may be taken multiple times. ATalent is available to any character that meets the prerequisites (if any). While most Talents can be purchased anytime, some are only available during character creation.
Where a Talent lists a Skill as the prerequisite, the number is the Skill rating, not the Skill Level.

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Defense and Taking the Average

To speed up combat, the Gamemaster may opt to have each character Take the Average of his Defense rating. The result becomes the threshold number of successes that must be exceeded in order to damage that character. Basically, it turns the opposed attack vs. Defense roll into a simple attack roll with a difficultyequal to the average Defense of the target. It sounds
complicated, but it’s really very simple. If you roll more successes than the opponent’s average Defense, your character does that much damage to him.
While Taking the Average of Defense ratings greatly reduces the number of dice rolls in combat, most players like rolling dice to defend themselves—even if it means fewer successes than when they Take the Average. Therefore, the Gamemaster may want to use this method only for NPCs and less important characters in order to speed up combat and keep the focus on the player characters.

The above is taken from Hollow Earth Expeditions, from where the Ubiquity System originates. Applying it might speed up combat a tad So from now on Defense rolls will be replaced by taking the average. W'ell see how it goes.