So a lot of d10 games have a success system where a roll of 7 or higher is a success while 6 or lower is simply a failure. These systems also have a tendency to increase the number of dice rolled by a lot. Some games have you rolling 20 or even 30 dice at a time.

I have a few possible solutions to help this problem. I'm open to OTHER solutions as well if anyone else has any ideas. These are not meant to be entirely new rules but are instead meant to be possible variants applied to existing ones.

DICE POOL vs. RESERVE
Split the number of dice you roll in two. One is a dice roll pool (round this half up) and the other is a reserve pool (round this half down).

Your reserve pool represents "rerolls" that you can use. After you roll your initial dice pool, you can reroll any number of them, even reroll the same dice multiple times until you get a result you want. Each reroll uses up a point from your reserve pool. When you reroll a dice, you take the new number, even if it was worse. You can reroll the same die multiple times by spending multiple reserve points and you just keep the last one rolled. Once you are out of reserve pool points, you calculate the number of successes normally. If all your dice are successes and you still have reserve points left, you can spend the remaining reserve points to turn a 9s into 10s (1 point per die) or 8s into 10 (2 points per die) or 7s into 10s (3 points per die). Note that a 10 has a possibility of exploding in some games (in which case you'd roll to see if it does) while in other games it counts as 2 successes. In some games 10s have no special benefit and left over reserve points are wasted.

ACROSS THE BOARD CAPS
All stat caps would be across the board for humanoid characters. So the highest stat you can have is 5 + double your lowest stat. This forces characters to spread out their stats after a certain point instead of focusing them. This makes the character progress a bit more balanced in manner and makes them more rounded "demigodlike" and less munchkiny "million damage with this sword but I couldn't read, write or beg for a copper piece to save my life". Skills/abilities would use the same cap based on stats, not other skills. Temporary bonuses from special abilities/charms/spells/etc. would also have a flat cap of (existing stat) or +2, whichever is better. So if you had STR 3 and MELEE 3, your STR+MELEE = 6 and thus temporary modifiers could never make it exceed (3)+(3)+6= 12. Monsters don't face this restriction, a GM can still make them as he sees fit.

NO MULTIPLIERS
Number of dice should never be multiplied. Any time an effect would do so, it instead increases your stat by +1 or increases it to a flat 3 dice/3 reserve, whichever is more of an improvement.

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Anyone have other ideas to help stem the tide of d10s in success games? And don't say "flat caps", "roll less dice" or "use smaller numbers", as that is meaningless dribble for those who aren't inventive or creative enough to come up with anything useful.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:55, Tue 10 Feb 2015.

Is it too simple to mention at some point, in certain circumstances, lower the required result to count it as a success?

If the number of dice frequently gets really big and there is concern about the success value dipping too fast, you could have two color of dice.  Say after a specified number of dice, instead of new dice, you upgrade the dice you have.

Arbitrary example:

Joe gets a total of 8 dice, however he is limited to 5 dice, so he gets 5 dice, and 3 are upgraded.  That means that 2 remaining dice get successes on 7+, but the three upgraded ones get a success on a 6+.

You could simplify it a bit and make all the dice always have the same value.  You could apply your ceiling (5) and require you to pay for upgraded 'dice'.  You could either require all the dice to be paid for, or allow as soon as you have more... allow your dice to be upgraded.  So if you have 8 dice:
Must pay for all upgrades:  they could choose to roll 5d10(7+) or roll 4d10(6+)
Must if you exceed your max, you upgrade all dice: they would roll 5d10(6+) [you would need 11 dice to roll 5(5+)]

I sort of like you idea of re-rolls although it is very similar to simply having extra dice.  The primary difference being that with your re-roll if the second roll is lower you keep it.  Actually, thinking about it, it also would avoid rolls which could generate botches too.  Those are actually probably decent implementations though.  Why re-roll something that is a success (unless you are willing to risk it) and if you have lots of 'dice' why not be able to minimize your number of botches?

That's interesting. You might have to come up with a specific chart for keeping it from going crazy (I roll only 12 dice but sacrificed 5 succeed on a 2 but roll only 7) or something.

Yeah, I figured its less hassle to reroll the same die if its a failure rather than rolling more dice and hoping for a success. Essentially cuts the number of dice rolled in half, and improves your chance of success per die.

Maybe something exponential?
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:18, Thu 12 Feb 2015.