RPG System Guide

Kids on Bikes: Dice & Strategy Guide

Small-town secrets, powerful strangers and a cast of everyday characters in over their heads. Kids on Bikes uses the whole polyhedral set as stat dice, with a difficulty to beat and dice that explode when you roll high.

Kids on Bikes, published by Hunters Entertainment, drops a group of ordinary people — often kids, but not always — into a small town where something strange is afoot. It is rules-light and story-forward, and its dice system is unusually elegant: instead of a fixed die plus a modifier, each of your stats is a different-sized die, and how good you are at something is simply how many faces its die has.

The dice and the core mechanic

A character’s stats each get assigned a polyhedral die from the set: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. You have one die of each size to distribute across your stats, so your character is genuinely brilliant in one area (the d20), hopeless in another (the d4), and a spread in between. The stats cover the classic adventure verbs — brains, brawn, fighting, fleeing, charm and grit.

When you attempt something risky, the Game Master sets a difficulty number, and you roll the die for the relevant stat. Meet or beat the difficulty and you succeed; fall short and you fail. Because a d20 can produce a huge range and a d4 barely reaches, the die size tells you at a glance how likely your character is to pull something off — and even a weak stat can get lucky, while a strong one can still stumble.

Exploding dice and Adversity Tokens

Two mechanics give the system its bite. First, dice explode: whenever you roll the maximum value on a stat die, you roll it again and add the new result to the total — and if that roll is a maximum too, it keeps going. This means even a modest die can occasionally rocket to a spectacular result, keeping every roll tense with the hope of a lucky streak.

Second, Adversity Tokens. When things go badly — typically when a die comes up at its lowest — you earn tokens, a currency of hard luck. You can later spend Adversity Tokens to boost rolls (and, in the game’s signature touch, to help power the shared, more-than-human character the group controls together). The result is a satisfying loop: bad luck now becomes a resource you cash in for a clutch success later.

How a roll resolves

To make a roll: the GM names a difficulty, you pick up the single die that matches the stat in play, and you throw it. If you roll the die’s maximum, roll again and keep adding (that is the explosion). Compare your total to the difficulty — meet or beat it to succeed. If you rolled the lowest value, you generally pick up an Adversity Token for your trouble. On future rolls you can spend those tokens to add to your result or fuel the group’s powerful shared character. Some tasks also let others pitch in, stacking help onto a single crucial roll.

Effective strategy

  • Assign your dice with intent. You only get one die of each size, so decide early what your character is the best and worst at. A well-placed d20 defines who they are.
  • Volunteer for your strengths. Whenever the group can choose who acts, put the person with the biggest relevant die forward. Let others cover the tasks their dice suit.
  • Bank Adversity Tokens for the big moment. It is tempting to spend them the instant you fail, but a saved token can turn a climactic roll. Hoard a few for when it truly counts.
  • Respect the explosions. Even a d4 can blow up into something big. Don’t write off a weak stat entirely — sometimes the underdog roll saves the day.
  • Play the shared character together. The group’s powerful being is a communal resource. Coordinate your tokens and your fiction so it appears when the story needs it most.

Beginner tips and common mistakes

  • One die per stat. You aren’t adding a modifier — the die is the stat. A higher-sided die simply means you’re better.
  • Always check for an explosion. New players forget to re-roll on a maximum. That re-roll is where the memorable results come from.
  • Don’t hoard tokens forever. Adversity Tokens are meant to be spent. Sitting on them all game wastes the safety net the system hands you.
  • Lean into failure. A miss earns tokens and pushes the story. Kids on Bikes is at its best when characters are gloriously out of their depth.
  • It’s collaborative. The town, the mystery and the shared character are built together. Bring ideas to the table, not just dice.

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Love the coming-of-age, small-town mood? Read our Tales from the Loop dice & strategy guide, or roll an exploding die in Dice Drop.