To make a skill or attribute check, you simply roll the die assigned to it. If the result is a 4 or better (the Target Number or TN) you succeed. For instance, if your Smarts is a d6, you roll a d6 and succeed on a 4 or better.
Wild Cards, which includes all player characters, are more competent and get to roll their Wild Die when they make trait rolls and take the higher of the two results. For instance if your Spirit is only d4, you get to roll the d4 AND d6, taking whichever result is higher. So if you rolled a 2 on the d4 and a 5 on the d6, you get to take the 5, even though that's higher than you could have possibly rolled without it!
While it is fun to say that every roll you are trying to get a 4 or higher, there are modifiers to rolls. Typically these range from -4 to +4. If you're tracking someone in a muddy field, you'd likely get a +2 bonus to your roll due to how easy following tracks would be. If you're tracking someone on a rocky mountain during a thunderstorm, you'd probably get a -4 to your roll.
All Trait and damage rolls in Savage Worlds are capable of “exploding.” When you roll the highest number possible on a die (a 6 on a d6, an 8 on a d8, etc), you get to roll that die again and add the new result to the total. This is called getting an Ace. if your second roll also Aces, you can roll it again until you stop Acing. This is the equivalent of critical hits in other RPG systems.
Sometimes you need to know how successful a Trait roll was. Every 4 points over the Target Number is called a “raise”. If you need a 4 to shoot someone and you roll an 11, you succeed with one raise.
A single raise always provides some sort of additional effect, such as bonus damage or a benefit the GM defines.
Sometimes you need to roll against an opponent's roll.
An arm wrestling contest would be two Strength rolls, while sneaking up on someone would be a Stealth roll vs a Notice roll, etc.
The one who initiated the action requiring the opposed roll always goes first, rolling and getting their full result (including spending any Bennies), and must get at least a basic success (TN 4) or they fail. The defender then rolls next and must meet or exceed the first result or the attacker wins.
The loser's total is used to determine any raises.
When a Wild Card rolls a 1 on both their Trait die and Wild Die, a critical failure occurs. This means their attempt automatically fails and something bad happens — a weapon is dropped, an attack causes friendly fire, a vehicle crashes, etc.
You cannot reroll critical failures, even with Bennies.
If you have an ability that has you roll multiple dice such as the Frenzy Edge or firing a weapon with a Rate of Fire higher than 1, more than half the die results need to be a natural 1 for a critical failure to apply. One of which must be the Wild Die for Wild Cards.
If you don't have a skill for an action you attempt, roll a d4 and subtract 2 from the total.
Some Edges or abilities allow a character to reroll. To do so, roll all the dice again and get a new total. You can keep your first roll if the new result is worse (unless you get a critical failure).
You can reroll any number of times as long as you have the means to do so.
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