When you do something uncertain, you're going to roll about two dice and compare each die to the opposing dice. Each of your dice that is greater than all opposing dice increases
your success: 1 is a weak (or partial) hit, 2 is a hard hit, 3 is a critical hit.
Each die is also an oracle, regardless of opposing dice: every result of 1 in either pile means "the GM must complicate your lives."
Normal dice rolls involve d4s through d12s.
Usually, you get one die measuring applicable skills, and one die measuring applicable gear.
Occasionally, when you spend special resources to do so, you get a third die.
For a typical one-sided action like "Do I look cool surfing down the oliphaunt's trunk?", the obstacle gets one die.
For a typical contest where both sides are trying to hit the other, the obstacle/defender gets two or three dice, just like above.