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May 06, 2004
Dice: When, Where, and How to Use and Fudge?
I'm involved in a thread over at the Master's Council about when and where dice are appropriate. I'm personally not a big dice fan anymore, having been abused by dice too often in the past. ("It's a good thing [Ginger's character] can hit anything on a 4, or she'd never hit anything!") I like having the Everway fortune cards to give me ideas when my GM wellspring has run dry, but that's not exactly the same thing as using dice, which give you choices among limited options.
One of the participants in the thread has taken a position I find interesting: the problem with dice is that people don't know when to use them, and more importantly, when not to. Some dilemmas have to be resolved by dice rolls. They should be used when necessary, but if the dice aren't needed, don't use them. For instance, if there's no chance for the PCs to open that door, the GM can simply tell them "the door doesn't open".
On the other hand, I'm in another thread where we're talking about when fudging the dice is appropriate. My feeling is that if there's no illusion that you might fail, certain types of gaming (particularly combat-oriented games) aren't very fun. I've had the "your plan succeeds" reward from the GM, and it's anticlimactic. Fudging the dice, particularly behind the screen, is a key part of maintaining the illusion of possible failure in some cases. But the idea that dice should be fudged to get a particular result is antithetical to the idea that you shouldn't use dice if you don't need them.
A lot of the trouble I have internalizing the apparent contradiction is that I'm used to trying to limit the metagame/OOC information the players have about my under-the-hood processes as a GM. If the door won't open, I don't always want to tell the PCs that. On the other hand, if I don't want it to open, I should probably just get the PCs to move on, because I'm not keen on random encounters that waste half your evening, and a door is a particularly stupid random encounter. I've gotten used to letting the players see/have OOC information what other players are doing in PBeM, and I'm not sure this is any different. It may be that the ability to segregate IC and OOC information is necessary for the kind of games I enjoy.
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Comments
One of the fundamental problems I've found with not using dice is the lack of making things exciting for the players. Not that I'm a dicer only; hell, I'm obsessed with other mechanics.
But I've found that some of the most memorable sessions of game play, (and so the some of the most memorable stories told) deal around the player's luck, not the characters or game world.
The introduction of randomness is so very important to creating anticipation and excitement in the players about what's happening. And it has to be randomness out of both the player *and* the GM's control in order to make it a true gameplay event. If either side can do something to negate it, it isn't the Hand of Fate or Universe or God or "Wathav-U" messing with us all.
Your character should be able to do what no one care or everyone assumes your character can do. Your character must be at the whims of fate for some things just so you, the GM, and the rest of the players have doubt. And that fate for the most important events/tests must be implacable.
So, even when I play with cards, or entirely diceless, there's still very important moments I ask for someone to just flip a card from the deck or flip a coin or something, just to get the Universe to participate in the game, so the players, and the Universe will remember.
Posted by: Bill Brickman at May 6, 2004 1:14:39 PM
I agree with Bill on a lot of counts. I'd also add that, as a GM, the random element of dice (or cards, or whatever) is a big help to my creativity.
Posted by: Bryant at May 9, 2004 6:48:40 PM
Excitment. Doubt. Player's luck. Anticipation of Event.
Having diced for a long time, these elements do bring back a thrill.
The mix of meta: Player's luck, is part of what I'm glad to un-hook myself from with dice.
I love using dice for weather results, or timing of a call from one dimension in time to another where there is little regard for "narrative continuity."
Posted by: Arref at May 11, 2004 12:16:26 PM
what kind of dice do you need??
Posted by: Christa at Aug 27, 2004 10:20:03 AM
