Where Anyone is Possible
Roleplaying Dice are Dead – Or Very Well Should Be
Dice are one of the iconic symbols of the roleplaying game. Introduced by Dungeons and Dragons, who pioneered the art of tabletop dice and stat sheet games, these simple random number generators are the default way that gamers determine what exactly happened, and to what extent an event occurred, during a roleplay session.
The general method is that a character interacts with something. For instance, maybe the character is a grown man, who is standing in the street when a large brick tears off of someone’s ceiling and comes hurtling towards his head. By rolling dice, and using a series of mathematical character statistics, gamers can calculate whether the stone hits the character, or misses him. They can also generate a relatively random, although controlled number, stating how much damage was done to the character if they were indeed struck by the boulder.
This is a great idea in theory; it allows people to simulate the effects of a video game without the need to consult a computer. The problem is that humans are not computers; they are living, breathing souls, with minds, creativity, and passions. Using dice to determine the outcome of a story makes everything random. Even if you do use statistics to set probable boundaries on the outcome, you are still leaving the fate of the story up to chance. What is worse is that rather than being proactively creative, and using your mind to come up with something entirely new, you are instead doing mindless math, the kind of thing that calculators and computers were designed to do for us.
Humans are story telling creatures. We are constantly regaling one another with tales of our own lives, and the lives of friends and families. From our mouths come eloquent tales of sorrow or joy, humor or tragedy, and sometimes all of the above. When engaging in a roleplaying game you shouldn’t be simply content to use the dice as a storytelling crutch, randomly determining the outcome of the story. You should instead actively chjoose whatever action makes the story better and more enjoyable for yourself and everyone involved.
Using dice, it is possible for a character, through no fault of their own, to be killed 5 minutes into the game. The person playing that character then has to sit there for hours, watching everyone else enjoy themselves. There is an off chance that the adventurers may come upon a way to resurrect their fallen foe, but too is determined to a large extent based on chance and numbers rather than enjoyment of the experience.
There is of course the argument that dice ensure the fairness of whoever is running the game. The one place where this is justified is where the game master is following a very rigid routine, and is trying to act within that routine in such a way that allows him to kill the characters that oppose him. In other words, if the person running the game is in competition with those playing, you need to have dice to ensure that the game is fair. However the over riding power of the “dungeon master” as the leader of the game is often called, makes it quite difficult for anyone to oppose them, and an actual contest between someone so powerful, and mere players, would be rather unbalanced.
In any other situation, the rules of friendly conduct should ensure that whoever is running the game will conduct it in such a way as to ensure the fun and enjoyment of everyone involved. If you can’t trust in their fairness and impartiality, then it is time for you to find someone else to act as leader of the game world.
Roleplaying dice are used to simulate video games. While in the past they may have allowed people to create intricate roleplaying experiences without the use of complicated algorithms, today there are a glut of websites, and video games, that will do the work for you. When engaging in face to face, or even computer to computer, free form roleplaying, dice really have no purpose. The best methodology is to simply create a storyline that will ensure the maximum enjoyment for everyone involved.
The general method is that a character interacts with something. For instance, maybe the character is a grown man, who is standing in the street when a large brick tears off of someone’s ceiling and comes hurtling towards his head. By rolling dice, and using a series of mathematical character statistics, gamers can calculate whether the stone hits the character, or misses him. They can also generate a relatively random, although controlled number, stating how much damage was done to the character if they were indeed struck by the boulder.
This is a great idea in theory; it allows people to simulate the effects of a video game without the need to consult a computer. The problem is that humans are not computers; they are living, breathing souls, with minds, creativity, and passions. Using dice to determine the outcome of a story makes everything random. Even if you do use statistics to set probable boundaries on the outcome, you are still leaving the fate of the story up to chance. What is worse is that rather than being proactively creative, and using your mind to come up with something entirely new, you are instead doing mindless math, the kind of thing that calculators and computers were designed to do for us.
Humans are story telling creatures. We are constantly regaling one another with tales of our own lives, and the lives of friends and families. From our mouths come eloquent tales of sorrow or joy, humor or tragedy, and sometimes all of the above. When engaging in a roleplaying game you shouldn’t be simply content to use the dice as a storytelling crutch, randomly determining the outcome of the story. You should instead actively chjoose whatever action makes the story better and more enjoyable for yourself and everyone involved.
Using dice, it is possible for a character, through no fault of their own, to be killed 5 minutes into the game. The person playing that character then has to sit there for hours, watching everyone else enjoy themselves. There is an off chance that the adventurers may come upon a way to resurrect their fallen foe, but too is determined to a large extent based on chance and numbers rather than enjoyment of the experience.
There is of course the argument that dice ensure the fairness of whoever is running the game. The one place where this is justified is where the game master is following a very rigid routine, and is trying to act within that routine in such a way that allows him to kill the characters that oppose him. In other words, if the person running the game is in competition with those playing, you need to have dice to ensure that the game is fair. However the over riding power of the “dungeon master” as the leader of the game is often called, makes it quite difficult for anyone to oppose them, and an actual contest between someone so powerful, and mere players, would be rather unbalanced.
In any other situation, the rules of friendly conduct should ensure that whoever is running the game will conduct it in such a way as to ensure the fun and enjoyment of everyone involved. If you can’t trust in their fairness and impartiality, then it is time for you to find someone else to act as leader of the game world.
Roleplaying dice are used to simulate video games. While in the past they may have allowed people to create intricate roleplaying experiences without the use of complicated algorithms, today there are a glut of websites, and video games, that will do the work for you. When engaging in face to face, or even computer to computer, free form roleplaying, dice really have no purpose. The best methodology is to simply create a storyline that will ensure the maximum enjoyment for everyone involved.
Tags: games, playing, role, roleplaying, rpg
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Axion Mantilis on -
The idea behind the dice is the simulation of random chance just as in real life not everything a person does can be affected by his knowledge, skills or experience without the application of randomness. The dice are not used to simulate a video game, because the development of the roleplaying genre predated the video game. With this assumption being an invalid starting point then that would tend to make you point flawed.
I understand what you are trying to communicate. However, rpg / roleplaying is not storytelling it is a game. It is an application of theory and mechanics in a predetermined environmental construct. The point that should be addressed therefore is whether the whole genre of roleplaying games is in fact a viable one. You cannot compare a game environment to an environment such as here on Rolepages.
Rolepages is not rpg even though most of it here is High Fantasy. Rolepages is the continuation of the concept of interactive novelization which was first put forth in the digital age thru the Fidonet, Usenet, and Forumtree applications and the original BBS networks. In the days before many of Rolepages inhabitants were even born we would call up a remote computer get into the forums and post similar to the blog system. In primitive chat networks we would spin our elaborate stories and adventures none of these require dice rolls many had detailed lists of do's and don'ts that were adhered to by the participants.
Your last paragraph is still mixing oil and vinegar. The video game is trying to simulate the randomness and intricacies of the pen, paper, and dice not the other way around. Sure you can find programs to do most of the grunt work... but computers never are truly random as any statistician knows. The application of randomness is still the domain of dice, of human beings, of gravity, of friction of imperfections in their construction, in the motion of the air and a host of other factors. No computer can ever truly achieve that and no human being can ever provide the randomness necessary of their own choosing because we will always tend to skew outcomes even unconsciously in certain predefined ways.
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Permalink Reply by Jon Fisher on -
Roleplaying dice are used to simulate video games? RPGs came before video games.
Characters can die because of the toss of the dice, through no fault of their own? So do real people.
Dice simulate unknown or random factors. They should be used when, for the sake of realism, randomness and unknown factors need to be considered. Yes, this sometimes includes character death.
If you're telling a collaborative story and don't want unexpected character death, then don't use dice. But that's role-playing, not a role-playing GAME.
The more heavily a game features combat, the more important randomness is. Deterministic combat is sometimes okay if its highly cinematic. But lots and lots of deterministic combat gets boring really fast.
Rolling a 1 and screwing up real bad can be lots of fun! You get that unmistakable feeling of surprise and dread because you know your character is in for some trouble. Also, unexpectedly good rolls can make for great moments in games.
Beset of all, randomness keeps MarySues away.
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Permalink Reply by Snidesworth on
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Roleplaying is about creating a collaborative story, yes, but the dice are part of that process. Without them the outcome of all circumstances are eventually down to GM arbitration.
I'm running a game currently, one where the players are posing as a pair of nobles and their retainers while conducting an investigation. I won't go into the reasons for this to save space, but they resident nobility, seeing them as foreign and inferior interlopers, generally took exception to them and, during the course of an evening soiree, baited one of the fake-nobles and another player in a duel over matters of honour. The former player rushed in head first and found himself in a small duelling square facing down a highly experienced gunfighter. One of them wasn't going to walk away.
How should I have resolved this situation without dice? If it was down to GM arbitration I'd have to choose whether to have the player go down or the gunfighter bite it. If I choose the former then it feels arbitrary for the player who has just had his character killed or, at the very least, put out of action. If I choose the latter, which is what I "should" do to ensure an enjoyable experience for the player, then there was no threat at all. I'm expected to let the player come out in one piece and so any risk he takes carries little weight. I could go with something in between, the player injured and the gunfighter dead, but this shares the problems of both, the player knowing that he'll win out already while feeling whatever injury I inflict upon him is arbitrary. So I let the dice decide.
As it was the player walks away badly injured, his arm injured after his first shot was dodged. In a surprise turnabout, however, he himself avoided the follow up, would-be execution shot and takes his opponent down with a single attack. I'm rather satisfied with the conclusion and I think the players are as well. The player walks out of a situation where he very well could have died, injured yet ultimately victorious. He's killed a prize duellist owned by the noble who baited him, earning both the enmity of him and his allies while simultaneously earning the grudging respect of other members of the nobility. The story could have gone another way. He could have effortlessly killed the man and shocked the nobility into wariness. He could have been lying face down in that marble duelling ring as his friends looked on in horror. It's the knowledge that these outcomes could have occurred that makes the resulting story enjoyable and exciting in a way that it could be if I'd just declared "this is how it happens."
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Permalink Reply by Ynas Midgard Naule on
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I could'n agree more with Axion Mantalis on this - dice (or any other randomness generators such as cards) are part of the game, because that it is - a GAME. Storytelling needs only one active participant and an audience, or you can change his person with another by scene or something but it will never be RPG.
It is fun for the players and the Game Master too to have a random factor, sometimes on their side, sometiems against them. But this will never solve problems instead of players. They choose their actions, and if they take the bad ones, well, then they face the reasults of them. If they do the right thing (whose form is often unpreditable, because the players are human) they will succeed more easily.
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