There are times when the randomness of the dice bring frustration, despair, and a strange sort of rage; when players curse the little critters and cast them aside, picking up another in the superstitious hope that this die will perform better; when DMs grumble that their monsters can’t hit the broadside of a dragon, let alone a barn; but when it comes down to it, I love the way the roll of the dice can completely alter a situation, changing the game being played, helping to tell the emerging story that occurs through playing Old School type games (such as early D&D, ACKS, C&C, LL and so forth).
For example: last night was the ninth session of our ACKS campaign, and the party had arrived at the free city in search of supplies, ,mercenaries, and their smuggler contact. Turned out that the smuggler had been arrested and was due to be hanged in three days; his associated wanted the party to free him, and they happily agreed. Having made plans, they made their way to the sheriff’s office at night, intent on knocking out the guards and freeing Mortin, fleeing into the night afterwards with no one the wiser.
It started off so well: they blocked the chimney, smoking the guards in the office out, along with the sheriff. As they poured out of the door, the cleric slept the sheriff with his command word, and the others pushed the two guards back into the room, knocking one out pretty much straight away.
Then the dice turned on them, and they started missing. The guard recovered and fought back, and the sheriff woke, fended out blows aimed at him, and drew his sword. No one could land a nonlethal blow… so the explorer decided it would be easier to kill them instead. He stabbed the guard through the heart, killing him; and again, the dice turned against them; so much so that before the sheriff was eventually slain, he had hacked the hand off the cleric and critically wounded him.
So the party are inside the sheriff’s office, two dead bodies at their feet, blood on their hands, smoke wafting out of the uncovered chimney. Luckily no one has been alerted, but it is only a matter of time before someone spots the remnants of the smoke at least, or the guards in the dungeon below decide to investigate the faint noises they heard. And if the party are caught in the act, they’ll suddenly become criminals, in a city full of soldiers, and who knows what’ll happen then; and all because of the throw of the dice.
Anyone care to share any stories about how the dice changed their games?
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Rhonda Parrish
May 10, 2012 at 18:52
I love the randomness that dice can bring to your game, or, in the case of writers, to your story. Once upon a time, when I was RPing a lot I would occasionally throw a dice to decide what happened if I got stuck in a story I was writing. I wonder why I stopped? It wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring it back, really…
Thanks for reminding me of that :)
~ Rhonda Parrish
David
May 8, 2012 at 16:00
I went through a period of trying to have everything be “logical” based on the design. In other words, no random encounters, since I based encounters on what I already knew to be present, in the form of patrols or whatever. These days I prefer a certain randomness to the proceedings. It makes it more fun for me since it is a surprise for me too. It is also much less work at the table because there’s not as much to keep track of, with encounters being random rather than written out.
As far as the dice changing a game, I was playing a Wizard in a game of WFRP 1st edition. I was in a magic duel of sorts with the BBG, also a Wizard, at the end of the adventure. My guy carried an ironwood mace as a back-up. I was trading blow-for-blow with the BBG, both of us making resistance rolls. It was getting tiresome and I was worried I would run out of spell points. So, I cast some sort of enfeeblement (which made him too weak to do anything, even stand up). He cast Cause Stupidity at me, which lowers the target’s INT by some insignificant amount. Anyway, I put all my remaining spell points into the casting. All the extra was a modifier to his resistance roll. I wanted to end that fight right then. The GM said he was putting all his spell points into the Cause Stupidity spell.
His guy failed his resistance and fell to the ground in a gibbering heap. The GM was a little pissed and demanded me to make my resistance roll, which I failed. “HA! Subtract 10 from your INT!” He crowed. “That’s ok”, says I. “I don’t need to be real smart to beat your head in with this mace while you sit there and watch.” It was a while before the GM got over that.
fictive
May 8, 2012 at 12:36
I’ve been reading and trying to wrap my head around the Amber diceless RPG, and I gotta say, I like using dice.
theskyfullofdust
May 8, 2012 at 14:01
Me too. I think designers sometimes forget that the dice are as much a part of the game-play as anything else, driving the story as much as the actions of the characters. It might seem obvious to say that, but there are times people think that dice are just there to simulate luck and are chiefly to evaluate the success of combats; but they are so much more than that.