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View Full Version : The Great Die of GM Discretion!



imp_fireball
2009-05-16, 02:38 AM
See a list of rules that says 'at GM discretion'? Tearing out your hair, because you were hoping the rules would do the thinking for you and ultimately make up for your own lack of creativity?

Well now there's the Great Die of GM discretion!

Step 1: Roll a d100 and watch it go! We're only just getting to the good part folks!

Step 2 (have you completed step 1 yet?! GO BACK IF YOU HAVEN'T!!!): As the die is rolling, refer to this step quickly. You don't want to miss any of that incredible dice rolling action! Just remember this before you see the results: Low is bad, good is high, and medium is neutral. Neutral will either involve you giving players the even end of the stick in your decision, a decision that is simply logical given the circumstances, or (if you can't think around the incredible chasms of what that would involve in your amazingly construed and undeveloped campaign), simply roll again (but grin evilly... always grin evilly).

Read all this in the fraction of a second that it takes for the die to fall? Saw the results of said die falling? Good! Now refer to step 3.

Step 3: Divide that result by three and round down. That will give you the determiner. Now go right ahead and let loose your GM wrath in a format closely corresponding to that, sport!

Failed basic math? Well now you don't have to worry - just assume that anything below 33 is bad while anything above 66 is good. The odds ever so slightly favor something good for the players! Which is good, since you don't want them rage quitting. That would suck, man.

Have fun and play nice now! Just remember that if you have the imagination of a doorknob, you can still have fun... with like, supplements and stuff. The Great die of GM discretion is available to be abused by you as much as you, the GM, like!

You should all thank me for this.

Kylarra
2009-05-16, 02:40 AM
Aww, and all this time I've been doing the amazing coin flip of destiny. :smallfrown: who knew there was a simpler way.

Pronounceable
2009-05-16, 04:01 AM
A much more elegant way is to hold a d20 cusped in your hands, then shake it a little and look. You're likely to be able to see at least 5 numbers, pick one that you like and good stuff happens to PCs if it's 11 or higher, bad happens on 10 or lower.

Much easier than a coin and utilizes a better die.

imp_fireball
2009-05-16, 04:27 AM
The different thing about mine is that it reflects the odds of something neutral happening as well.

Say a character dimension doors into a wall. 100 feet away surrounding either side of that wall is:

1. A room full of a treasure beyond the PC's wildest dreams.

2. More wall (horizontal axis). Arriving here will of course cause further shunting and should remain a possibility just to make things even more chaotic (the player will never even know if they arrived at their destination, mwahaha!).

3. An artificial simulacrum to the room of treasure beyond the PC's wildest dreams. It is actually an illusion, and beholding this one will cause the PC to faint, during which they have horrible nightmares that drive them insane. When they wake up, the illusion is faded and they will be temporarily panicked.

4. A room with a big black and depressing portal leading to an obscure village.

5. Kitty cornered to either side of each room (or between each) is a pit of liquid fire.

Dimension door explicitly states that an interruption causes a PC to appear at least 100ft. away at a space at random. So there's a vaguely neutral decision, bad and good decision too.

Which sorta makes neutral decisions available to be wrought.

bosssmiley
2009-05-16, 05:16 AM
Congratulations on discovering The Oracular Power of Dice (http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-oracular-power-of-dice.html). You've taken your first steps into a larger world. :smallamused:

Chronos
2009-05-16, 01:47 PM
Isn't it kind of overkill to use a d100 to get one of three different results?

Dogmantra
2009-05-16, 02:40 PM
Isn't it kind of overkill to use a d100 to get one of three different results?

You are obviously not DMing properly... Overkill is a DM's best tool!


:smallwink:

I suppose that when you get a negative for the players, that you roll on that table of DM wrath? (http://www.geocities.com/whoisceres2/blodmw.html)

herrhauptmann
2009-05-16, 03:20 PM
Isn't it kind of overkill to use a d100 to get one of three different results?

Use a d30. Nice big number but divisible by 3.

Mercenary Pen
2009-05-16, 05:19 PM
Use a d30. Nice big number but divisible by 3.

Or, for something just about anyone will have, try a d12.

chiasaur11
2009-05-16, 05:30 PM
Or, for something just about anyone will have, try a d12.

Ah, the favored die of Barbarians everywhere.

Kylarra
2009-05-16, 05:49 PM
or roll XD6 randomly and start cackling.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-05-17, 01:10 AM
Congratulations on discovering The Oracular Power of Dice (http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-oracular-power-of-dice.html). You've taken your first steps into a larger world. :smallamused:
Ah, so true.

This is also why, back in the day DM "cheating" (for or against players) was such a major sin - you were offending the dice gods!

Also, you list forgot the one, most important, part of any d100 table - a roll of 00 always results in some terrible fate that is completely unexpected. Even if it is a simple "town generator" a roll of 00 should indicate that the townspeople are secretly were-vampires (or werepires) that will devour the PCs when night falls. Or that there is a random encounter inside the town - possibly in the very tavern that the Mysterious Old Man(tm) told them to meet.

Fear the 00, for they are the eyes of YOUR DOOOOOOOM! :xykon:

DaltonTrigger
2009-05-17, 01:18 AM
Or, for something just about anyone will have, try a d12.

I know this is kind of the point of your joke, but... is there anything in D&D that actually uses the D12? AT ALL? aside from Barb HP?

I ask because I am lacking in knowledge. Maybe, somewhere in the far reaches of space, somebody felt bad for the d12 and made a suppliment that uses it.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-05-17, 01:20 AM
I know this is kind of the point of your joke, but... is there anything in D&D that actually uses the D12? AT ALL? aside from Barb HP?
Behold the power of Mail Call! (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0121.html)

EDIT:
Y'know what we really need? A Random Table Table.

Whenever the game slows down, the DM rolls a d% to determine what random table he should roll on to provoke a new encounter.

Naturally, a 00 results in "roll twice and combine" :smallamused:

Knaight
2009-05-17, 01:22 AM
Warblade's HP, some other classes's HP, a few weapons damage, etc.

Basically a little more than just Barbarian's HP, but not much.

bosssmiley
2009-05-17, 03:45 AM
Also, you list forgot the one, most important, part of any d100 table - a roll of 00 always results in some terrible fate that is completely unexpected.

I thought 00 on a d100 table was supposed to be: All of the above! (http://jrients.blogspot.com/2008/02/it-came-from-4chan.html)

Oracle_Hunter
2009-05-17, 03:49 AM
I thought 00 on a d100 table was supposed to be: All of the above! (http://jrients.blogspot.com/2008/02/it-came-from-4chan.html)
The most amusing part of "the d00m principle" is that there is no opposing "critical success" principle - rolling a 01 rarely results in anything better than "Nothing Happens."

N.B. "Nothing Happens" is frequently the best possible outcome for the PCs when a Random Table is used.