Totally Guy
2013-08-22, 09:45 AM
I’ve long said that I think that what a dice roll means is more important than which dice you roll for something. I’d like to come up with meanings that dice rolls have in lots of different games.
To start it off lets all come up with some suitable questions that we can ask of a basic roll and see if we can expand from there. Could you answer the questions for a particular game or maybe your ideal game?
We could substitute "roll" for drawing cards or bidding chips or whatever but the word roll seems to be ok for now.
Do I get to know the target number or difficulty?
Do I get to know what’s at stake if I fail?
Do I get to know what will happen if I succeed?
Can I try again once a roll is made?
Do I get to spend points to improve the roll?
Who interprets what skill or ability I described?
Can I spend extra success on additional effects?
Can I achieve more than I intended?
Am I rolling against a static number or the roll of another character?
Can I receive experience or some other point by making this roll?
Do I describe the action before or after the roll?
Can I reduce my success if I succeed too much? (I didn’t want to knock his head off!)
Can anyone else help me with this roll?
Can anyone else help me after I’ve rolled?
Can I refuse help?
Will rolling this cause me to need to change my character somehow?
Does my description allow me to have a bonus or roll different dice?
Do I know how long this action will take?
Can I avoid rolling entirely with better description?
Could this roll halt or upset the story?
Do we each roll or do we assist a single character to roll?
Can I roll despite the outcome being certain?
To start it off lets all come up with some suitable questions that we can ask of a basic roll and see if we can expand from there. Could you answer the questions for a particular game or maybe your ideal game?
We could substitute "roll" for drawing cards or bidding chips or whatever but the word roll seems to be ok for now.
Do I get to know the target number or difficulty?
Do I get to know what’s at stake if I fail?
Do I get to know what will happen if I succeed?
Can I try again once a roll is made?
Do I get to spend points to improve the roll?
Who interprets what skill or ability I described?
Can I spend extra success on additional effects?
Can I achieve more than I intended?
Am I rolling against a static number or the roll of another character?
Can I receive experience or some other point by making this roll?
Do I describe the action before or after the roll?
Can I reduce my success if I succeed too much? (I didn’t want to knock his head off!)
Can anyone else help me with this roll?
Can anyone else help me after I’ve rolled?
Can I refuse help?
Will rolling this cause me to need to change my character somehow?
Does my description allow me to have a bonus or roll different dice?
Do I know how long this action will take?
Can I avoid rolling entirely with better description?
Could this roll halt or upset the story?
Do we each roll or do we assist a single character to roll?
Can I roll despite the outcome being certain?