Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors in D&D/TTRPGs

[Vahnavoi]

If you want to do rock-paper-scissors-like dynamics, you have to understand what makes rock-paper-scissors work. In this case, even the Wikipedia article for the game goes a long way, explaining its relevant qualities and how it's possible to use skill to gain an edge over a human opponent (etc.)

The key trait of RPS that you likely desire to preserve is the lack of a dominant strategy. For this to happen, the following condition has to be satisfied: even when you know what your opponent is trying to do and all their options for doing it, there is no one thing you could do that would be better than all others. This leads to "I know you know I know" information metagame, where the degree of second-guessing yourself and your opponent becomes relevant.

From existing games, Pokemon provides both a good example and bad examples; good in the sense that it shows how to translate principled of RPS into a more compex turn-based game with lots of different dynamics, bad in the sense that individual Pokemon show how you can screw the dynamic up with overly centralizing player options. Going through, say, Smogon metagame and forums will tell you a lot about what works and what doesn't for implementing the desired dynamic.

On the tabletop, I echo Kyoryu in that the proper placement for the RPS dynamic is on the level of moves, not character builds. More technically, each throw-equivalent should happen on per-turn basis. Each character should have a number of choices to select from, with the final choice of throw being made when the character enters a contest with another.

Mechanically, some of the easiest ways to do this include playing an actual round of RPS between players of the contesting characters (such as a player and the game master), or dealing cards from hand and revealing them at the same time. You can do this with dice, but to avoid everything becoming just a random roll-off, I suggest using a pick from intransitive dice.

The important thing is that even in a turn-based game, the player who choosed last shouldn't know what moves those before them have made, as that trivializes the game for them, being equivalent of a robot using a high-speed camera to see what throw a human is making, then choosing the winning throw faster than the human can react. For a game master, this means there has to be a commitment to secrecy and willingness to accept they don't know what the players will being doing before they do it.

Another thing is that the game master of all people can't be the kind of person who always plays rock, because rock is the best. They have to be willing to mix and match what non-player characters do and can do, otherwise the game is trivialized. The players being that sort of persons is slightly less of a problem, but a problem nonetheless. The players have to understand that they have to switch what they are doing from moment to moment, or they will just lose.

---

EDIT: "The players are supposed to win" is a really poor counter-argument for implementing RPS dynamics. Reason being, it is very easy to deliberately play poorly and let players win most of the time. The (only) real problem with that is that it messes with player understanding of how the game works, versus how the opposing player works. As in, if the game master always throws rock, players will start to complain "paper is OP, plz nerf".