Dice, Character Creation and all that

This is a very interesting topic, and one to which I'm sure most of us have given some thought over the years. I [as usual :-)] have several points.

Rolling dice may seem an easy way to provide spice and unpredictability in a campaign, but I think that use of dice should be treated with extreme care for the following resons :

Please can we nave a new reality, this one seems to be broken : A major failing with rules systems is that they don't work. This may or may not be obvious depending on GM and system, but it is certainly universally true that there is a constnt need to tweak rules to cope with previously unimagined situations. Even generic sytems are not immune, and the reviled profession of the rules lawyer has arisen as a result of the loopholes present in any system. This being true, the idea that dice are there to allow a fair and objective modelling of some alternate reality does not really hold water; and if the idea of rules and dice is not to model fairly. then what makes them any better than arbitrary decisions by the Ref.

Who are you trying to kid anyway: In roleplaying games, there are plenty of times when the dramatically appropriate thing should happen. The problem is that to do this in a dice-based campaign, the dice need to be fudged. Once such fudging of the dice starts, players don't know where they stand, can they reasonably expect fudging in future or not. Is there any point in using dice if the GM is going to fudge rolls, because generally the rolls that get fudged are the very ones the GM deems would otherwise unduly alter the plot, ie the dice are no longer adding things to the game.

If I'd wanted an incoherent plot I'd have read a dictionary: Possibly the biggest problem with rolling dice is that it can get very seriously in the way of ongoing plot, imagine what would have happened if the captain of the ship bringing Dracula to Britain had failed his seafaring roll and consigned Dracula to the depths of the Atlantic. Fortunately Bram Stoker did not decide plot by dice rolls. Equally, having major NPCs fail an aging roll and die , or PCs dying due to a Rolemaster ingrowing toenail crit that goes sadly awry is not really fun for anyone. I am all for the law of dramatic effect, if something seems a good idea, let it happen. Thats's not to say that life shouldn't be harsh sometimes, simply that the players and GM generally have a better feel for high drama than a small bunch of regular polygons.

Of course its a fair fight, we're playing by the rules : People often get upset that the GM can arbitrarily decide against them in a freeform game. However to be honest a dice-based game is no less arbitrary, the unfairness is just better documented. A good case in point were the old style random encounter tables where upon entering the self-same room you might have variously encountered a zombie, a goblin or thirty six black dragons (I exaggerate, but you know what I mean.) You can imagine how bemused the party might be that the first warning of the major dragon brood they got was a large eye looking back at them through the keyhole, when several squre miles of blasted countryside might reasonably have been expected

The astounding case of the two foot high giant : Lots of people have been remarking that the nice thing about random generation is that you get characters who are not suited to their jobs, but the whole point is, that people who are no good at their jobs end up doing something else. A two foot high giant is not a giant, it is a dwarf. By the same token, a bad thief who does not change jobs will soon be a prisoner, a bad acrobat is a potential hospital case, and a bad warrior is litle more than walking carrion. The only time people can be bad at their trade and get away with it is if they have a rare ability (eg a poor mage in Ars Magica), or are still in training. Its a tough old world out there.

The extraordinary lives of some really bizarre blokes : As a roleplaying campaign this has its limitations. The reason that people like to create their characters is that they get to choose which aspects of the character to explore, they can apply a coherent vision to the character. PCs don't have to be super-competent at everything, but they do need areas in which they shine, even if only by comparison with the characters around them. This is far easier to achieve if the player or GM creates the character with a consistent vision, rather than just rolling dice. Also it is often more realistic. Most people with a high skill at ballet will tend to be very supple and well co-ordinated. The chances of randomly rolling high for all three attributes is not high, the reason real world dancers have the combination is that training for one improves the others in the process. This is better refected by non-random character generation. At the same time non-random systems don't prevent you creating oddities if you wish.

Dice, don't you just love them : Despite all the above, I do think there are a few cases where dice are useful. For deciding non-earthshattering issues with a minimum of fuss; for making up the GMs mind when they really can't decide what to do; for giving the players thinking time and for giving a ready topic of debate to roleplayers everywhere :-).

Justin jmm34@hermes.cam.ac.uk