Dice Rolls and Roleplay 101

dragoness10

Hello, it's me again, and answering a question that has come up with the 20 sided die in the Wonderous Bazaar -

"What do dice rolls have to do with roleplay at all?"

(To answer this we'll stick with the 1d20 for arguments sake.)

You may be wondering why at all anyone would ever need such a tool as a die to participate in RP.

The answer to this is "it is a fair way to decide an outcome of a situation without instantly favoring one player or the other in it". It prevents godmoding, and anti-godmoding by one player dictating how the situation goes.

When you use a dice roll it can be as simple as both roll a 1d20, and highest number "wins".

EXAMPLE : Bob the human is ready to arm wrestle Adam the half orc for the right to ask Amy the elf if she wants to go to Blackdagger Ruins on a picnic. Bob prepares himself, and stares down Adam. They prepare to battle!


Bob rolls 1d20. :tumble tumble: It's a 10!
Adam rolls 1d20 : tumble tumble: It's a 19!

Adam triumphantly lets out a roar as Bob is defeated. The right to ask Amy to a picnic is his!

Well, what if Bob had rolled a 1, or Adam a 20? For arguments' sake often a 1 is considered "autofail", and a 20 is "autowin" as they are the lowest and highest numbers respectively. If both had rolled the same number then it's an automatic TIE, and the next roll proceeds even if it was a 1 or a 20.

(NOTE: If you hate math ignore the next part as it's not for you.)

You can augment dice rolls further if you want to say use strength versus dexterity in which case you and the person you are roleplaying with agree exactly how such modifiers would work.

Maybe Bob's a half orc fighter with STR 19, and Adam's a human rogue with DEX 18. You could say then deduct the 10 from both so Bob's modifier is a +9, and Adam's modifier is a +8 to the 1d20 dice roll.

EXAMPLE : Bob the human is ready to arm wrestle Adam the half orc for the right to ask Amy the elf if she wants to go to Blackdagger Ruins on a picnic. Bob prepares himself with a steady planting of elbow to table with his buldging muscles, and stares down Adam. Adam plots to try to twist his arm so Bob's will slip off the table, and clinch his victory with this dexterious manouver. They prepare to battle!

In this case Bob rolls 1d20+9 = 10+9 = 19
Adam rolls 1d20+8 = 19+8 = 27

Bob's steely muscles squeeze Adam's hand for all it's worth, and try to wrench his arm flat to the table. However Adam writhes his body, and with a twisted lean to his shoulder is able to make Bob slip, and fail to throw Adam's arm down! Adam is the winner!

Dice rolls are not always needed for roleplay, but they can be a good tool and augment to it especially if decisions cannot or should not be made by one individual player.

(Comments and input welcome below.)

destinyknight

I use dicerolls to determine outcomes in Rps. Usually private, as it becomes more difficult for everyone to cooperate in larger groups.

Things such as singular outcomes in conflict in every bout.
Or random things such as effects that would alter a character (and sometimes new characters) and the degree of alteration depending the variable difference in the rolls.

I dont use rolls excessively, but in such circumstances such as fights and such I very much perfer rolls as its fair and its fun to rp the outcome of said roll. (also prevents the metagaming/godmodding such conflicts can turn into that some are prone to doing either deliberately or subconciously)

Previously I had to rely on using a random number generator website for rolls. And the other person using the same or merely trusting me to do their rolls for them.

Now with the dice in the wonderous bazaar. The ease of this is going to be much more prevelant and convenient.

lievcocijo

so there is now a set of dice that actually rolls anything but pure 20s? yes!
also 100% agree with the ability scores addup, even with those that involve +STAT belts, as it would make sense that that char that has actually grown to be able to survive the endgame contents could have an advantage over that lvl10 char that was born yesterday

orangefiree

I like using ability scores too, however I don't use my OOC ability scores in roleplay. My characters all have their own set designed to fit the character. They do sometimes get IC +stat items, but those are unrelated to the artifact belts.