Today’s #newbieTuesday post is all about what rolling the dice represent in a role playing game. While there are many different styles and interpretations to dice – sides/pictographic/symbolic – the main point of rolling them is of course to determine a result.
Not that I would have any experience with this but let’s say you’re trying to convince a king you’re his long lost heir because you came across his family’s sacred blade in the wilderness. The GM would typically have you roll the dice and add your skill in persuasion – in one form or the other – to the result. The resulting total is then compared to the difficultly of successfully completing the task – set before the roll in their head by the GM – and the GM conveys the result with story.
There’s of course a degree of nuance on both sides of the equation there but the example stands on its own. The dice represent the spectrum of possibility inherent in all things in life. To me, they’re a core, guiding principal of the flow of played stories. New players should embrace dice as part of the wonderful, slightly-controlled chaos that is a role playing game!
