Dice Design Goals

So I’m prepping for a Dolmenwood campaign, and i haven’t DM’d in forever but since im getting back into the saddle my brain can’t help but think about homebrewing rules to better fit my GMimg style. So as I work on Dolmenwood, and possibly replace its game engine, I’m going to set out the following design goals for any and all dice mechanics that I create in the future.

Goal the First: Use D1s

This is more a table practice than a design goal, but I think more people should use d1s.

Whats a d1? I’m glad you asked. A d1 is a die with 1 side. It always rolls 1. Small pebbles, tokens, beads, acorns, buttons, all make great d1s.

Whats the point of a d1? Okay here me out… the next time you go to roll some dice, I want you to take whatever bonus to that roll you have (+1 +2 etc.) and put that many d1s in your hand along with your dice and roll that.

Now instead of having to hunt down all the bonuses in your character sheet and do mental math and announce a different result than the one everyone can see on the table… now everyone can see that you rolled a 12 plus 3 little stones… oh 15… that was easy.

Plus now your roll with a big bonus has some jangle to it. Just make sure you have a dice tray to roll into (or a cleaned out Tupperware or maybe an empty cardboard box… empty tissue box etc.)

Goal the Second: One Person at a Time

This is a gripe I have with DND initiative. The DM calls for initiative, everyone rolls, then everyone is shouting numbers at the DM. It takes like 5 wasted minutes for the DM to get everyone to stop shouting numbers so she can put everyone in the right order.

Now, maybe you have figured out a solution that works for you. (Everyone announces their results in clockwise order etc.)

But for me, something bugs me about a single procedure producing that many results. However you slice it its gonna be a lot to process.

I do think that a single dice roll might have multiple targets. For example a dragons breath attack should roll once, but mean different things to different players depending on their reflex DC or something or other.

One exception I might tolerate is opposed rolls but… I’m not sure

Goal the Third: The Active Character does the Roll

Dice rolling is very active. You gather up your dice with the Director’s help, you know the stakes and you cast the bones to chaos.

Connecting the action of players rolling dice to their character doing something active and intentional, feels good to me.

Now it sometimes leads players to picking up dice and trying to do something mechanically before figuring out what they’re doing in role-play sense… but that isn’t that big of an issue for me, I’m fine with players who aren’t great roleplayers leaning on mechanics to have a good time… we can retcon the roleplay to fit the dice results, not a big deal.

Now in a sense this goal is a bit of a restatement of Goal the Second… because in our earlier example when the dragon used its fire breath, it rolled and the players didn’t. Now there’s something to be said for consistency. When one game action prompts a number of targets to roll, the aggregate success of that action is going to be consistent due to how statistics work. Whereas if one roll has multiple targets, then it could be very swingy. If a wizard creates a gust of wind to knock a horde of zombies off a cliff, and he rolls bad… nothing happens. Whereas if the horde were forced to roll saving throws, probably at least one zombie is going down. I think this issue of consistency can be mitigated by understanding how dice work. In places where consistency is desired by the designer, use more dice, in places where swingy chaos is desired use less dice.

Goal the Fourth: Dice are Physical Objects

Dice can be used for more that just random number generators… they can also be used as game-able tokens.

For example the players could have some kind of resource pool in the form of dice. Let’s call them hero dice. Let’s say a player has 6 hero dice that they can add to other rolls, but if they use one, they don’t get it back until they long rest or something. The players can physically track their hero dice and as they roll them, add them to dice jail.

Another example. One player giving another player assistance with a roll could be represented by them literally giving the other player some dice to add to their roll. (Note don’t do this if players aren’t comfortable borrowing dice like that)

Using dice as a resource or a way to track something in this way can give the game a tactile feel.

Goal the Fifth: DM rolls for Knowledge

Any time the results of a dice procedure would create a meta-gaming dissonance… the Referee must roll that roll in secret.

By this I mean If the die says one thing but the Storyteller says another. So knowledge checks, perception checks, stealth checks, or any time success or failure is non-obvious.

I’m glad this position has gained more traction recently, but I still think it’s important to acknowledge that in any game I run i want the players to only know what I tell them… and what they don’t know, they don’t know.

Goal the Sixth: Cards Exist

This is just something I want to keep in mind while designing. Playing cards are great: http://riseupcomus.blogspot.com/2023/10/his-majesty-worm-deep-dive-tarot.html. To recap the thoughts of those who came before. Cards can do a lot! They can do both input and output randomness. You can hold them, you can trade them, you can flip them, you can palm them, you can arrange them, you can count them. They come in colors, they come in suits, they come in numbers and they come in Major and minor arcana. You can separate the decks, or have them mixed together.

The point is… the design possibilities are limitless when it comes to cards. So when designing something, ask yourself “does this want to be a card mechanic or a dice mechanic?”

Also one rule I’m going to stick to is: the joker or the fool always prompts a reshuffle.

psst… get yourself a trick marked deck, it’ll help sell the fantasy that you are divining the future to your players.