Hello everyone, I’m S.L. Jordan, and this is Voltaic Overdrive.
Today, I’ll be talking about the different ways we roll dice in tabletop roleplaying games. Specifically, I’ll be talking about the ways we roll dice to resolve decisions. Whether that’s a speech check, casting a spell, or attacking an enemy, each game uses it’s own unique way for players to roll dice.
D20
To start, I’ll begin by talking about probably the most common (and first) way we all rolled dice for abilities, and that’s with the D20. Since the early 70’s to slay dragons or skeletons, players have picked up a D20, rolled it, and decided if the rolled number was big enough to hit. Simple enough, right? Not so fast! With the D20, this leads to a few inherent choices:
Fate Is in the Dice’s Hands
Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but in my opinion, it’s true. Sure, some games have modifiers to increase your roll, and others have you roll a D20 multiple times, and if you beat a target value X times then you’re successful. When there’s one die, however, it’s always weighted towards the randomness of a dice roll.
Skill Checks Feel Swingy
When you roll just one die, rolls feel like they’re reduced to a single pass or fail. Is that logically true? No. But the human mind isn’t good at determining randomness and probability. That’s why games and programs lie about it. We want it to “feel” random, not for it to actually “be” random. No matter how good or bad you are at a skill or ability, you’re always rolling the same die.
Everyone’s Favorite Homebrew, Crits
This might be a personal nitpick, but if you’ve played many D20 games and systems, you know it’s true. Game masters will always bring in natural crits and natural fails. They love their 20 and 1 rolls equally. In my opinion, player characters are normally stronger than the average joe, and shouldn’t have the ability to royally screw up a task their proficient in. Again, this is a personal gripe, but I’m strongly against anything that takes away player agency.
Dice Pool
Next up we’ve got the dice pool method. Pretty straightforward, the better you are at something, the more dice you roll. Most games with a dice pool system use increasing numbers of d6’s. So you’ve got a pile of d6’s and you’re ready to roll them. But let’s break it down just a little bit.
Fate Is in the Law of Averages
A pretty obvious observation, but fate is less in the hands of a single die, and more in the law of averages. The more dice you roll, the smoother the curve of possible values becomes. You’re a lot more likely to roll right around the center of the curve. Sure, there’s bound to be outliers, but they are not as common and not as extreme.
Things Can Get Out of Hand
A bit of a silly observation, but the more dice you begin to roll, the more out of hand things become. Sure, there’s some games that use a fixed dice pool with increasing values added to the dice pool based on what you roll, but the last time I was on the west coast, let’s just say I lost track of my d6’s.
Success is More Common, but Not as Exciting
Pretty much what I just said; success is more common, but not as exciting. That might sound like a critique, but I don’t think it is. It depends on the type of game you’re playing, but if for example, your characters aren’t super humans, it makes sense their accomplishments will be more likely but also more mundane. On the flip side, if your characters are super heroes, it makes more sense they’ll be more grandiose, and exceedingly success at what they’re doing.
Dice Ladder
The last method I want to cover is the dice ladder method. The better your abilities or the more competent you are, then the larger a die you will use. For example, you may start off rolling a d4 at level one, but by level ten you’re rolling a d20 instead.
Fate is Back in the Dice’s Hands
Like with the d20 method, the fate of your abilities are back in the hands of the dice, however with a twist. The dice determine your roll, but the player determines the upper bound that is possible.
Success Is Exciting, but Feels Unfair
In my experience, when the die roll determines a success or failure, it’s very exciting. I love the idea of rolling a die and instantly knowing what is happening, without the need to add any kind of modifiers or whatnot. As a consequence, it can feel a bit unfair, Whatever you rolled is it, no ifs, ands, or buts. This leads into my favorite method…
Dice Pool Ladder
That’s right, the dice pool ladder. A mix of the dice pool and dice ladder, it’s what I decided to use for Segfault Daemons. Mixing the law of averages with a hint of randomness from the different sized dice, I find it strikes the balance that I prefer in a game. Let me explain.
Segfault Daemons uses a dice pool made up of your Ability Die, Gear Die, and Modifier Die. The Ability die is determined by the character’s inherent strength, mental fortitude, wisdom, intelligence, etc. The Gear die is either the weapon you’re using, any gear (a lockpick, for example), or other equipment, and the Modifier Die is any type of bonus you get from an ability. It’s possible to roll a d6, d12, and a d8. Rolling each of these individually, you’re most likely to get any value on that single die. When rolled as a pool, however, you hover right around 14/15 as your average value. Is there a bell curve? Definitely. However, the middle of the value range is the most common roll, which leads to there being consistent rolls with a smaller but still possible ability to roll far above and far below your average.
Conclusion
Which method is your favorite, and which is your least favorite? Is there a game or system you like that has a unique twist on one of these different dice rolling methods? If so, please drop a comment below so I can check it out. I’m always interested in learning about more cool games. If you liked this video, please like and subscribe, or join my newsletter in the description to get updates on new videos and happenings for my game.
Until next time, this is S.L. Jordan of Voltaic Overdrive, out.
