The Less Dice the Better

Every time my brother runs a TTRPG, we have an after-action report by phone the next day. One of the most consistent ways he describes a great session is this:

We went X hours without anyone rolling dice!

Why would less dice-rolling be better? Aren’t dice the veritable heart of TTRPGs?

Before I ever started dabbling in the OSR, we had already come to a realization: TTRPGs are mutual storytelling. Players and the Game Master are working together to tell a story worth retelling. Human history demonstrates that you don’t need dice to tell a story. Why involve them at all, then?

Two weeks ago, I ran a last minute pickup game, using Yochai Gal’s Rise of the Blood Olms. This was my first time running Cairn 2e, so I was being very intentional to preserve Cairn’s core principles, which includes minimizing dice rolls. And it proved the principle, once again, that less dice is better.

The Cairn principle: Leave dice for risky situations

Here are three key principles from Cairn 2e:

• “A save [die roll] is a roll to avoid negative outcomes from risky choices.”
• “Players should always understand the reasons behind the choices they’ve made, and information about potential risks should be provided freely and frequently.”
• “…there are no mechanics that govern a character’s perception or ability to ‘detect’ important details…” Instead, that is determined by the fiction.

You want to check for secret doors? No need to roll. Instead, tell me which wall you’re looking at. Tell me how you’re searching! How long are you willing to look? The narratival decisions of the player determine whether the door is found.

Dice only show up when there’s risk involved…and the risk should be amply described to the player. Shortly after our Cairn game started, the PCs decided to descend a rope ladder into a dark cave, while carrying torches. I responded, “So you’re planning to climb down a rope ladder that’s not tethered at the bottom. How are you planning to carry a torch without lighting the rope ladder?” The risk was clear. So the players pivoted: one player would descend to the bottom, one would go halfway down the rope ladder, the third would stay outside, and the torch would be passed down. Still risky, but not quite as risky. The players were able to adjust to the level of risk they were comfortable with.

Well, as chance (read: the dice) would have it, they failed the roll to pass easily and the torch got fumbled. No big deal. I didn’t want to penalize the players by one of them being burned. So the torch harmlessly fell to the ground several feet away from the player already on the floor. As he took a step toward the torch, a freakish humanoid creature emerged from the darkness to extinguish the torch! Now there’s a new risk to be dealt with.

How would less dice impact your game?

Regardless of what system you’re using, how would your game be impacted by less dice-rolling? What if, instead, you gave your players maximum information, informed them of risk, and invited them to use their noggins? It’s easy for players to get reliant on rolling a d20 to solve a problem, rather than actually solving the problem.

On the other hand, if you reserve dice for when the risk is real, success and failure means something more. There’s nothing worse than failing a roll, only to hear the GM respond, “Sorry. You don’t succeed.” That’s it? OK. I’ll try again. That situation demonstrates that there was no risk in the situation. What’s the point? If the players are going to roll over and over, until they succeed–or worse, if failure means “That’s that! You lose!” that’s frustrating and demoralizing to players. Make the dice count…or don’t use them!

These principles can be used in any game. Just because it’s an “OSR principle” doesn’t mean it can’t be used in traditional games. The OSR is supposed to be about fiction first–keeping story and fun central. And that’s something that a GM can make happen with any system. You might simply have to jettison some rules or bad habits. Use dice less, but use dice better. That’s a principle that we could all put into play more effectively. How have you done this in your game, especially if it’s not the norm for the system you’re using? Let me know in the comments below!

A brief addendum: Play Report

Last week, Yochai Gal caught wind that I had run Rise of the Blood Olms, which I had reviewed a couple of weeks back. As you can see, he wanted to hear a play report:

When the author of an adventure requests a play report, it only seems polite to provide such a report. Here’s a quick report primarily for Game Masters interested in running the adventure. No spoilers YET.

Yochai’s adventure got a real run for its money, as the PCs are seeking a missing group of surveyors…and one of my players is a detective. So the logic of the game’s mystery really got put under pressure. And I was impressed! In fact, as the player was reasoning through the evidence provided, I found myself thinking, “Oh wow. I think he’s right. And I didn’t even know it!” In short, the dungeon is very intelligently written.

Second, the dungeon has more than one entrance. And while some entrances are more advantageous than others to the players, they all provide an equally engaging play experience. After playing the session, I thought through how the game would have played out from a different entrance. While it might be more dangerous, the story would not suffer. There is enough lore exposition in each direction that players can get all the information needed to understand it.

There are few things as frustrating as playing through an adventure not realizing what the objective or solution is. That’s decisively not what’s happening in this game. So kudos to Yochai on helping players understand the reason behind the inciting problem in the game.

Now one final non-spoilery tip for Game Masters: set aside four hours for the adventure. My group typically plays for three hours (with a ten minute break) and we had to push twenty minutes beyond. Even then, I was scrambling to tie up some loose ends. We needed four hours. So I would recommend you prepare for that, if you’re running this as a one-shot. And now…

SPOILERS BEYOND HERE

So here’s what I messed up:

I had argued in my previous review that Blood Olms seemed like the kind of adventure that could be read once and then run. I tried my best to do just that. And, as a result, I under-read the description of the key NPC, Rusal.

First of all, Rusal is hilarious. Any time you have a character naked as a norm, there’s opportunity for goofy shenanigans. But here’s what I failed to read with care: the Boons table. Rusal awards players with a boon if they’re able to solve the problem in the dungeon. But if you read the boons, you realize that…they’re not all that great. Each has a positive effect…with possibly dire consequences, such as the one my PCs rolled:

Cure a disease or ailment. Reroll STR or DEX and keep the result.

Now this could be great. It was not-so-great for the player who rolled it. His STR score plummeted. As our Discord conversation ensued after the game, the players are ready to return and beat the crap out of old Rusal. So here are my two takeaways, which are a criticism of my preparation (not the module itself):

1. I should have read the NPC description better, which clearly stated that Rusal “will gladly offer to trade with the PCs, offering great power, for a price.” I portrayed him very much as a victim, not a cagey guy who might be risky to deal with. That came back to bite me.
2. I should have read through the Boon table, as well. That colors the picture for the kinds of risks involved.

OSR adventures lean heavily on random tables to fill out and color a setting. In this case, it filled out an NPC. It’s imperative for Game Masters to read these tables with care, so that they can see some of the more qualitative and impactful aspects of an adventure. I’ll certainly be very careful to do so in the future. My players weren’t bent out of shape by any stretch–just a little taken aback, as I had intentionally said that danger and risk would be clearly presented to them. Instead, they got blindsided…and that was my fault.

But on the upside, there may be a return trip to the caves to get our vengeance on Rusal…

So, again, I strongly recommend Blood Olms, reiterating that it is free to download! You could run it in any setting, but certainly with ease for Cairn 2e. It strikes me as a very good starter adventure for trying out that system. Enjoy!