ection 3:

        Using Dice to resolve uncertainty

Dice exist in a role-playing game for mainly two reasons: to resolve uncertain situations and to have fun through risks. Although rolling a tonne of dice can be fun, sometimes it can slow down play if used too much.  It is hardly necessary to roll for the outcome of muffin baking skills (unless of course the muffins are to impress a King and simply must be divine). 

There are three types of rolls using dice:

• Roll Low – myn vs nature - 2d6 positive + 2d6 negative, take lowest
  
• Opposed Roll – duel/competition between myn – rainbow d6 and 1d3
  
• Roll High – myn apptitude – #d6 take high, extra 6s = +1
  

oll Low

This is the most common type of dice roll necessary, and can be used in any and all situations where a roll is needed, such as moments that challenge a character's abilities or skills without opposition from another. If the text, or mod, calls for you to roll dice on a situation, it is this dice mechanic by default.  Combined with an understanding of the ranks, you have 90% of your solutions to uncertain situations.  If the other two dice mechanics don't make sense immediately, you can play without them.

How to do it:

You'll need 4 six sided dice, and two are negative and two are positive.  It's easiest if these are coloured differently.  Roll all the dice, and look for the lowest number on the faces of the dice regardless of which they are.  For example, if you rolled 2, 2, 5, 3 then the lowest number is 2.  It is also a negative, therefore the outcome of the roll is -2, use this to go up/down on the rank of your ability/characteristic being tested.  Note that although there were two 2s in the negative, they do not add.  The most common result of rolling is that you get a 0 modifier, this happens when you have the lowest number on any number of both positive and negative, e.g. 5, 5, 6, 5

Understanding this graph is not essential to using the dice, so let's say together "oooh pretty" and move on.

Rolling Low gives an approximately normal probability distribution that is centered around +/- 0  added to the skill or attribute being tested.  Under normal conditions a +4 is the best possible, -4 is the worst possible. There is a very slim chance of +/-5 (less than 1%), and thus these results should be something quite extraordinary in play.  It’s not possible to have a +/-6 because it will cancel to a +/-0.  So +/-5s are wholly unnatural and produce magical, surreal, weirdness.  Have fun with it.  A typical explanation is that there is some sort of divine intervention by one of the gods of the Pantheon.  This is a great opportunity to return to later on, and weave complexities into the plot. 

Want to play with the fewest rules as possible? 

If yes, then go onto the Next section

     - (#4) Spending Action Points

If not, keep reading for the dice mechanics that offer increased granularity.

Example:  An attacker first roll, White 3, compares against the defender's roll, Purple 1.  On this dice, the Purple trumps White, so the whole attacker's roll is nullifed and the defender is scoring even though the d3 number was lower.  If they had both rolled the same colour, the attacker would be scoring with the higher number.  So, the attacker chooses to roll again and gets a Green 2, which scores for the round by beating the 1 without trump.

The Rainbow Dice

The rainbow dice can trump the opponents colour if it follows their result on the order of light spectrum.  Each colour is only trumped by the colour immediately greater than it.  The order is shown below, with violet shorter than blue (just like ultraviolet), since purple on the red side is an illusion of our biology.  White is also beyond violet, since the part of the UV we can see looks whitish, and on the purple side.  Black is beyond Red (Black is omre than Red in wavelength), beyond Red is IR, since heat can be in darkness without us seeing colour.  Thematically this is important, as fire and darkness are more often associated with demons, whereas bright white light is associated with benevolent energy.  So White beats Black to complete the cycle, but Black beats Red and so on with the longer wavelength trumping the colour on the die immediately less than it.  The different colours you may have on your rainbow dice vary, but their order is determined by this circle.

But we don't have any dRs or d3s!

No worries, you can play with the two colours of d6s you need for the basic rolling mechanic.  A three sided dice is simply 1d6 divided by 2, round up.  And the other colour die is the rainbow dice where the trump is numerical order: 6>5>4>3>2>1>6

There are often d6s in gaming stores with different coloured pips, you can make dual use of these dice: as regular d6s, or rainbow dice. To find actual rainbow dice is rare, and you can sometimes by blanks and paint them, or borrow them from a game like Miqube.

oll High

This mechanic is to give additional detail on a result you've already rolled using the basic dice mechanic, or for a test where you want some sort of specific number. For example, you are a wizard's apprentice and you've been researching a spell to help the crops grow.  You've achieved a Good result in casting it, but you specifically want to know how much crop output is gained.

• Decide before you roll how the numbers will scale with what you are trying to predict

      e.g. pick what the minimum 1 means, and what a 6 would mean, knowing that sometimes you will roll higher

• Roll a number of d6 equal to the rank from the table below and take the highest number 
• Add +1 for every six you roll after the first

Examples of situations to use it: time to complete task, a numerical scale is needed, etc. Sometimes a better success is less time, so either invert the scale or invert the dice. A six could mean a complex ritual spell is prepared in good time, 1 hour, with a roll of 9 meaning that it is done in 30mins!

Navigation

Next section - (#4) Spending Action Points - changing the likelihood of outcomes using player resources

Previous section - (#2) Core Mechanic - the ranking table

Index to all the mechanics: Mechanics

Clarifications

• Important: the dice mechanics are almost always optional, results can be achieved by negotiation/story telling as well.  And don't feel the need to roll more (or with the more complex types) than you find enjoyable to the game.
• Full Dice Mechanics - for additional examples, customization and discussion

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