Don’t Roll Those Dice!

By: Matthew Williams

This short proposal is aimed at Referees of skill-based systems, but I believe it can apply to any RPG that has rules for skills (looking at you, 5th Ed DnD…)

Preamble

We’ve all seen it happen. The highly skilled PC tries to do something easy, then the player rolls… and fails.  Does this result in some amusing slapstick? Does everyone have a good laugh? Perhaps. But this failure (or even worse, a critical failure) can have major consequences, It can mess up your cunningly designed encounter.

So, why did you let the player roll those dice? WHY? YOU FOOL!

Why can’t we assume that a skilled individual will succeed at easy or routine tasks? Why risk them botching things? ESPECIALLY if you have some insane rule like “A natural 1 on a D20 is an automatic failure”. Look at the real world. Do you see every car driver get into a fender-bender 5% of the time? Do the lucky ones only crash on one trip in every 400?

[That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. The answer is, of course, ‘No. Don’t be ridiculous. Am I stylish enough to look like I live in Rome?’]. 

Accept Competence and replace dice rolls with Narrative

This is a very simple idea. If the PC is ‘competent’ in the relevant skill, we should assume that they succeed in performing tasks that are routine or easier. We should get the players to simply describe what they are doing and avoid the dice rolls. Leave the dice rolling to lesser-skilled PC’s, or to situations where even highly-skilled individuals could fail.

Obviously, the complexity is in defining those two terms.

Competent

There are two ways of doing this. Roleplaying and Game/Mechanical. 

In RP terms, let’s look at the PC’s background. Are they a Journeyman Blacksmith? Have they completed their apprenticeship and persuaded their Master that they can be trusted to work unsupervised? If so, they are competent. They can do stuff like make horseshoes and spear blades and (this is the important thing) no dice rolls are necessary.

If mechanical terms seem more appropriate, we must look at the PC’s stats, experience and skills. Are they (for example) a streetwise Rogue living in 1480’s Venice? Are they highly dexterous and proficient in Stealth? If so, they are competent. They can do stuff like sneak past a bored/sleepy night clerk at an Inn. Again, no dice roll should be necessary.

Task Complexity: Easy? Routine? Hard?

This is where the Games Master has to make decisions. How hard is it to do something? Obviously, there’s no way a rules system (or a blog entry) can cover every single possibility, so you’re going to have to deal with things on a

case-by-case basis. I suggest that you look at both the situation and the PC.

Let’s return to the Journeyman Blacksmith, for a moment. Sharpening a scythe? Ha! Easy! Done that a thousand times. By contrast, we’ll look at his companion, the sneaky rogue who’s spent years sneaking around a pseudo-Renaissance city. The rogue has never even handled a scythe! Sharpening daggers is their routine. They are ignorant about scythes. They don’t know that to sharpen scythes you don’t require a sharpening stone; you need a triangular anvil and a hammer with a flat face. OOPS. This is going to be hard. The scythe may get damaged. At the very least, it’s going to take longer. Much longer.

Therefore, roll the dice for the sneaky rogue. Don’t roll dice for the blacksmith.

But rolling dice is fun! What am I (and my players) gonna do instead?

You’re going to use a little Narrative. Everybody tells a story.

PC: “I want to sneak past the sleepy night clerk. What do I have to roll?” 

REF: “OK. You’re skilled enough to do that. Don’t roll. Tell me what you’re

doing”

PC: “Er… I crouch down out of his line of sight and snake my way past him. I keep below the counter, so he can’t see me. And all my gear is muffled by cloths, so nothing rattles or clinks”

Conclusion

Dice rolling is an unsatisfactory method of dealing with skills. It should only be used when

1. The Games Master has plans for every result (especially failure)
2. The task’s difficulty is more than routine/trivial. This will vary from PC to PC. This should not be based simply on levels of skill – the Games Master should consider the PC’s life experience. This may encourage a bit of creativity and some backstory from the player.

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About the Author

The author has been playing TTRPGs for a depressingly large number of decades. Unlike many, his first experience was with Traveller, rather than D&D and Science Fiction remains his favourite genre for RPGs.