I really like this article. I have seen variations of the ideas in other places. But I like what you are pulling together, and your focus on the player as deciding their character’s future.
Appreciate the work you do sharing good design and player focused gaming with so many people.
I learned a lot about OSR from your channel on YouTube. I am a grognard, so OS without the R. It’s been great learning about more recent design ideas.
I’ve also learned a bunch from story gaming. Good stuff all around. Keep informing and delighting us!
Super ace. And mega useful. Clear, concise theory. Feels like it's more delve-focused as written.
But would be interesting to extrapolate out to more political games. Rather than roll to convince the countess to support the coup, spend game time finding out what their wants and needs are. Brill! 😁
Burning Wheel, often encourages you to roll dice if there are stakes involved or if failure would lead to some interesting outcome. The cool thing is that your dice pool (d6) totally encapsulates your training, time factors, and effort. Your core pool of dice would be whatever skill you have in said task. This pool can be augmented by additional related skills you’ve earned. If you are working carefully you can add another die or two. Your friends can all help as well, lending a d6 or two for the task. Finally you can add your meta currency, how much you are willing to sacrifice to achieve your goal.
Hi there - I think there is a misunderstanding of the dice roll on doing difficult things. The idea in my mind is not to whether or not a PC can accomplish a task, but whether an unexpected narrative element will come into play. There is an element of suspense in the need to roll, and then something unexpected happens, usually that creates peril or heightens the suspense. Think of a film: sure the protagonist is an excellent climber but demonstrating proficiency only goes so far to make compelling dramatic narrative. Dice rolls are not tests of ability they are opportunities for narrative surprise.
Love OSR, but one of my favorite things about a non-OSR game, Delta Green, is that it assumes if you have a base skill high enough, you simply succeed. If you don't you can roll. For example: Anyone with Science (Botany) or another relevant skill (such as Science (Biology)) at 40% knows that this plant is poisonous. Anyone else would need to roll randomly (its a d% system). This smooths so much gameplay and means the players never have the feeling of being an expert at something and failing something simple that would fall within their field. Of course, you can apply skill modifiers (+/-20 or 40 usually) based on the situation.
I think this is well put, especially as I've been thinking more about the Randomless movement in rpg's. I'm starting to see how it can work in a way that is still narratively engaging.
That is a valid point. I move in more story game like circles and am finding that, as a group, the different interpretations of and answers to prompts is also a great source of unexpected elements. But I do like the idea of some random element for surprise as well.
Why do so many articles like this feel so dated lately?
This one reads like something from the early 2000s, recycling ideas about player agency and dice mechanics that the OSR and indie scenes have been refining for years. It feels more like catch-up than anything that moves the conversation forward.
Many creators seem to be spinning their wheels, making random content or throwing out loose ideas to see what sticks. It feels like many are struggling to make relevant content, and they are rehashing old ideas. In the end, this kind of writing feels derivative and out of sync with the hobby.
If you've been closely following RPG theory for the last 25 years, then this post wasn't really written for you. The vast majority of people playing RPGs today discovered it in the last 10 years and aren't familiar with these concepts.
I really like this article. I have seen variations of the ideas in other places. But I like what you are pulling together, and your focus on the player as deciding their character’s future.
Appreciate the work you do sharing good design and player focused gaming with so many people.
I learned a lot about OSR from your channel on YouTube. I am a grognard, so OS without the R. It’s been great learning about more recent design ideas.
I’ve also learned a bunch from story gaming. Good stuff all around. Keep informing and delighting us!
From an Old Role and Roll player.
Thank you!
I ask my players a lot of “How?”. It gets them more into problem-solving, gives them more agency, and will way less dice.
Good text!
That's a good idea
Super ace. And mega useful. Clear, concise theory. Feels like it's more delve-focused as written.
But would be interesting to extrapolate out to more political games. Rather than roll to convince the countess to support the coup, spend game time finding out what their wants and needs are. Brill! 😁
Burning Wheel, often encourages you to roll dice if there are stakes involved or if failure would lead to some interesting outcome. The cool thing is that your dice pool (d6) totally encapsulates your training, time factors, and effort. Your core pool of dice would be whatever skill you have in said task. This pool can be augmented by additional related skills you’ve earned. If you are working carefully you can add another die or two. Your friends can all help as well, lending a d6 or two for the task. Finally you can add your meta currency, how much you are willing to sacrifice to achieve your goal.
Hi there - I think there is a misunderstanding of the dice roll on doing difficult things. The idea in my mind is not to whether or not a PC can accomplish a task, but whether an unexpected narrative element will come into play. There is an element of suspense in the need to roll, and then something unexpected happens, usually that creates peril or heightens the suspense. Think of a film: sure the protagonist is an excellent climber but demonstrating proficiency only goes so far to make compelling dramatic narrative. Dice rolls are not tests of ability they are opportunities for narrative surprise.
Love OSR, but one of my favorite things about a non-OSR game, Delta Green, is that it assumes if you have a base skill high enough, you simply succeed. If you don't you can roll. For example: Anyone with Science (Botany) or another relevant skill (such as Science (Biology)) at 40% knows that this plant is poisonous. Anyone else would need to roll randomly (its a d% system). This smooths so much gameplay and means the players never have the feeling of being an expert at something and failing something simple that would fall within their field. Of course, you can apply skill modifiers (+/-20 or 40 usually) based on the situation.
But its been very elegant in my experience.
I like that
I think this is well put, especially as I've been thinking more about the Randomless movement in rpg's. I'm starting to see how it can work in a way that is still narratively engaging.
I like a bit of randomness so that I'm surprised every now and then, too much feels like the game is playing me.
That is a valid point. I move in more story game like circles and am finding that, as a group, the different interpretations of and answers to prompts is also a great source of unexpected elements. But I do like the idea of some random element for surprise as well.
Why do so many articles like this feel so dated lately?
This one reads like something from the early 2000s, recycling ideas about player agency and dice mechanics that the OSR and indie scenes have been refining for years. It feels more like catch-up than anything that moves the conversation forward.
Many creators seem to be spinning their wheels, making random content or throwing out loose ideas to see what sticks. It feels like many are struggling to make relevant content, and they are rehashing old ideas. In the end, this kind of writing feels derivative and out of sync with the hobby.
If you've been closely following RPG theory for the last 25 years, then this post wasn't really written for you. The vast majority of people playing RPGs today discovered it in the last 10 years and aren't familiar with these concepts.
I see. Will you make a mix of content?
You can see all my previous newsletter posts here: https://questingbeast.substack.com/archive