For the past couple of years I have been playing several different games that are all extremely player-facing. Numenera, Dungeon World, Ashen Stars, and Through the Breach are all RPG’s that the gamemaster never rolls dice, the players make all the rolls (or card flips in the case of Through the Breach). I’ve enjoyed all these games and really like the fact that my attention can be on running the game, as opposed to looking at the dice. I’ve also found that these games seem to play faster and I can keep the focus on the players and their actions.
A couple of months��ago we began playing the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons. I’m having a great time running the game but this past session I was reminded of another reason why I really enjoy player-facing games, my dice hate me. Three encounters in row I couldn’t hit anything. Owlbear��vs. human fighter; miss, miss, miss. Two hobgoblins vs. dwarf cleric; miss and miss. Even in the “grand finale” that included a bugbear chief, a doppelgänger, and a trained wolf only a single hit landed for a couple of points damage! Are you kidding me? Turns out the toughest enemy of the night was a chubby goblin cook that actually managed to not only hit a character, but crit him as well. Oh well, at least the players all had fun making a mockery of my adversaries!
I suppose it’s all my fault for ignoring my dice the past couple of years. Looks like I’m going to need to find a way to make it up to them and beg the uncaring gods of probability for their favor. Or, I suppose I could just convert the 5th edition mechanics into��something player facing…
Haha, my friends are incredible with their die rolling, while I am often quite average. You may need to get a new set of dice and warm them up! It is funny though, how your mindset will totally influence how your dice roll! When you’re frustrated or feeling miserable, they will continue to confirm your expectations and roll terribly… lol! But the reverse is true – when you feel invincible, quite often they’ll just roll exactly what you want!
Have you ever experienced the same?
@ Oliver – I definitely think you can project how you’re feeling into your dice rolls. If I’m in a bad mood I tend to focus on the bad rolls and ignore the good rolls, or vice versa. Since I’m usually really happy at gaming, I almost always feel like I’m getting lucky when I roll. That’s just me though.
You definitely have your players though that are known as either the god-roller of the group or the worst-roller of the group.
Samuel Van Der Wall recently posted…Gamemastering: Get (Re)Inspired!
Dice are crazy fickle!
Just last week I watched a player roll three natural 20’s in a row and another player fail to roll higher than a 5 half a dozen times in a row. Two players rolled a 2 and spent XP on a reroll only to roll a 1 on their next roll!
For me the lesson has been learned; stick to the “player-facing” games and stay away from the foul evil that is RPG dice!
John Lewis recently posted…Gamemastering: Get (Re)Inspired!