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From: srt@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Fudging Die Rolls
Message-ID: <472@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 20-Jul-84 09:43:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.472
Posted: Fri Jul 20 09:43:32 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Jul-84 05:47:18 EDT
References: <24400001@hp-pcd.UUCP>, <293@daemon.UUCP>
Organization: UCLA
Lines: 33


  I think the current trend in FRP games is toward reducing the effects of
dice on the outcome of the game.  Typically this is done in two ways:

  1. Increase the frequency and diminish the importance of die rolls (as
     in, for instance, RQ!).  This allows the Law of Large Numbers a
     chance to take effect.

  2. Eliminate die rolls.  I don't think any commercially available games
     take this route for marketing reasons (i.e., hard to convince a Rug
     Rat to buy a game that requires thought), but a number of systems have
     been presented in fanzines such as Alarums and Excursions that take
     this approach:  hit-point-less systems and so on.

  I don't currently play any ``live'' FRP, but in the PBM game I DM, I don't
use dice at all.  My goal as a DM is to create an exciting, involving
fantasy adventure.  If dice could help me do this, I would gladly use them,
but I find that my native creativity provides me with more than enough
material.

  I think dice are primarily used because of the time constraints involved
in real-time FRP.   They are simply a convenient and quick short cut.  Viewed
this way, it is clear that the DM should discard any die rolls he doesn't
particularly like.  To put it another way, if the outcome of an action is
important, don't relegate it to a die roll: adjudicate it.

  I don't want to be a snob, but if, as some comments seem to indicate, you
are doing random generation of monsters and treasure and so on (caught in
the EGG paradigm) then you might want to try abandoning that style of play.
It is more difficult, but equally more rewarding, to play in a game that
has been carefully thought out, rather than randomly generated.

					-- Scott Turner