Why dice matter.

Think back to the last time you played a game. What dice did you use? How many?

After thinking about it for half a second you may be thinking hey, what the hell, why do I even care. You may not but, the designer definitely did. If you want to understand why your games do what they do, this might interest you.

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). The D20 system as it is sometimes known (D20 meaning twenty-sided dice), the D20 actually has a secret… It’s a percentile dice in disguise. Significance in most scientific processes happens at 5%, what is 100 divided by 5? Don’t look so shocked D&D used to be known as charts and compasses by some people as a negative term back during the original D&D days and the AD&D days before that was a diagnosis.

Warhammer. D6s everywhere, common and inexpensive to produce have been around since the age of Methuselah. Multiple rolls to get a single result, is the guy dead yes/no, check weapon skill if ‘Successful’ continue, check against toughness if ‘Successful’ continue, check against armour if ‘Successful’ continue, check against special rules…

Remember one thing where these games came from, both Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer Fantasy (which birthed Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar) came from historical wargaming. So what does historical wargaming do? Simulates war…

Dungeons and Dragons wanted to step away from that to something more personal, so Gary (Gyax we are on a first-name basis you see) wanted to make a game where you see the personal side of war/adventuring. Gary was pretty famous for hating what D&D became in terms of the amateur theatre hour. He wanted the ‘pure thrill’ of Dungeon Master against the players. So the game reflected that. One dice, one roll, that’s what decides your character's fate… odd how such a dramatic system of rolling came to embody a theatre spirit.

Warhammer wanted to embody that spirit of war but with fantasy. See each of those rolls is meant to show the strength and endurance of the fighters. You roll a bunch of dice and see how good your fighters are against the other fighters. Who comes out on top is much more easily predicted than in D&D. There is a chance to beat the odds but, odds aren’t in your favour. However, it has much more of that grinding feeling of war. You already know how things are going to turn out but you hope against hope that they won’t. Its not a single dice or a single roll but a series of dice, grinding, grating and inevitable.

Both of these games have something called Ludo-Narrative Harmony.

In short Ludo means game, Narrative means story and Harmony means works together. That doesn’t help a lot so let me explain. It means that the elements of game play and story work together to help immerse you in the game.

Good games do that. Their component parts work in harmony to give a certain feeling. So where doesn’t that work? Well… the more common term that came from the 90s was Ludo-Narrative Dissonance. Yeah, its the opposite of what I am talking about.

Blood Bowl

The lore behind Bowl Bowl is this in short, some people found some tome that gave rules for football. A world at war fighting for the gods, for territory and for honour all stopped fighting one another because football was so fun. There are people riding pogo sticks and steamrollers as ‘secret weapons’, there are rules for how distracting your opponents with good smelling food makes them worse players, and wizards that can be hired to shoot lightning at the opposing team.

I am guessing the feeling you get from this game is that it is a wacky off the wall game where the gods decide who wins and who loses more than players. Perhaps not a game where every single mistake is punishing, where you avoid rolling dice at all costs as much as you can, where it is played as seriously as a heart attack.

Well… It’s the latter.

But why?! The lore so explicitly says that this is a wacky game!

Because of the dice.

Blood Bowl uses a modified D6 and a regular D6. On both if you roll a one (or skull) you end your turn, all of your unactivated characters may no longer activate and the opposing player now activates their team.

I played a ‘season’ of this game and there are two players that epitomise this, one is the champ the other is known for failing often. The one who fails often is called ‘Big Play’ because he has a catchphrase big players make big plays. By all accounts, if this game was in harmony, this player would be at the top of the tables because he would make big plays, sometimes fail but would get those amazing touchdowns which are the stuff of legend. The champ is known for taking a long time to make single plays and to consider things for a long time before making a single move.

Does this make the game bad? No, the game is actually very well designed, but does the game match how it describes itself? Not at all. Which takes you out of the game and makes you less immersed.

Frostgrave

Frostgraves lore is this, there was a city covered in perpetual winter, an ice age like no other. This was not remotely natural. However, this place was once the centre of a bustling magical empire. Now the frost is beginning to thaw. Wizards, Witches, and Magi of every known nationality, culture and tradition of magic come to ‘Frostgrave’ to reclaim these lost magical treasures. They hire warbands of thugs, thieves and mercenaries to protect them and help claim these treasures.

Okay, so the game sounds a lot more serious. And from what I have played damn yeah it is, despite the play being completely different and the players being a lot less serious around the table. I put this down a lot to dice.

Frostgrave uses a D20 system so you would expect that it would be a lot closer to Dungeons and Dragons however, it’s in how the dice is used that things are changed. It’s not a series of rolls like D&D it’s one dice roll. You roll against your opponent who ever gets higher after adding their modifiers wins.

Most everyone has armour 10. So let’s say I roll 15 total against your 13 total. After this we remove the armour and then that’s how damage is calculated, so I would have dealt 5 damage to you. Most people only have 10 health… so things can get very brutal very quickly especially considering that that lucky 20 is here too where you do an extra 5 damage. Suddenly things get very lethal very quickly.

Thus it leads to both parties not being that keen to engage one another or some people going all in. It is a lot more free for all and wild than Blood Bowl.

Because time is the currency of life and you should be careful how you spend it.

Am I saying games are a waste of time, no I am not, I am saying if you are a bit more insightful you will know why this game is scratching an itch or why one isn’t. And if you are a gamer you are likely used to house rules and if you have them… you can understand why some work and some don’t.

Now go out and enjoy your games! Or don’t I am a line of text, I am not going to force you to do anything.

Until next time friends.

Keep those brushes wet.