dice – TechNo Prisoners

It’s a Game For Kids!

Well, the one Lucretia has been asked to run is. “Bean” gaming cafe is opening soon, and have been looking for people to run some intro games. Lucretia stepped up to the plate, and we have been discussing what to run.

With a proposed player-base of six 10-13yr olds, and a 1-hour time slot, I suggested to keep everything as simple as possible, and concentrate on the players’ enjoyment.

So, here is what I came up with:

System

Opposed rolls.

The player must beat the GMs roll. The Warrior might have a Strength of d8, and the GM rules that Moving the Fallen Tree is a d10 task (It is a BIG tree!).

Player wins: Task Completed!

Tie = Player Wins.

GM Wins: Task eventually completed, but at some cost.

Costs can be ad-libed, to suit the situation, but can include:

Lose a Health Token.
Add a Minion Token to the Final Battle, or other Encounter (to represent the task taking longer, and the Big Bad having recruited more minions).
Use a Special Token (e.g. a Mage “Spell” Token, or Elf “Nature” Token)
Add an extra Encounter.

Overall, the players WILL succeed, but they will be somehow hindered later (less Tokens to use, more Enemies to face, etc)

Characters

A set of pre-generated Archetypes. The Elf, The Mage, The Warrior, etc.

Each will have an Index Card with their abilities on it, and a space to put some Tokens (more on these later).

Abilities:

All are d6 unless noted.

Strong: Warrior has d8, Mage has d4.
Quick: Rogue has d8, Dwarf has d4.
Clever: Mage has d8

Fighting will usually be a Strong contest, but a player may come up with a way of using Quick or Clever. Losing a Fight roll means losing a Red Health Token (Minions only have 1). Especially with younger kids, fighting should never be “to the death”. Minions are knocked out (complete with stars spinning round their head), run away, or surrender.

Plot

The base plot-line for such a short Adventure is: Follow the clues to find and defeat the Evil “Twirly McMustache”!

The players will need a plot-hook to get them into the action. Some ideas to get kids involved:

Your dumb sibling has been kidnapped
Your Teacher has given you some Homework, but Twirly has run off with the answer sheet!
Twirly has stolen your pet’s favourite toy!

You get the idea.

Players must follow clues, overcome challenges and face T. McMustache in a Boss Fight.

Challenges/Encounters

Suggested Encounters: Image result for meme blocked path

Nature Challenge: A large tree blocks the path. A river or chasm must be crossed. A cliff to climb. A Twisty Forest where you might get lost.
Minions: Usually a Combat Encounter.
Puzzles: Keep to a minimum, due to time-pressures.
Cryptic Old Man: Always an annoyance! He talks in riddles, but does hold useful clues.

Boss Fight

Eventually, the Players will face the Big Boss. he will have a number of Minions, possibly boosted by previous Failed rolls.

At the start of the Encounter, Minion Tokens can be Doubled-Up to create Big Minions, that use d8 instead of d6! (They could be Ogres instead of Goblins). When these Minions lose a Fight, they lose one Token, and revert to a d6.

This should be played up for excitement. Will they defeat him? Will they be in time? Can they come up with clever, fun, interesting ideas?

There will be a load of Minions, who can get in the way, hinder the Boss as well as the PCs, and generally be used for humour value, as well as ensuring pacing (if the players are having it too easy, Minions help the Boss. If the players are struggling, have them comically hinder the Boss, allowing the Players to pull off some cool moves!).

Assuming the players Win (which they should!), give them a big cheer, a bag of sweets, and send them off with stories to tell their friends!

Also, show them the D&D 5th Edition PHB, and wonder if the more advanced players might be interested in the “real”, more complex rules.

Back to the System

I talked about a few Statistics, that can be used for Opposed Rolls.

“Health” is measured in red Tokens, Each player has 3 (Mage has 2, Dwarf has 4). When you lose a Fight Roll, you lose a Token. If you run out of Tokens, you are DOWN AND OUT (for now …)

I also envisage each Character having some Unique Powers, that they can spend their 4 Special Tokens on:

Elf: Green “Nature” Tokens. Powers: Entangle, Talk To Trees, Pass Without Trace.

Dwarf: Brown “Mountain” Tokens. Powers: Soak Damage, Dwarf Bread, Talk To Rocks.

Mage: Blue “Mana” Tokens. Powers Magic Arrow, Detect Minions, Solve Clue

I don’t have all the Powers yet, but so long as everyone has something interesting on their Sheet, it should be good!

Summary

It’s not fully fleshed-out yet, but I hope you can see what I’m intending.

To badly mis-quote an Old Geezer who was there at the beginning of it all:

We’ll make up some sh*t, and hope that it’s fun!

What’s in the Bag? A Shark, or Something?

For many a year, my old school bag served me well for transporting all of my paraphernalia to and from games. It holds a ring-binder or two, plus a box for dice (I did have one unfortunate incident while cycling home in the dark with a glass jar of dice in it … I managed to retrieve most of them …).

It also formed a useful surface for recording my travels.

More recently, we tend to play at my house, so transport is less of an issue! When I do travel to a game, I am rarely GM, so my needs are somewhat reduced.

Originally bought for my tablet, my new satchel holds most that I need for a game, and forms my all-purpose travel-bag.With two main sections, and the front pocket (all zipped) and a slip-pocket on the back, I can store my dice/pen holder, A5 paper (just!) and any other trinkets I may need.

My standard fare includes leather-bound notebook, pencils, assorted medication, a few self-promotional materials (#self-employed !) and of course diceThe stationery case opens to reveal … stationery! (and more dice!)Index cards are always useful (especially when I don’t have room for A4 pads). More pencils than I need is a necessity!

Inventory:

Notepad (essential for taking notes!)
Meds (Throat sweets and head-ache tablets. Really useful!)
Business Cards (Never leave home without them!)
Pens and Pencils, erasers. Highlighter.
Index Cards (For several uses)
DICE! 1 set haematite. 1 set Blue. Assorted D6. A bunch of D4, as a previous PC used them. My “Exalted D10” bag.

Character sheets are usually left at the Game, and rule books carried separately.

My phone doesn’t really count as “Gaming accessory”, more of my lifeline! It gets used in some games more than others. (The FWTD game I run has lots of online resources).

So, what’s in your bag?

Do you have a Standard Gaming Bag? What do you grab when you get The Call? Do you make do with an Asda Bag-For-Life stuffed with whatever you can find nearby, or do you have a Gamer’s Survival Kit that will see you through pretty much any situation this side of the Apocalypse (and possibly beyond)?

Roll Playing

The humble d20 hails back to Roman times, but is most famous for its prominent role (!) in the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. D&D is also renowned (amongst those familiar with it) for using a variety of different dice-systems throughout.

3d6 for Character Creation. 1d6 for Searching. Percentile dice for Thieves Skills, 2d6 for Clerical Turning of Undead, the list goes on.

Other games have tried (with varying degrees of success) to limit the types of rolls that are made. Apocalypse World (and its descendants) use 2d6 exclusively. Rolemaster uses Percentile dice for everything.

But what difference do the different types of rolls make?

Swings and Spikes

Image result for 3d6 curve — The “Spikey” 3d6 curve

A term often heard when discussing dice systems is “Swingy”. Usually used in relation to 1d20 or percentile rolls, it means that the result can vary hugely, on a flat probability scale. It “swings” from one end to the other randomly.

“Spikey” rolls, on the other hand, are highly biased towards particular results, such as the bell-curve of 3d6.

While both 1d20 and 3d6 give very similar average results, the change of getting any result varies hugely.

in our current game, we decided that the 1d20 roll that the system uses was too “swingy”, and have replaced it with 2d10. This should give a more reliably-average roll, without taking Luck entirely out of the equation.

How do you Roll?

There are a few Major systems for determining the result of a dice roll:

Dice+Bonus: e.g. D&D 5e (1d20+Stat Modifier+Proficiency), Rolemaster (1d100+Skill Bonus).
Roll under Skill: e.g. GURPS (3d6), Runequest (1d100).
Dice Pools: Roll multiple Dice. each one that beats the target Number counts as a Success. Beat a “Number of Successes” to succeed. e.g. White Wolf (Vampire et al)(1d10 per “dot” of skill, looking for 7s).

(These are by no means the only systems, but do represent the most used.)

It is relatively easy to calculate the Average roll using these systems.

3d6 -> 10.5, d100 -> 50.5, 1d20 -> 10.5 etc.*

Bucket o' Dice — Typical Exalted Dice Roll

*White Wolf dice pools vary hugely across editions. I shall be referencing Exalted 3e, which calls for targets of 7, with a roll of “10” counting as 2 Successes. This gives an average roll of half the number of dice rolled. 6 dice -> 3 Successes. 10 dice -> 5 Successes.

We can quickly figure whether an Average result is enough to succeed:

e.g. Bob the Fighter rolls 1d20 +5, needing a 15. That’s a pretty close call (15.5 average)

Ann the Animist rolls 1d100 +30, needing a 100. Unlikely, but possible.

Carol the Caroller rolls 8d10 needing 3 Successes. Almost certain, one might think …

Far From the Average Roll

While some systems are famous (justly or unjustly) for their complexity and requirements of Advanced Mathematical Knowledge (I’m looking at you, Rolemaster!), while others are so simple it hurts, it is always useful to have a bit of a grasp on what the numbers mean.

Average Rolls are a good start, but what if you need a non-average roll?

1d20 vs 15+ is easy enough. 30% chance, about 1 in 3. (Each “pip” of a d20 is 5%. 15, 16, 17, 18 19, 20 = 6 options. 6*5% = 30%)

3d6 vs 14-? Likely, but how likely? This graph (Courtesy of AnyDice.com) shows that it is 90% likely!

Image result for 3d6 curve cumulative — 3d6 Curve

The “Spikiness” of 3d6 means that if the required roll is better than 50/50, it soon becomes very favourable.

Carol (above) needs 3 successes from 8 dice … a more complex situation. We know that it is better than 50/50 (as that would be 4 successes). Thankfully, Scott Gray has created a Dice Pool Calculator to do the heavy-lifting for us! His calculations show that 3+ is a 68.5% chance. About 2 in 3.

Custom Modifications

Now we have an idea of the basic rolls, what about when they change? Is the darkness giving us a 2 point penalty on our Observation? Does our Long Stride give us a 2 point bonus on Chases? How much difference does this make?

On a “flat” dice, such as 1d20 (or almost any “single dice” system), a set modifier gives a set change to our chances. On 1d20, every shift is equal to a 5% change. +2 is +10%. -3 is -15%.

On 3d6, it depends where on the curve you are! The difference between 6- and 9- (a 3 point bonus) is the difference between 9% (say 1 in 10) and 37% (say 1 in 3, or 3 in 10). That’s +30%!

But 3d6 needing 12-, with a 3 point bonus (so 15-) only shifts from 74% to 95% (+20%)!

With a “spiky” roll, it makes a big difference whether you can get enough Bonuses to move the “spike” across the required roll!

Once more, for the hard-of-rolling:

Some systems have a way of re-rolling a result (or part of it).

Exalted 3 has several Charms that allow you to take dice of a certain value and roll them again (e.g. Excellent Strike: “Attacks gain one automatic success, and 1s are rerolled until they no longer appear“).

D&D 5 has included “Advantage” (Roll 2 dice and take the better roll) and “Disadvantage (Roll twice and take the worse roll)

A method I have seen, but don’t recall where from, is a way of changing a “swingy” roll into a “spikey” one. Instead of rolling 1 die, you roll 3, and take the middle one! This moves the expected result strongly towards the middle of the range, and makes the extreme rolls very rare indeed! (To roll a “1” on 3d20-middle requires all 3 dice to turn up “1”, a 0.0125 percent chance, rather than a 5%!

Sorry, you lost me …

Don’t worry! The only thing you really need to know is which dice to roll, and what number you need. Knowing the average, and therefore roughly how likely you are to succeed is useful, and quickly learned.

If you are interested in the probabilities, and the shapes of particular curves, anydice.com has some very useful tools.

Summary

There are many different rolling methods, but so long as you can get to grips with the one that is used in your game, you are set!

Always keep a supply of several dice-types, in case they are needed, and don’t be afraid to switch out poor dice!

Leather Dice Cup from The Dice Shop!

I won a prize!

The Dice Shop Online ran a Facebook promotion, asking us to mention any funny RPG names we had come across, with three Random winners receiving a Dice Cup and three Dice.

I mentioned an old D&D character from back when the Aliens were building pyramids to scare the dinosaurs: Gemini. I forget his original name, but after a Rodent of Unusual Size gnawed out one of his eyes, he had a precious stone implanted in the socket, and renamed himself “Gem-in-Eye”! 😀

I was picked as one of the lucky winners, and today received my prize!

Review

The cup is made from a sturdy leather (ah, that new leather smell!), and laced together with leather thongs. Metal pins hold the cap in place, and the Dice Shop logo is embossed onto the side. Small enough to easily fit on my hand, it will comfortably hold a few dice, but may struggle with larger ones (My trusty plus-sized d20 almost fills the base of it!). The website notes that these Cups (which come in a variety of designs; obviously this promotional one features the Dice Shop logo!) are made by a small supplier who sells exclusively to The Dice Shop.

So, is it any good?

The leather, as mentioned is sturdy, a good 3mm thick, and held together with solid threads. The metal pins that hold the cap seem very secure, with no wobble.

The embossing is nicely done; it looks like a patterned punch has been used to recess the areas around the logo, and then the leather dyed, leaving the shop’s name clearly displayed. The dragon logo they use is a simple affair, but this keeps it recognisable. It is also replicated on the “6” side of the dice.

The underside of the lid features a rim to hold it in place, ensuring that it does not slip in transit, or during shaking! It also means that the flexible leather will hold its shape, as the open Cup does have a tendency to move under a heavy grip! With this rim in place, the Cup forms back to its original shape, and is difficult to malform when closed.

As the pins hold the lid secure, it will make a good travel-case for my dice, getting them used to the leathery environment, before the game. They can then be emptied out, and the Cup used as needed.

The three dice that came with the Cup are a good representation of The Dice Shop’s range. 15mm across, they are a mottled purple with gold pips (and Dragon logo on the “6”). I often do not like colourful dice, as they can be hard to read, but the colours chosen here are good, and the mottling is subtle enough not to break up the display. I would be happy to use these in a game!

As I’ve only just received it, I have not had chance to test the Dice Cup’s rolling ability, but I look forward to rolling a lot more Critical Hits!

If you have enjoyed hearing about this Dice Cup, why not check out their other designs! Crowns, Stags, Dragons, Skulls and other images feature in their nearly-100-strong range!

Inspirational Tools

I get by, with a little help from my friends.

So say the Beatles, and who am I to say they are wrong.

We all need a little help now and then, and GMs writing story-lines are no exception. From the names of antagonists to the location of their lair, from Quests to Completion-Rewards, sometimes our creative juices run dry.

So where do we turn?

Dice.

Our go-to source of randomness. Mostly our “Standard Set” of d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 and d100. Very useful for creating numerical values. But what if you need something else?

The more resourceful of you may already own some Other Dice. Amongst my easily-to-hand collection, I found Emoji, Rock/Paper/Scissors,

Body Location, Dungeon Maps and more! There are a large range of dice, featuring Weather, Mood, Grammar, and much more!

But what about when you don’t have the right dice to hand? You need to check for Random Weather, but the only dice you have are Body Location and Who-Takes-First-Turn! This is where we turn to:

Tables!

Lists of possible outcomes, Tables can hold a huge amount more information than simple dice, and can be chained together to produce complex results. They can also shift the probabilities of results occurring. Usually they are designed to roll dice, and compare the result against the entries, or you can just choose an appropriate one.

The Internet is full of these tables, designed for each different Game System/Setting, and lots of Generic ones.

To make life simpler, and avoid having to hunt around for either dice or sheets of paper, or the right page of the Rule Book, we also have

Apps

Loaded on to a mobile phone, or tablet, these tend be be combinations of dice and tables. Tell the App what Feature you are wanting, and it will generate a random result, according to how it is programmed.

My current favourite App is (unsurprisingly) the one I wrote!

Combining Lists of Names, Places, Treasures, Quests and others Features, along with a Personality Generator, and lists of Features of a Fantasy City, The Mad Dwarf Inspirational Apps also allow you to add your own entries to the Lists, and save the results for use in later games.

There are Apps designed around most of the popular Games Systems, providing access to as much inspiration as you can handle!

Summary

Other ways of finding inspiration include reaching for a nearby book, and turning to a random page, loading a random Wikipedia page, or asking your Players to make a decision!

Most people will use a combination of methods to produce some interesting results, and the best way is often to interpret them in a way that fits your game.

When do you tend to run out of steam? What methods do you have for recharging your Creative Juices?

The State of The App

Now with added NPC details!

As you may have read, I did an App!

The free version is finalised, and will only be receiving security/stability updates.

EDIT: The Pro version is now available for UNDER ONE POUND! A mere 99 pence will get you access to expanded lists, and extra categories!

What it does:

The opening screen shows the different Categories available. This will hopefully grow as more data becomes available, and feedback is received.

I may choose use coloured Icons, but the basic format should be fine.

Currently the data-sets are based around Fantasy/Medieval styles. Treasures include Ornate Goblets and Lifelike Animal Statuettes, but not Smart-Phones, or Alien Artefacts! Quests involve Rescuing the Fairy-Queen, but not flying to other planets or destroying the Moon-Sized Space-Station!

Treasures are pulled from four separate lists:

Gems Will have a Type (Diamond, Emerald etc), and a Cut-Style.
Jewellery/Clothing will have a Type (Ring, Earring, Belt), and a Style (Gem-Encrusted, Silver-Plated).
Art has a Type (Painting, Sculpture, etc) and a Style (Plain, Gaudy, Cubist, Baroque).
Coins have a Type (Gold, Silver) and a value (randomly generated between 1 and 1,000).

The app is clever enough to notice which Category the Treasure is in, and use the appropriate Icon.

Furniture is split into four categories: Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen and Lounge. Items will all have a Material (Stone, Wood, Tin), and are displayed the same as Treasures.

The new Alchemy section also follows this format, and includes Retorts, Flasks and Crucibles.

Personality takes a slightly more complex route, and calls three World Views and three Personal Ideals. One of each are Prime traits, and the others Secondary.

The Location section adds a little more, again, with each location having a descriptor, as well as guardians!

The long list of Guardians have various ways in which they protect the Location, either guarding, watching over, surrounding or holding sacred!

And now we come to the penultimate section: Quests! Different types of Quest are available, Find, Recover, Destroy, Document or even Authenticate! And Maguffins of all varieties! Flying Carpets, Dragon Shields, Saint’s Bones! Kittens! All need Hiding, Exposing, or even Protecting! Each Quest also has a Reward (taken from the Treasures list) associated with it, so our brave adventurers can assess the risk!

Greta Vernon, Adventurer, at your service!

The last section begins quite simple, but then opens up a whole new area! Names are picked from an ever-growing list, with a 50/50 chance of Male/Female. This is simple enough. But click on any name, and you will be shown their Personality Traits, Prized Possession (Treasure), several Mundane possessions, and what Location they are seeking!

This section is currently unfinished, but should not take too much neatening up to make it Publishable, and I can add to it in later Editions! The Mundane Possessions list is already growing significantly!

EDIT: I have also added a section for Desserts! All of your favourite fruit (plus a few you may not have heard of!) in pies, cobblers, crumbles and fools! Infused, sprinkled, drizzled and layers with your favourite (mostly cream-based) toppings!

So, if you are ever stuck for inspiration, why not download the Random Lists app from the Play Store! Who knows what Wonders await you?

Or even splash out on the Pro Version! Only 99p!

If you have any suggestions for new Lists, items that you would like included, or any other feedback, you can contact me on the regular channels!

Roll Dem Bones!

Well, electronic bones, actually.

(Skip the text and jump straight to the Exalted Dice Roller)

Exalted (3rd Edition, from Onyx Path) uses a reasonably simple dice structure. Add your Attribute and Ability, roll that many d10, and any that come up 7+ are Successes. Compare your number of Successes against the Difficulty to see if, and by how much, you beat it. Nothing to it.

But … firstly, if you roll a “10”, it counts double. No trouble. Then, you get into the realm of Charms (Not Spells. At all. No. A foolish mistake. Mystical Abilities, maybe. But NOT Spells!). These can double other numbers (from 9 down to 7), allow you to reroll some dice (e.g. “Reroll any “1”s until you have no “1”s left“), add Automatic Successes on top of any you roll, add extra dice (sometimes capped by your Attribute + Ability, sometimes not) and other effects.

As your characters are Favoured of the Sun God, you can end up rolling quite a few dice (A common roll in your Prime area could be Attribute 5, Ability 5, doubled by basic Charm, plus 1 for a Speciality, and 2 Stunt Dice for a nice description: 23 dice!). Assuming you have 23d10, you may then need to reroll some of these, and then count up all of the Successes (remembering to Double 10s, and maybe others). Still with me?

As this can become quite cumbersome, I decided to test out my coding skills, and put together an Online Dice Roller!

You enter how many dice you wish to roll, along with any Specials, such as Stunts, Rerolls, etc, and “CLICK!”, the Dice Faeries on my web-server roll (and reroll) the dice, add them all up and present the result!

I have tried to include all of the common adjustments, and for those of you who have a Character registered in the TNP database, you can call upon a roll by Attribute/Ability, without having to remember what scores you have!

Why not try it out, and see if your game would benefit!

Exalted Dice Roller