Dice Rolling For Dummies

[Nefieslab]

DICE OPPOSITION​

Dice rolling is no longer what it was for this site - no longer is dice rolling the most common opposition for a thread for plot purposes.

Now dice rolling is seldom used unless opted for by the players, with Self DMing taking it's place as the most common level of opposition for threads, with Open PvP being a close second these days. That being said, there is an increasing number of plots being rejected upon completion for failures when rolling the dice. The worst of these are categorized as follows;

• Roll Until You Win
• Roll To Kill Regardless
• Actions Not Suiting Rolls
• Modifier Abuse

Roll Until You Win;
This is exactly what it says on the tin, where you roll a dice for an action, get a bad result and then try again within the same post. Rolling badly for an action should come with consequences - deciding "I shall try it again within the same post" is not a consequence. In some cases I have seen people attack the same enemies three different ways within the space of one post and remove any and all risk to their characters by only stopping the rolls when they succeed.

Equally, rolling for an action, failing and then rolling for the exact same action in the next post can be considered this as well. If your roll fails, you need to try a different way rather than simply attempt the same thing again and again - remember that if you fail a roll, there should be a greater than average chance that trying that same thing again is going to be very foolish.

For example, trying to hack the lock on a door; if it fails, the system would likely lock up entirely or alert guards and lock up, you would need to find another way in like breaking in through a window or blowing the doors open for example.

Instances of this WILL result in the thread being rejected.

Roll To Kill Regardless;
This is where you roll for an attack, get any level of success... and then roll a second dice to see how many of the enemy you kill. Now if you get a 40 from a 100-sided dice then that does not mean you should have a chance to wipe out all 6 guards because you got a 6 from a 6-sided dice roll. If your attack is a minor success then it is a minor success, it does not open you up to having a second chance to automatically win the combat round.

Instances of this WILL result in the thread being rejected.

Actions Not Suiting Rolls;
What it says on the tin - you should be aware that you should not claim complete success for an intended action unless you roll it as such.

For example, rolling 4 dice to achieve a complex series of events such as sneaking over a wall, sneaking past the guards on the ground floor, making it up to the top of a guard tower and then subduing the guard there should not be treated as a total success just because you rolled well for the fourth action when you rolled poorly for all three steps prior to this.

Another example, if you roll poorly (say 10 from d100)... this isn't automatically the end of your thread. It is a major setback but don't feel you need to fail the thread because you rolled below a minor failure; you can claw it back with better rolls. Alternatively, if you roll consistent fails then it would be logical that those failures compound enough to make the risk of failure much more likely.

A further example to clarify; If you roll a major fail in combating enemies directly, you need to accept that you are going to take some damage up to and including being knocked unconscious. A major failure cannot merely be ignored - major fail rolls come with consequences, unless they are countered by specific successful rolls from your team mates. You can be knocked unconscious due to your poor rolls and then revived by a teammate due to their successful roll to revive you, for example.

Instances of this MAY result in the thread being rejected, though the rolls for the thread as a whole will be taken into consideration.

Modifier Abuse;
This one is so simple that it hasn't been as prevalent and that is good. Of course this makes the instances of this much more egregious. Please remember that if you are using a 100-sided dice, a +10 modifier is literally a 10% boost and should be used sparingly. If you have managed to roll a natural 100 or several very good rolls, this may well be justified.

Adding a +30 to your roll due to "enemy stupidity" will never be acceptable. Adding +10 to your roll "because he's in a good mood" will, likewise, never be acceptable. Your modifiers need to make sense - they are not there for you to completely eliminate the risk of failure. One of the most common modifiers is for level and the following has been deemed to be the standard;

+5 for level 2
+10 for level 3
+15 for level 4

Outrageous instances of this WILL result in the thread being rejected.

Advice;
Simply put? Follow K.I.S.S.

Roll as little as possible - for example, roll for your attacks in your post as one 100-sided dice, not an individual dice roll for each enemy. The dice is supposed to be a tool for you to build your post from and rolling once for your attacks in your post gives you more freedom to be creative with how it plays out, rather than having each stage of your attack round be broken down and analysed by rolling multiple times.

If you spot someone in your thread rolling in a way that you think is suspect? Call them on it. Call them on it and don't let them use incorrect rolls for their posts - at the end of the day, if your thread gets made invalid for a plot because of them, you don't get any plot credits either.

Overall though? Continue to use your own judgement but be aware that upon completion your dice rolls will be judged by the plot team and we can take action based on this.