In Defense of Idiosyncratic Dice Mechanics

TTRPG Creation Design Theory
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Common wisdom in design circles holds that dice mechanics should be fast, simple, and easy to understand. To fixate on beautiful mathematical bell curves is a rookie mistake. To fixate on making your dice mechanic totally unique is amateur.

I am about to claim otherwise.

The recent popular ttrpg-based video game Baldur’s Gate 3 does something interesting. When you make an active skill check in dialogue, you are completely pulled out of the conversation, and presented with a screen full of flash and fanfare for you to roll the d20 and add your bonuses. What could have possibly possessed them to do such a thing? What a terrible idea! Or is it?

I think Larian (the developers) did this because they understood that the moment of rolling that d20 is an inextricable part of D&D. There is a “feel” to stopping everything in order to go through the process of a skill check, and I believe that is no accident of design.

Yes, it’s true that you are pulled out of the story in that moment. However, when you return, you return bearing gifts; engaging with mechanic has given you a new emotional state of mind to carry into what comes next. In D&D’s case: thrill, defiance, commitment, expectation, curiosity.

And D&D is far from the best example of what I’m about to talk about.

I believe a dice mechanic need not, even should not be a mere uncertainty engine. Is it then, for the pure joy of hearing click-clack? Is it for the psychological endorphin rush of gambling? No, it can be more yet than those things. I will now offer you the claim that the dice mechanic of a game, by having a certain dicefeel, by having certain kinds of mathematics, and by taking the player out of the story at a specific time, in a specific way, can be used to reinforce the theme of the game.

Allow me to demonstrate with two examples from my own designs.

One of my side projects, currently a mere concept, is a game about being a resistance movement against an all-powerful, tyrannical regime. I conceived for it a dice mechanic that, mathematically is very near-identical to a simple ( 1d6 + X vs. Static TN ). But instead, I will use the following mechanic: The player rolls two d6 dice. The GM, representing the tyrannical regime, takes the higher of the two as the target number to beat; the player must now add their bonus in hopes of beating it. This mechanic reflects the unequal power dynamic, where the regime always has the advantage.

For my main project, even since the earliest days I played with associating the “feel” of specific dice with specific things.

  • d8’s - “spearheads” - are used for action, offense, taking the initiative.
  • d12’s - “turtleshells” - are used for reaction, defense.
  • d4’s - “caltrops” - are used for complications, uncertainty.

These sorts of subtleties may go completely unnoticed by the player. When subtle thematic reinforcement is seeded in every aspect of a game, they come together to build a strong atmosphere.

There is more to be gained still from a dice mechanic that is uniquely tailored to its game. It can anchor the player to the system, cementing your game system in the player’s memory as a part of the experience. Dread’s jenga tower, which for the purposes of this is equivalent to a dice mechanic, is synonymous with the system itself for anyone who knows it. It’s also another excellent example of how the mechanic plays into the theme: the jenga tower is even the biggest driving force of building the titular dread in player’s minds.

In conclusion, I say go out there and make your wildest dice mechanics! Make it unique to your game! Make it sing, when the players roll dice, or draw cards, to solve rubiks cubes, or whatever you can come up with, make it sing the song of what is to follow!

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Absolutely agree, actually!

I’m generally one to say that unless your game is truly built around your resolution mechanic, the specific dice mechanic does not matter that much. But when you make a dice mechanic that really uses itself to its fullest, it’s a sight to see. That is the sign of a good dice game.

Like, look at something like Weapons of the Gods or Legends of the Wulin. They both have intricate dice rolling systems, where you have to create your actions from your rolled dice pool, and you can manipulate the dice, when to do so an when not to. It’s a beautiful integration of a dice pool mechanic, because the slowness and feeling of choosing the right dice, choosing when to replace them and when to use resources gives you the feeling of playing chess amidst combat — which obviously mimicks Wuxia media.

Experimentation should not be scoffed at, instead, I think we need more of it.

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I feel like there’s some conflating of arguments here.

While there are certainly a small subset of people who treasure “immersion” above all things, and who therefore object anything that might take them out of their fragile flow for any longer than absolutely necessary, I don’t think that’s a particularly common argument against “weird” dice mechanics.

I think the major difficulty with “weird” dice mechanics is that they are difficult to implement well. Where by “well” I mean, “in such a way that they provide clear feedback and so players can understand the decisions they make, while actually offering meaningful advantages over a more familiar system.” Also, let’s be honest, spending TOO much time on a mechanical process probably isn’t fun or reinforcing any themes – though of course how much is “too much” will depend on all sorts of things. If your game has a “scene based” resolution mechanic like Agon, where basically everything is settled with one use of the resolution mechanic, you can easily get away with something more complex than if your game calls for three different invocations of the mechanics to “Run along the edge of the cliff”, “Leap over the chasm” and “Stab the cyclops in the eye with my spear.”

Another reason I frequently tell new designers, in particular, to not spend too much coming up with a “novel” dice mechanic is that honestly, even when the dice mechanic of a game is really well designed, I don’t feel it gives as much “payoff” as other parts of the game. This is especially true for new designers who get very bogged down in “Should I use d6s, or maybe d8s would be better” and can spend ages rearranging the deck chairs of their dice system without making any actual improvements to their game.

Like everything, making a complex dice mechanic has tradeoffs. In many cases, those tradeoffs aren’t worth it. In other cases they are. But to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone say “Don’t make a weird dice mechanic.” so this entire thing feels like it’s attacking a position no one ever really takes.

So yeah, I mostly agree with Raven; If you’re just writing a pretty standard “Task resolution system” like many designers are, the specifics of the dice really don’t matter that much. If you’ve got a really clever idea for a resolution mechanic and are prepared to build your entire game off that concept, go ham. But those games are definitely the minority.

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Just so you know I’m not really “attacking a position”, I just wanted to offer a topic on design theory. Maybe the preamble was too grandiose.

I think if you’re both saying that it’s either “the dice mechanic is just task resolution” or “the entire game is built around the dice mechanic”, then you’re not really understanding what I’m trying to say.

I’m saying that the dice mechanics play a greater role as part of the harmony. A symphony is composed of many notes; it’s weird to me to suggest to a composer not to worry about one note because it is only one note.

No one element can create atmosphere on its own, all elements must contribute to create an atmosphere. I believe that it goes like this when setting the theme and tone of a game system.

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I got the point about dice reinforcing theme, but I don’t think it really applies in basic resolution systems.

I like the idea that theming be reinforced by the dice mechanics and I think that’s true, but I also don’t think you usually need to make a “weird” or “novel” dice mechanic to do that.

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Right. Of course there are spaces in between, and us designers are especially sensitive to acknowledging those spaces, or the lack thereof.

Natalie, Don’t take this as me attacking your position, but…

The problem I see is just the lack of games where dice are used in that way. If I have missed a large swath of games somewhere, please, do tell me. I want to see them!

The ‘industry’ at large though doesn’t seem to often do much with them. Which is a shame, of course!

The dice system obviously is a thing to consider, but I guess my own knee-jerk reaction is to people who want to nail the dice system before even thinking of what the rest of the game will be about, which is, to me at least, missing the symphony for the notes (to borrow a metaphor).

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If my primary argument is that the dice mechanics can reinforce the theme of the game, then of course it naturally follows that to work on it in isolation is really just the very same mistake I’ve been challenging! The negative space, if you will, of what I’ve been saying.

The way I see it, I just can’t see the benefit for designers not to be conscious of all the potential roles a dice mechanic can play, beyond resolving tasks.

And for me, that’s why I think it’s a mistake to not let the rookies be excited about designing dice mechanics, even if they do ultimately make mistakes because of it.

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That’s a really good point, actually.

I think we could, in turn, encourage rookies to contextualize the dice mechanic further, see where it takes them, though maybe still gently reminding them that it’s just one part of the ultimate puzzle.

I honestly have to analyze my biases further. Maybe it’s my own techniques of developing that are kind of coming to blows here.

I tend to design character mechanics first, so to me leaving dice for later comes naturally. But that might honestly just not work for other people.

Like, so many times I’ve suggested to people to plan their mechanics without numbers first, because that’s what I do, but most people I’ve suggested it to seem to feel like the approach is completely alien.

No wonder my games are so weird :rofl: