Bringing fun to RPG's in a new way (maybe).

[Kyle Cates]

Every RPG'er knows that the rolling of the dice is one of the most prized and cherished actions one can take while playing the game.
It lets us swing our sword with more force. Lets our sniper get that shot right between the eyes. And lets out orators captivate crowds while he subtly sows the seeds of rebellion. However, outside of the game, we are simply picking up a piece of plastic (metal or wood sometimes), shaking it violently, then dropping it. It's all rather simple really.

Some of us get great joy out of it, while others find it mundane.

But it is just a means to an end, to resolve conflict. We roll because we want something, success. If every roll resulted in failure, rolling the dice would be almost like torture. But what if you actually looked forward to rolling a die because it was...

fun.

Is there a way to make the physical rolling of the die more enjoyable? Or make it more than just a means to an end?
Maybe the players have to roll on a target, getting bonuses the closer to the bulls eye.

I guess I just wanted to start this topic to get other people's input and to see if there are thing already out there like what I am describing.

[Callan S.]

I have to say, as I know it the dice are supposed to be fun as an association with the activity being fun. Like Pavlov's dog salivating when it hears a bell because the food is good, rolling the dice should make you 'salivate' because the activity is good. I'd wonder if your trying to make dice rolls more fun, because at a bigger picture level, the activities own fun level is...

Hmm, actually that might be something I should think about more in regards to my own play, as well...

But to directly answer your question, I once wrote a small game where you roll d12 and have to hit a little cardboard figure of the enemy, and knock him over with the roll (AND the number tha came up was important too).

[Marshall Burns]

Something I discovered from Super Action Now! is that rolling huge handfuls of dice all at once is strangely satisfying all by itself.

I've also thought about rolling on areas -- like, I was brainstorming this game with a friend of mine (it was his idea, and he called me up for ideas), and he wanted a way to resolve things like hand grenades and machinegun fire without too much work.  I suggested a board with areas marked "hit" "miss" "richochet" and various other things, and that, if you fired five rounds from your gun, throw five smallish dice all at once, and wherever they hit, that's what the effect is, and whatever the number rolled, that's the degree of the effect.  For bigger weapons, use bigger dice -- a hand grenade was a large d20 and a bunch of small d6s for shrapnel.

As far as I know, though, it hasn't been tested.

[whiteknife]

I'm going to second that (among other things) one the fun parts of Super Action Now is just rolling like a whole handful of dice. Even though technically by the rules the limit is five...

[Gurnard]

I absolutely agree with the previous statements. The tactile element of rolling a handful of dice to reflect just how badass your character is in the situation is far more engaging than rolling a single die and feeling your character's brilliance through the +23 modifier in your head.

In another example, the other day a mate of mine was talking about the idea rolling dice against a vertical board with a horizontal board underneath with sections lined out on it, so the final placement of the die as well as the result would have an effect. It got my mind churning with possibilities but I haven't worked out a mechanic to use it on, so I pass the idea along to you.

[Patrice]

My shortest post here ever:

Rolling the dice might be (is?) another game in itself. Think about it as a mini-game in a video game. Some action pops the mini-game up and here we go, we play it until we get back to the main game we're playing (talking then) with new elements to feed it.

[Marshall Burns]

I'm going to second that (among other things) one the fun parts of Super Action Now is just rolling like a whole handful of dice. Even though technically by the rules the limit is five...

Five per trait!  You can (and are encouraged to) pile up as many traits as you can think of

[David Artman]

HERO did "fistful o' dice" gameplay long before SAN. And, yeah, it's fun.
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* Stacking is fun, and there's both board (and board-gamer) games around that involve stacking dice.

* I could see something akin to a Jenga-style of minigame, using dice, too: roll them; stack them into staggered, brick-like layers; have the value of the dice you can pull out mean something; extra strategy coming from being able to see one or two sides of a die, maybe. Dunno--just spitballing.

* Dice spinning, with duration of spin somehow modifying the resulting value.

* Build some Pachinko-like, angled board with dowels and bumpers on its face; and whichever of the bottom slots in which the die comes to rest somehow modifies the resulting value.

* Side betting on results, as part of the game's core mechanics. So while I'm rolling, say, to hit, you can make a side bet with other players as to (say) whether it will be odd or even (or any number of other craps-like bets) for a later in-game modifier. That makes it fun for the OTHER participants, too, not just the current roller.
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I could go all day... but I'll let some other folks brainstorm for a bit.

[Marshall Burns]

* Side betting on results, as part of the game's core mechanics. So while I'm rolling, say, to hit, you can make a side bet with other players as to (say) whether it will be odd or even (or any number of other craps-like bets) for a later in-game modifier. That makes it fun for the OTHER participants, too, not just the current roller.

Oh, hey, I postulated a mechanic like that but never did anything with it.  Lemme see if I can find the thread; maybe Kyle will be able to make some use of it.

[Marshall Burns]

Here it is.

[Paul Czege]

The back of Hackmaster 2nd edition has an elaborate appendix of dice rituals recommended for keeping your dice working well and free of cursed energy and whatnot.

Paul

[Lynne H]

I remember a session of Shadowrun when, despite the fact there were five gamers in the room, we still barely had enough dice for one roll. I couldn't actually pick up all of the dice I needed at once (dinky hands).

In terms of making actually rolling the dice more entertaining, there are educational companies that sell dice with little cages round them that make them bouncy. I'm just looking for an excuse to get the College to buy me some...

[JoyWriter]

My brother built a race mechanic that I have in my head turned into the outline for a proper system:

Players roll dice into a little trough made out of a cardboard box lid with one short side off, bouncing their dice off the backboard. It's distance from you after bouncing is your progress.
Now the trick is that you roll any number of dice and must get one over the difficulty class of the track, and if any succeeds the closest dice counts for distance.

We haven't tested this strategically, but the non-linearity in the box lid and dice, it should get pretty randomised! Plus it is dynamic enough to feel like a real race.

[btrc]

It goes with the whole random chance/sense of anticipation thing. Some of our oldest games are dice games. I can think of a few games that have added to the "handful of dice" idea:

Hero System: For damage rolls, 1's did 0 Body damage, 6's did 2 Body damage, so you had to keep track
Shadowrun: Used a threshold system, so you had to count how many dice were of a certain number or higher
EABA(mine): Uses the best three dice, so you have to pick through the dice and find the highest rollers
Dragon Dice: The entire game is based on specialized dice

I'm sure that for any given genre you could throw in special effects based different color dice. Off the top of my head I can see using an off-color dice to represent specialized skills that have a chance of a particular game effect (aha! two 6's on my "disarm" dice!), or which represent different aspects of a skill (two red dice for my Strength plus 2 black dice for my brawling skill).

The "lots o'dice" is something we generally respond to. You just need to think of how you want to try and elaborate or improve on it.

Greg Porter
BTRC

[whiteknife]

Five per trait!  You can (and are encouraged to) pile up as many traits as you can think of

Really?! Well that sure makes things more fun. I can't believe I hadn't been doing that! Now I really have to get another game going...

Anyways, I think all this talk of http://www.angelfire.com/indie/btw/SUPER_ACTION_NOW_3.htm is sidetracking things, so I'll add another comment to the thread to feel productive:

My opinion on multi-color dice is that depsite the fact that I happen to have tons and tons of dice, I can never find enough of the particular color, and then I feel like I'm losing out on something. Plus, it can get confusing when you're supposed to roll 4 green and 2 black dice and I have 2 green dice, a purple dice, a speckled red dice, and 2 wooden dice...