Dice Mechanic: Trading Narration

[John Harper]

I came up with a little dice mechanic today, and now I'm starting to think that maybe I didn't invent it after all. I think the odds are good that I saw this in another indie game and have since forgotten where. I may use this mechanic in a game I'm working on, so I want to toss it out here and see if anyone recognizes it, or wants to take credit.

It's a dice pool system. The GM rolls dice equal to Difficulty Rating, the Player rolls dice equal to a Trait score.

- The person with the highest die gains an advantage over the opponent (i.e. you win the exchange).

- The person with the lowest die gets to narrate the outcome of the exchange.

- The same person may have both the lowest and the highest die.

Optional wrinkles:
- Each player rolls in secret, declares if they are going high, low, or both, then the dice rolls are revealed.

- You can win multiple successes by counting successes as in Sorcerer (every die you have that is higher than the opponent's highest die is a success).

So... seen it somewhere before? I know it's similar to Trollbabe and Dust Devils but I don't think it's identical to either.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi John,

It seems to be a close sibling to The Pool, by James V. West. See the Random Order Creations forum for extensive posts about The Pool, as well as many Actual Play threads. It's ... well, it's a real deal.

Best,
Ron

[John Harper]

I'm familiar with The Pool. It may have inspired the idea, but I have the feeling that this *exact* system may be used by another game. The Pool is different enough that I'm sure I'm not duplicating it.

[Mike Holmes]

I think I've seen it, too, John, but I also think it's in something unpublished.

Another game with some similarities is Otherkind, in which different dice determine narration and success. Anyhow, this kind of mechanic gets proposed quite often here (I just recieved a game by private mail that has some similarities, as it happens). But I think that, other than The Questing Beast, that few games like this have actually been published.

So, I guess I'm asking, what does it matter if it's out there in another game? Use it anyhow. I'm sure by the time of publication that it'll be "unique enough".

Mike

[John Harper]

I do plan to use it anyhow. I just want to give credit where credit is due. If no one claims responsibility, I'll just credit The Pool, Trollbabe, and Dust Devils as my inspiration.