Starting a little late, but let’s dive right in with this year’s #RPGaDAY series- real dice, dice app or diceless? I’d have to go with real dice, hands down. I’ve tried a few dice apps, and while they’re handy when I don’t have dice, or when using special dice (like Warhammer 3e or FFG’s Star Wars), it’s just not the same. The tactile sense of holding dice, of rolling them, it’s a huge part of the game. Similarly, games without dice seem like they’re missing something.
However, when GMing, the best innovation I have experienced has been playing Apocalypse World Engine games, where the GM does not roll any dice. I thought I would miss the dice, but when GMing, there is so much going on to keep track of that I really enjoy not rolling dice. I particularly like not having my luck played against the player’s. Instead, it’s all on the players to either hit it big or lose big.
I now distinctly dislike GMing games where I have to roll the dice and have made a point of altering game systems that I run such that I don’t have to roll the dice. It also makes playing a bit more special.
I haven’t tried Amber’s diceless system, but am curious to try it out as many people have raved about it. Not sure if it’ll be for me as a player, but perhaps GMing Amber…
Justin Schmid
Justin started tabletop gaming in 1983 with Basic D&D (red box) and never looked back. He runs and plays in a wide variety of games, including Savage Worlds, Dungeon World, Trail of Cthulhu and many, many more.
He also writes professionally for role-playing games, including writing and creating Night's Edge an Alternate Reality Universe for Cyberpunk 2020. He went on to write eight more adventures and sourcebooks in the Night's Edge line, adding vampires and other supernatural perils to the already dangerous world of Cyberpunk.
As a freelance writer, he wrote The Bermuda Triangle for Call of Cthulhu, Shadows of the Mind, and Psi Wars for Conspiracy X and contributed to Last Unicorn's Star Trek RPG, as well as to Cybergeneration sourcebooks, and many other games.
When he's not creating imaginary worlds for his daughter, he's running games for his friends and writing new adventures or designing new game systems. He currently lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.