Or How Dice are the 5th Storyteller of Your Group
I am challenging all TTRPG Masters and storytellers out there to embrace the chaos. I am putting forth the idea that the dice are in fact the 5th storyteller of your group and have a voice at the table beyond percentages and hits or misses. If you follow me, I argue that your stories will be deeper, more engaging, and have a lasting impact with you and your friends.
The Story Setup
Recently on a Sunday afternoon Melissa and I sat down, opened all the windows, popped a new bottle of Mead and jumped into The World of Windstone. We rolled up an encounter from The Rest is Still Unwritten, rolled up 4 random heroes, which in an entirely other conversation I would love to go into the process of. (One hopefully that I write soon and is linked here)
And we played for the next 3 hours. Melissa ran 2 of the heroes and I GM’d and ran 2 of the other heroes.
The heroes, while traveling along the Cranky Skunk River came across a threadbare tent with 2 dead gnomes. The heroes discovered strange scales and tracks leading to the forest. One thing led to another and before they knew it they were besieged by Troglodytes. These weren’t just any Troglodytes, they were part of a royal guard, and as the battle continued, a king Troglodyte emerged from the river. The hero Ellesari had found a Troglodyte Kingspear. The king wanted his spear back, so she used that to lure the king away from the near to death “Thunderbird Cleric in training” David.
There she was standing toe to toe with a 16 ft tall troglodyte king. She rolled, and yep you guessed it, swing and a miss. She was right there in his face with a mighty kingspear and she missed. Not just once mind you many times.
With Disappointment Comes Great Storytelling
Were Melissa’s dice cruel and causing her to fail multiple times? No. The dice were taking over the storytelling and that story was about how skilled, how feared, how powerful, the King Troglodyte was.
The dice don’t want a game of subtraction, percentages, numbers, but one of a thrilling narrative adventure, with multiple storytellers. They want a story that everyone at the table will remember and be on the edge of their seats.
Of course Ellesari wanted to land blow after blow heroically defeating the King single handedly. But that wasn’t the story, and she wasn’t the only storyteller.
All of us feel disappointed when we let those dice roll and they don’t meet the outcome we wanted. I don’t think anything will ever change that. Disappointment- we as storytellers should take that feeling and use it, use it to reinforce/define/energize the narrative that is unfolding.
The Dice are Chaos, They are Storytellers!
Some TTRPGs say that dice are impartial arbiters, but we all know that’s a piece of troglodyte shit. They are like your friends, they have a mind of their own, and a voice at the table. AND that is the best part! The dice want to tell the story as well. They don’t want to let the hero just defeat the villain with three 20’s in a row. Let’s face it, that’s not an interesting adventure and the dice know it!
Sure be mad at them, curse their name, but respect their contribution to the story. For what the dice do better than either you or your friends, is chaos. The dice won’t hesitate to bring forth smooth waters or tsunami waves, possibly all in the same turn.
Of course the dice won’t always be clear, and it will take some interpretation and creativity on your part, but you are a TTRPG Master. This is what you do best.