D&D 5E Randomness and D&D

[prabe]

Exactly. Randomness and story don’t mix. If you want a story, you can’t have random rolls. One has to go. I’ll keep story in novels where they belong and keep the random rolls in RPGs where they belong.

Randomness and story go just fine together--you just have to put the story together after the random, not before.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Randomness and story go just fine together--you just have to put the story together after the random, not before.

That’s the trick and how my group rolls.

The game happenings become the story and the dice affect the game.

 

[overgeeked]

Randomness and story go just fine together--you just have to put the story together after the random, not before.

When people talk about story in D&D, about 99% of them mean before, not after. Emergent story is great and compatible with randomness. Railroading story is neither great nor compatible with randomness.

 

[prabe]

That’s the trick and how my group rolls.

The game happenings become the story and the dice affect the game.

You might have like backstory worked out--what happened to get to here, and why and how--before you start rolling the dice. That can work fine. Trying to fit random results to a story you already have written, though ... that trick never works.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

You might have like backstory worked out--what happened to get to here, and why and how--before you start rolling the dice. That can work fine. Trying to fit random results to a story you already have written, though ... that trick never works.

Correct.

 

[prabe]

When people talk about story in D&D, about 99% of them mean before, not after. Emergent story is great and compatible with randomness. Railroading story is neither great nor compatible with randomness.

The people I know best, when they talk about story in TRPGs, are not talking about attempting to fit random results to a pre-authored story.

 

[overgeeked]

The people I know best, when they talk about story in TRPGs, are not talking about attempting to fit random results to a pre-authored story.

Most of the people here, however, are.

 

[prabe]

Most of the people here, however, are.

The people here that I see referring to story that way are almost always trying to run their table through one published adventure or another. Published adventures are their own error state, IMO.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Story is all and good, but if a group wants to embrace randomness they have to be prepared to allow the story to go to places they might not have planned, or even to end.

 

[Lanefan]

Randomness and story don’t mix. If you want a story, you can’t have random rolls. One has to go.

Not necessarily, provided you're willing to let the randomness create - or at least very much influence/change/add to - the story. In that case they can mix very well.