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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Levitator" data-source="post: 3388501" data-attributes="member: 40099">Since it was my quote that helped start the thread, I thought I would join in the fun.for the record, our group was just as skeptical of going diceless as any other would be, myself included.  We did it as an experiment to speed up combat.  Not only did it do that, but it had an interesting side effect.  With the mechanics tucked away more, we were all compelled to make decisions based on descriptions, perceptions, and roleplaying; not numbers.  It really enhanced our experience of "gaming".  I've said in a ton of other threads that we realize it isn't for everyone.  But it does work for a lot of people.  I've helped a couple people from here at ENworld, a couple from the WotC boards and several at the DM Genie boards adopt our style of gameplay.  So far, everyone has liked it.  But they were at least initially open to the idea first.  I'm not ever going to impose or proclaim our way as "best' for anyone but us.  The key to any group is finding a ruleset and style that works best for your group.  What started out as an experiement for us became our preferred way of playing.  Nobody in our group cares whether a little piece of plastic determines the number or a random number generator in a computer program.  What's important to us are the consequences of those numbers and the decisions we make based on those consequences.  If you feel that throwing dice is important to your experience of the game, then you shouldn't try to play diceless, because no matter what the benefits may be of playing diceless, you won't be able to enjoy it because you didn't want to part with them in the first place.I can only speak from experience and the feedback I get from my players (most of which play in other groups too) and other people who game like we do.  For us, it's about the story, how the characters fit into the story and how their decisions and actions affect that story.  The numbers to us only represent a mechanical tool in which to resolve complex issues in as fair a way as possible.  The people in my group prefer diceless to dice gaming, and probably each for their own reasons.  It doesn't mean we are any less "gamers" than anyone.  In fact, some would argue that we are more 'gamist' because we don't fudge our results for any reason.  Our game logs are printed and posted on our group site every week, so there is no "fudging" on either side of the table.  Dice are just a tool of the game.  Sometimes different tools can accomplish the same task without throwing the world off its axis.  In the end, it's just a game to us that gives us old coots a way to have some fun doing something together that some of us have been doing since the late 70's.  Many of us use chat now instead of phones, but we still consider it conversation.  Just because we changed the tool, it doesn't change the fact that we are still communicating.  Whether chatting on the computer or talking on the phone, what's important to us is the conversation, not the tool we choose to have the conversation.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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