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<blockquote data-quote="Gorgon Zee" data-source="post: 8807759" data-attributes="member: 75787">Just because about half the posts assume you are asking about a system where everyone flips coins, I want to be clear that I’m answering this question: does the GM need more than a coin flip?Being more specific, if I was to modify the rules of a system I run so that the GM resolves everything by flipping a coin, would the players notice a strong difference? I think the system matters — but perhaps not in the way you expect.To a large extent, the crunchier the system, the less noticeable will be the effect. In D&amp;D4E I am confident that if I ran pretty much any adventure, and instead of rolling a d20, I flipped a coin for a 5 or 15 result, no-one would notice much. There is so much crunch on the player side, that it generates enough randomness and differentiation, that i honestly think the only remark I might get is a comment on my guys never rolling crits.13th Age, however, has much of its monster design work off dice roll results — a power triggers special effects only on a natural even, or so on. That would make it much harder to run. I suspect I could just flip a coin and pick a&nbsp; power if the result was heads, but it would be much less fun for me, honestly — and I suspect harder to guard against biases.It would be hardest in very narrative games. In many of those games, there are few dice rolls, and they are very important. AGON, for example, would be hard to make work as there are typically only a few contest rolls in an evening, and the GM dice roll sets the difficulty for them. Setting it by fiat, or choosing one of two options — both of them would seriously detract from the game.So, for me, I could likely pull it off for simulationist high-crunch games, but not so much for most narrative games.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gorgon Zee, post: 8807759, member: 75787"] Just because about half the posts assume you are asking about a system where everyone flips coins, I want to be clear that I’m answering this question: does the GM need more than a coin flip? Being more specific, if I was to modify the rules of a system I run so that the GM resolves everything by flipping a coin, would the players notice a strong difference? I think the system matters — but perhaps not in the way you expect. To a large extent, the crunchier the system, the less noticeable will be the effect. In D&D4E I am confident that if I ran pretty much any adventure, and instead of rolling a d20, I flipped a coin for a 5 or 15 result, no-one would notice much. There is so much crunch on the player side, that it generates enough randomness and differentiation, that i honestly think the only remark I might get is a comment on my guys never rolling crits. 13th Age, however, has much of its monster design work off dice roll results — a power triggers special effects only on a natural even, or so on. That would make it much harder to run. I suspect I could just flip a coin and pick a power if the result was heads, but it would be much less fun for me, honestly — and I suspect harder to guard against biases. It would be hardest in very narrative games. In many of those games, there are few dice rolls, and they are very important. AGON, for example, would be hard to make work as there are typically only a few contest rolls in an evening, and the GM dice roll sets the difficulty for them. Setting it by fiat, or choosing one of two options — both of them would seriously detract from the game. So, for me, I could likely pull it off for simulationist high-crunch games, but not so much for most narrative games. [/QUOTE]

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