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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4573275" data-attributes="member: 54707">9.     Rolling the Dice – Die Rolling is not a method of combat, nor is it a combat technique. All rolling the die achieves in-game is to simulate what is often informally called “friction,” or to put it more accurately, it is merely an in-game method of resolving certain unexpressed or unknown variables of action through a mechanism of chance. There is nothing wrong with this idea in and of itself, for every form of simulation must have a method of simulating (or imitating, or mimicking, or representing) what in the real world would be settled by the results of actual activity and situational context. In combat the die represent nothing more than the mechanism through which the element of chance is expressed when measured against other variables that are relatively well known and quantifiable, such as the level of skill of the combatant, the armor or defensive capabilities of the defender, the relative state of injury or health of the various combatants, the entropy of battlefield decay, and so forth and so on. But no player, and no DM or GM, should ever confuse the mechanism of combat simulation with the real mechanism of combat, or with real methods of combat, or with real combat techniques. In short the dice are not mechanisms of combat technique. They are mathematical and statistical probability expressions of chance in combat. Now in combat, real or imagined, the (real) aim (when considering the element of chance) is to reduce the ratio of chance or misfortune to the lowest level possible through the efficient and productive application of training, skill, logic, planning, preparation, and technique, while simultaneously increasing the ratio of positive fortune through the same means. To that end you do not simply “roll the dice” and wait to see what comes up in order to successfully execute an engagement of combat. On the other hand, especially in a game or simulation you have to take into full account what is occurring as a result of the friction of the interplay between good fortune (when things go well for you) and misfortune (when the dice are against you). When the dice are in your favor, and assuming you are employing good combat techniques, nothing else need be really considered. Both you, as the combatant, and the element of chance are maximizing positive potential for the greatest possible expression of desired effect. In short everything turns in your favor, both your training, how you are executing your capabilities, and even the element of chance. So there is no need for me to comment upon that set of circumstances any further, except to say that even if fortune stands totally in your favor, this is not an excuse to fail to maximize your own potential through solid execution of your innate abilities and trained capabilities. Indeed the one sure way to squander the beneficial effects of good fortune is to execute your training and abilities in a lax, slipshod, unprofessional fashion, relying upon the fickle nature of fortune to settle your affairs in an affirmative manner. (Who among us would say to his friend, when faced with a problem, “well, why put any effort into solving this for yourself, just wait and see what happens? Maybe you’ll just get lucky…) You do not waste good fortune, or take it for granted; you exploit it for full benefit. However, if you are engaged in a game combat and the dice are against you, so that misfortune, instead of good luck, rules the field and discolors your every effort at success, do you then merely accept the dictates of blind chance by submitting placidly to the dice as if they, instead of you, control the full measure of your tactical and problem solving capabilities? Of course not, such a false conclusion is patently absurd. Who, in a real combat or real war would submit to chance as the sole arbiter of whether they would be victorious or vanquished, live, or die? What then to do? Why, the same thing(s) you would do in real life to mitigate the baleful influence of severe or unforeseen misfortune. You’d change the terms and conditions of your engagement. There are many things that can and should be done if a person or a party find themselves engaged in a combat situation and good fortune seems to have abandoned their cause. I’ll mention only a few, but all are easily achieved combat maneuvers that can radically alter the nature of an engagement, mitigate malignant misfortune, and improve the prospects for ultimate success against your enemy. 1) Retreat off the field, or at least temporarily disengage. Give yourself time and distance to disengage or withdraw from direct engagement until such time as you suspect the odds will be favorable or at least even, or the dice may fall in your favor. 2) Take effective actions that you know are not so much subject to the vicissitudes of chance. For instance almost all games include some form of chance to determine combat but many games place far less emphasis on the role of chance in the successful execution of magical powers or psionic powers. When the dice are against you, abandon them, as they have abandoned you. 3) Concentrate your fire. If two, three, or four combatants suddenly combine their attacks against a single opponent then the overall odds of at least one attack striking successfully are increased. So concentrate several combatants against a single opponent and the odds are very good the situation will change in your favor, at least against that single opponent. 4) Break certitude. (You can change chance by rechanneling it.) Redeploy against opponents who are in less favorable circumstances than yourself, or simply pick a new and different target. Turning to attack another opponent often breaks both the psychological and statistical certitude that tends to adhere (at least momentarily) to a bad or unfortunate engagement. 5) Try something new. There is no method quite so effective at ultimately assuring failure as to merely continue ad infinitum at fruitless actions awaiting a possible change of fortune or a Deus Ex Machina, that may, or may not, ever appear. When things go against you break the ties that bind. Go in a new direction, no law exists that says you are bound to fortune, or her in-game representatives, in order to generate an acceptable conclusion to the success or failure of your endeavor. Find a way. If you want to truly and ultimately succeed at anything it will be through effort, not accident. Break the shackles of uncertainty. Cut away the Gordian Knot of the unforeseen and the unintentional. Good combat tactics account for the element of chance but are never slavishly or ignorantly bound to it. Good combat tactics exploit good fortune fully, and seek to suppress, mitigate, exhaust, change, or alter misfortune. So can you. Remember rolling the dice is not a Combat Maneuver, not a Combat Technique, and it is most definitely not a Tactical Tool. It is a problem, a potential obstacle, and an aspect of combat you must consider, but then again you must never be blindly and hopelessly bound to it either. Develop Misfortune Countermeasures as an integrated element of your overall tactical repertoire. Know what to do when bad luck dogs your heels, do not just await the bite of a gamble you could have controlled and tamed. Then while others languish in uncertainty awaiting the roll of the die and the turn of the screw to determine their fate, you will instead be a hammer in search of the anvil that will beat out the Sword of Intention with which you will conquer in every circumstance.</blockquote>

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