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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5086096" data-attributes="member: 80487">An aside: There is a sort of impersonal detachment in a &quot;pick your path&quot; book or a computer program. I mean that the &quot;Game Master&quot; is not present; there is no way to interact with the judge, to appeal or even object to a ruling. Everything is unchangeably set before ever one encounters the scenario; if the designer did not think of some possibility, then it is effectively impossible. Once upon a time, that was widely regarded as a shortcoming relative to human moderation. By more &quot;modern&quot; values, the opposite might be the case.But back to dice. One thing I think needs more attention if one is bent on having a plot line is the range of results. Having a very, very small chance of, say, Our Hero getting killed in an early scene may be better in theory than a merely small chance -- but in the event, the outcome is just the same!When we define The Story, obviously we are also defining Not The Story; the former is actually a very small subset of possibilities relative to the latter. Making characters more likely than not to get killed when first hit, and about as likely as not to get hit in the first fight -- as in the original D&amp;D game -- follows from the premise that &quot;the story&quot; (as whatever happens to happen) could well be, &quot;... and then the Mewlips ate him up.&quot;Addressing that one way or another is a first order of business, I think. Even D&amp;D4e leaves &quot;random&quot; outliers in the spread, that might not be part of The Story.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 5086096, member: 80487"] An aside: There is a sort of impersonal detachment in a "pick your path" book or a computer program. I mean that the "Game Master" is not present; there is no way to interact with the judge, to appeal or even object to a ruling. Everything is unchangeably set before ever one encounters the scenario; if the designer did not think of some possibility, then it is effectively impossible. Once upon a time, that was widely regarded as a shortcoming relative to human moderation. By more "modern" values, the opposite might be the case. But back to dice. One thing I think needs more attention if one is bent on having a plot line is the [i]range of results[/i]. Having a very, very small chance of, say, Our Hero getting killed in an early scene may be better [i]in theory[/i] than a merely small chance -- but [i]in the event[/i], the outcome is just the same! When we define The Story, obviously we are also defining Not The Story; the former is actually a very small subset of possibilities relative to the latter. Making characters more likely than not to get killed when first hit, and about as likely as not to get hit in the first fight -- as in the original D&D game -- follows from the premise that "the story" (as whatever happens to happen) could well be, "... and then the Mewlips ate him up." Addressing that one way or another is a first order of business, I think. Even D&D4e leaves "random" outliers in the spread, that might not be part of The Story. [/QUOTE]

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