Cards & Dice & Beans & Taters

I was told that I need to make sure to update this as frequently as possible, even if I don't have anything specific to write about. Gotta keep the creative nonsense going and all that.

Thinking about the randomization agent I mentioned in my last post has brought up a story about Ye Olde Days and an experiment I ran on my players in those times. In those days, we played D&D 3.5 primarily. I was running a Dragonlance game, because that's the beloved setting that I felt like ruining that week. I was constantly introducing new Rules Chicanery back in those days; each time a new splatbook came out, new optional rules were needlessly shoehorned into the game.

The week in question, it was Prerolling. I don't remember which book this came out in (probably Unearthed Arcana; that's where I got most of my awesomely terribad ideas), but I do remember it seeming like a fantastic idea at the time. Each session, the players would roll 20 times with a d20. They'd record each of these on a sheet and then put away their d20. Any time they'd normally have to roll a d20 for a check, they'd instead choose from their recorded results. When they chose one, they'd cross it off the sheet. When they ran out of listed rolls, they'd have to start the process over again. It was marginally successful, but several players revolted and we never used that method again after that session.

What I learned from that experience is that in a game like D&D 3.5, there are certain expectations which most players take for granted. One of which is that they'll be rolling a d20 for a lot of stuff. I'd infringed on that basic expectation without proper warning. If I'd've announced that rule at the beginning of the campaign, it probably wouldn't've been met with such resistance.

Where is this rambling leading? Well, one thought I'd had about randomization agents were a hand of cards. Each player would draw a hand of 5 cards (with values ranging from 1 to 6) and use those values in place of dice rolling. This puts some of the randomness in the hands of the players, basically allowing them to prioritize their rolls. At any point, a player could "take zero" and proceed with a roll without using a card; thus saving the good cards in their hands from being wasted on a trivial roll.

It might work, it might not. Only playtesting will tell.

-JL