CT Only: The uses of dice rolls

[mike wightman]

What follows are the sections from The Traveller Adventure on the uses of dice rolls.

But first the most important section of 77 CT that was absent from future revisions of CT:

"Skills and the Referee: It is impossible for any table of information to cover all aspects of every potential situation, and the above listing is by no means complete in its coverage of the effects of skills. This is where the referee becomes an important part of the game process. The above listing of skills and game effects must necessarily be taken as a guide, and followed, altered, or ignored as the actual situation dictates."

 

[mike wightman]

Next up, the uses of dice rolls:

"THE USES OF DIE ROLLS

As players in a Traveller game venture out into the universe, they immediately face a wide variety of circumstances and situations. Many times, procedures already exist for the resolution of a situation (for example, combat, animal encounters, or patrons), but if not, the referee is thrown back on his or her own resources in handling the problem. There are several reasonable and efficient methods of dealing with unexpected situations. These include use of personal characteristics, situation throws, and reaction
throws.

Personal Characteristics: Many cases can be resolved by looking at the character's personal characteristics (strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, and so on) which are appropriate to the situation. For example, in lifting or forcing large objects, strength might be most appropriate; a more delicate situation could depend on dexterity. The referee should instruct the player character to throw the characteristic or less on two dice. The higher the characteristic, the greater the chance of accomplishing the goal. Relatively easy situations might call for rolling the sum of two characteristics or less; harder situations might have a positive DM to reduce the chance of success.

Reaction Throws: Any non-player character can make a reaction throw to determine relative disposition and reaction to the adventurers (see Reactions, The Traveller Book,page 102). This reaction number can also be used as the required throw or less for the individual to assist or help the group. DMs for appropriate skills are allowed, or for common background (such as both non-player character and player character having served in the same service). In addition, the referee can rarely go wrong in implementing a DM of +1 or -1 for some miscellaneous item which the players suggest, such as friendliness or appearance of affluence. For example, if the adventurers are encountering an express boat pilot and one player character comments that she has always admired the efficiency of the xboat service, then the referee can easily allow a DM +1 for the exchange.
Too many such DMs can easily ruin a game, so moderation is advised.

Situation Throws: In the absence of any other guidance, the referee may always resort to the situation throw. When an incident first occurs, throw two dice to determine its relative severity. A low roll means that it is easy, a high roll means comparative difficulty. The number achieved is now the situation number. The player characters involved, when they attempt to deal with the situation, must roll the situation number or higher on two dice. They are, of course, allowed DMs based on any appropriate skills. Tools, assistance, and equipment may also provide beneficial DMs; weather, haste, adverse environment, or other handicaps may impose negative DMs. It is even possible for a referee to make the situation number greater than 12, thus making success impossible unless the players can provide necessary skills or tools with DMs to get their throw also above 12."

 

[mike wightman]

Now for the examples given:

"Example of Throws: An adventurer (46797A) has experienced a malfunction in the drive room of her vessel. The situation seems hopeless at the moment, and she is forced to abandon ship. The air lock hatch, however, is warped shut. A quick resolution to the problem is to state that she must roll strength or less to force it open. After several unsuccessful rolls, she casts about for a pry bar to help her.

The referee arbitrarily rules that the bar allows - 4 on the die roll (the referee could guess or roll one die for the result).

On the next roll, the adventurer is successful; then she makes her way to the ship's locker for her vacc suit. Grabbing a survival pack, she proceeds to abandon ship. She knows that the drives cannot stand the strain much longer, and that she must get out immediately. The referee decides that the drives will explode on 9 + in the current turn, 8+ in the next turn, and so on. The referee decides that the character's last minute repair attempts have been partially successful, and he increases the needed roll by her level of engineering skill (2) to 11+. The adventurer needs to find a survival kit before she leaves the ship, but one extra turn will be needed to gather it up. The referee rolls to see if the ship explodes this turn (11+). It does not, and she grabs the survival kit. On the second turn, she cycles through the air lock while the referee checks for an explosion again (10+ this time); once more the ship remains intact. On the third turn, while the character is drifting away from the ship, the referee rolls 11 and the drives explode (9+was needed).

The distress call from her radio attracts a local asteroid miner. He is required by custom and law to pick her up but may not like being diverted to an unprofitable rescue mission.

The referee rolls two dice for his reaction: the result is 4. She must now convince him to take her to the local starport so that she can arrange salvage of her ship. She may add any applicable skills, such as streetwise, bribery, even -1 for intelligence 9+ if the referee thinks this appropriate.

Obviously, in a situation such as this, repeated requests will not be possible (or they may be allowed, at -1 per additional request). Probably she only gets to try once. Even with DMs totaling -3, she rolls an 8, which does not convince the miner to go out of his way to help her. She is stuck on his ship until he finishes his prospecting run of (the referee rolls one die) 4 months. Judging by his reaction roll to her, he'll probably make her pay for room and board as well."

 

[mike wightman]

And finally a note on secrecy:

"SECRECY

Die rolls may be performed either secretly, by the referee, or openly, by the players. Sometimes, the adventure of the scenario is reflected in the die rolling and the characters really need to be able to throw the dice themselves. Other times, the referee and the scenario are better served if the players are not aware of the exact rolls to be made. Sometimes the purpose or even the existence of die rolls should be concealed.

An important principle to remember is that die rolls should not be allowed to get in the way of the game. If the players are thinking about their die rolls rather than about what is "really happening" in the game, the referee should consider increasing the number of secret die rolls.

Open Die Rolls: The referee should generally allow the players to perform their own combat die rolls and rolls for other simple actions in which success or failure is immediately visible.

Secret Die Rolls: The referee should keep secret all die rolls whose outcomes are not immediately visible and those whose chances of success, if known, would reveal things the characters should not know. For example, the referee should perform all rolls if the characters are gambling at a casino, in order to allow the possibility of the house having rigged the tables."

 

[mike wightman]

I was tempted to underline and put this bit in bold:

"An important principle to remember is that die rolls should not be allowed to get in the way of the game. If the players are thinking about their die rolls rather than about what is "really happening" in the game, the referee should consider increasing the number of secret die rolls."

 

[whartung]

Golly, how come there are never any secret PLAYER rolls!? How fair is that?

 

[Condottiere]

If you want to randomize your reaction.

 

[coliver988]

Golly, how come there are never any secret PLAYER rolls!? How fair is that?

I actually do that sometimes when I can't decide what to do as a player character. And I also do it for fun in other games: played a Dragonborn and I kept trying to blow smoke rings and needed a self-imposed 12+ first on 2d6, then each success allowed me a +1. Kept me occupied at times when the character was not doing a lot. Not sure what the other players thought I was doing. Obviously I am easily amused.

 

[infojunky]

The use of dice by the referee is delicate skill. The mechanics of random chance a pivotal points in game is what makes it interesting. The number of times my games have gone off in unexpected directions are countless.

 

[mike wightman]

This is a copy and addition to a reply on another thread.

When considering the uses of dice throws (or the CT hidden task system ) the first thing is to get rid of the notion that the examples of how skills are used that are given in LBB:1 are to be used every single time that skill comes up.

Let's call the examples rule 1.

Rule 2 is this:

Skills and the Referee: It is impossible for any table of information to cover all aspects of every potential situation, and the above listing is by no means complete in its coverage of the effects of skills. This is where the referee becomes an important part of the game process. The above listing of skills and game effects must necessarily be taken as a guide, and followed, altered, or ignored as the actual situation dictates.

Rule 3. If as a referee you can not decide on a situation target number then in the Traveller Adventure MWM suggests:

Situation Throws: In the absence of any other guidance, the referee may always resort to the situation throw. When an incident first occurs, throw two dice to determine its relative severity. A low roll means that it is easy, a high roll means comparative difficulty. The number achieved is now the situation number. The player characters involved, when they attempt to deal with the situation, must roll the situation number or higher on two dice. They are, of course, allowed DMs based on any appropriate skills. Tools, assistance, and equipment may also provide beneficial DMs; weather, haste, adverse environment, or other handicaps may impose negative DMs. It is even possible for a referee to make the situation number greater than 12, thus making success impossible unless the players can provide necessary skills or tools with DMs to get their throw also above 12.

The two bits I highlighted are where role playing can come in, if the player wants the DM they have to make an attempt to say how the character earns the DM or mitigate the negative (if possible).

Now in the spirit or rule 2 I would suggest that if the referee is unhappy with the situation throw they generate on the roll of 2d as being not enough of a challenge then roll another die and pick the highest two die results to sum in order to generate the situation throw.
For a really challenging situations sum the 3d, and if the number is still not high enough roll a fourth (choose the highest three to sum)

 

[Timerover51]

This is a copy and addition to a reply on another thread.

When considering the uses of dice throws (or the CT hidden task system ) the first thing is to get rid of the notion that the examples of how skills are used that are given in LBB:1 are to be used every single time that skill comes up.

Let's call the examples rule 1.

Rule 2 is this:

Rule 3. If as a referee you can not decide on a situation target number then in the Traveller Adventure MWM suggests:

The two bits I highlighted are where role playing can come in, if the player wants the DM they have to make an attempt to say how the character earns the DM or mitigate the negative (if possible).

Now in the spirit or rule 2 I would suggest that if the referee is unhappy with the situation throw they generate on the roll of 2d as being not enough of a challenge then roll another die and pick the highest two die results to sum in order to generate the situation throw.
For a really challenging situations sum the 3d, and if the number is still not high enough roll a fourth (choose the highest three to sum)

I will also do a secret die roll and then simply decide what the result should be, ignoring the die roll. It does keep the players guessing. If they are working their butts off to try to survive and keep going, they will make it, regardless of what the die roll is. I do not want to let them know that. On the other hand, if they are dependent on good die rolls to do something, they will find themselves failing a fair number of secret rolls.