I’ve had a long relationship with randomness in RPGs. Sometimes I’ve loved it, other times it’s frustrated me but it always seems to sneak back into the very heart of my games. When I think about those dice, the clatter on the table, the brief hush before the number appears, I instantly recall the feeling: anything might happen, for good or for ill. That’s magic.
Why Randomness Matters to Me
Early on, I tried running games where randomness was minimized, making outcomes more predictable or letting players narrate successes when it “made sense.” The intention was to focus on narrative over chance. Yet, something felt flat. I missed those moments where nobody, not even myself as GM, knew what was going to happen. The dice inject uncertainty and drama. They’re the spark, the unpredictable fuel, that keeps things feeling alive.
The Surprise of the Unexpected
I’ve seen randomness create some of my fondest campaign memories. Sometimes a strange encounter roll, or a critical failure, forced me and my players to invent on the fly. We groaned at untimely fumbles, but we laughed harder, and remembered those mishaps longer than any clever GM plot twist I had planned. The dice have a power to shape new stories nobody could have written alone. That oracular quality is something I cherish, it means we are all truly discovering the story together, without a script.
Friction and Frustration
Of course, it’s not always perfect. There are sessions where bad luck piles up and the mood sours: characters miss every roll, or a random table turns up a result that just doesn’t fit the scene. When randomness steals agency, it’s rough. I’ve learned that as a GM, it’s important not to be too rigid. sometimes you reinterpret those numbers, or use the result as a prompt rather than a command. The best randomness, for me, is something you can react to, not a prison sentence, but an invitation to improvise.
Finding My Balance
Over the years, I’ve settled into a happy medium. I rely on random tables for inspiration, but I’m not afraid to tweak results so they work for our story. When rolling dice for success or failure, I lean into the drama: will this be the moment everything changes? If the answer surprises me as much as the players, that’s when I know randomness is doing its job.
Looking back, I realize that randomness is what keeps TTRPGs unpredictable and communal. We’re all rolling together, never quite sure what fate or the dice will offer up. Sometimes we curse those rolls but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. The unpredictability is the point, and in its chaos, I always find new reasons to keep playing.
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