Interpreting the dice

By Dragonshadow, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

It looks like there are some simple, fairly mechanical conversions of how to interpret a particular die roll beyond the binary pass/fail (such as when to add a setback die to the opponent's roll, etc). But then you get into Triumph and Despair rolls (and even to a lesser extent Advantage and Threat). I'm curious how far to take the creative license the rolls seem to invite.

How have the GM's been interpretting the dice? Do you allow the players to offer up suggestions? Do you require multiple Despair/Triumph symbols for something really significant to happen? Multiples of the "big" symbols should logically be a much bigger deal to the story, but as a way to compare the impacts of various symbols (singly or in multiples) what are some examples of how you've applied the results?

I love the idea of the dice allowing complex results, but there's a gulf between theory and practice that has me very uneasy. What I want to avoid is seeming hopelessly arbitrary (and potentially inconsistent) with turning a roll into narrative. I also don't want every result to turn into a debate. Ideally I'd like the players to be able to contribute narrative here also.

So basically I'm bored as hell with pass/fail and scared as hell of this shiny new alternative.

As a GM, I'll won't just 'let' my players to offer up suggestions on how to resolve threat/advantage results, I'll *encourage* it. If you've got 4 players, you've got 4 extra minds to figure out how, exactly, to make sense of, or describe what's going on in the game. In my mind, the idea that only the GM gets to make that sort of decision is one of the *worst* aspects of many RPGs.

Take advantage of your players' own creativity. If something they suggest is too much, or not enough for a given result, make suggestions on how to tweak it, or let them do something else with the 'leftovers'.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Order66 Go here and give a listen to the 2 part celebrity skype game. It's a great example of how to interpret the dice. Once you and your group start doing it, the easier it gets. This is what helped me as GM understand what can and can't do with various results, including prodding players to come up with thier own ideas for what happens.

Dead topic, dead topic, tead topic, rise! Dead topic, dead topic, dead topic rise! Dead topic, dead topic, rise, rise, RISE!

give a listen to Skill Monkey...

Holy moly, yes I let my players offer up suggestions. This game is more collaborative out of the box than many other RPGs I've played, and the story benefits from everyone's input. Of course if a suggestion is ridiculous, I as GM am the final arbiter.

I highly encourage any GM for this system, new or old, spend an hour digesting the short podcast episodes of Skill Monkey - the podcaster does a fantastic job offering up succinct and creative ways to interpret dice pools within the rules as they are written.

Zombie topic ate my brain, but my brain bites back.