How to run a Dice RP?

[GreenSea]

So I've been wondering since forever how to run a Dice RP because I've never get into Dice RP before..


Here are some more detailed question I've been wanting to ask:
1. Is Dice RP a lot more complicated than Literature RP? is so please state the reason?

2. What's do we attributes need to have as a GM? Like strict or...?

3.What makes a Dice RP fun? I know it's a relative answer for each person...

4.How to lay Dice RP out?

5.Is the game mechanic diverse from one rp to another?

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

1. Is Dice RP a lot more complicated than Literature RP? is so please state the reason?

It is by default because you're adding an extra layer of mechanics on top of all of it.
So all normal forum RP rules apply as well as the rules for Dice RPs.

2. What's do we attributes need to have as a GM? Like strict or...?

It varies greatly on the System you're using.

D&D has STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, CONSTITUTION, INTELLIGENCE, WISDOM, CHARISMA.
GURPS has Strength, Dexterity, Health and Intelligence.

etc.

If you're making your own system just choose whichever attributes you want.

3.What makes a Dice RP fun? I know it's a relative answer for each person...

On the forum?

I'd have to say it adds level of realism/balance to it.
In forum RP's everything is subjective, "Can I do _______" is always up to the DM simply saying yes or no.
But with a Dice system it's a clear mechanical issue, so it's up to your stats and roll of the die, which almost eliminates the risk of God Modding or misbalanced players.

On top of which it adds some unpredictability, instead of the players simply deciding what happens the dice play a roll.
You could spectacularly fail at something or vice-versa.

Lastly it forces you to put some limits on the character.
For example someone can't make a CS simply listing a shit ton of powers, there's normally a point buy system that limits them.
Forcing them to make starting builds within a certain power range, and if they want more they need to earn it within the RP.

4.How to lay Dice RP out?

In all honesty?
The forums are ill-equipped for it, you're better off just doing tabletop online with something like roll20.

But if you do want to do it on the forums?
Treat it like a normal forum RP, just with dice rolls and point buy character creation.

And set up a means to roll a die multiple times per post (which usually means finding an off-site roller instead of using Iwaku's).
Otherwise all your posts will be stopped short because the person will need to it anything they do anything requiring a die roll (swing a sword, tell a lie, recall a certain fact etc.).
This either leads to an insanely slow RP (with short posts at that), or means a shit ton of multi-posting because people need to make a new post every time they do something that requires a roll.

However finding a means to roll multiple times in one post?
That means you can roll for that specific action, and then keep going in the same post without halting.

This however comes with it's own concerns.
Because Iwaku's dice roller is designed in a way to prevent cheating by only letting you roll after the post is made*.
If you use a roller off-site you won't have this safety net (unless if you use very specific dice rollers), so you either make the rolling more complicated, or you rely on the honour system.

*This add's to the issue above about multi-posting, because now you need actually submit the post and roll before even knowing if you succeed or not.
So I would either have to go:

->Posts "I swing my sword"
->Roll Die
->Findout Result
->Choose between editing post to account for the roll, make a new post to account for the roll, or wait for a reply.
->If you continue, note that doing another roll action require's another roll, probably requiring a second post.

5.Is the game mechanic diverse from one rp to another?

Very Diverse.

You got your High Fantasy like D&D that at later levels makes players almost invincible, Call of Cthulhu where you're going to die... there's no debate, it's just a matter of when, how and will it be from insanity? Your GURPs which is brutal realistic but can be in any time era etc.

 

[GreenSea]

It is by default because you adding an extra layer of mechanics on top of all of it.
So all normal forum RP rules apply as well as the rules for Dice RPs.

It varies greatly on the System you're using.

D&D has STRENGTH, DEXTERITY, CONSTITUTION, INTELLIGENCE, WISDOM, CHARISMA.
GURPS has Strength, Dexterity, Health and Intelligence.

etc.

If you're making your own system just choose whichever attributes you want.

On the forum?

I'd have to say it adds level of realism/balance to it.
In forum RP's everything is subjective, "Can I do _______" is always up to the DM simply saying yes or no.
But with a Dice system it's a clear mechanical issue, so it's up to your stats and roll of the die, which almost eliminates the risk of God Modding or misbalanced players.

On top of which it adds some unpredictability, instead of the players simply deciding what happens the dice play a roll.
You could spectacularly fail at something or vice-versa.

Lastly it forces you to put some limits on the character.
For example someone can't make a CS simply listing a shit ton of powers, there's normally a point buy system that limits them.
Forcing them to make starting builds within a certain power range, and if they want more they need to earn it within the RP.

In all honesty?
The forums are ill-equipped for it, you're better off just doing tabletop online with something like roll20.

But if you do want to do it on the forums?
Treat it like a normal forum RP, just with dice rolls and point buy character creation.

And set up a means to roll a die multiple times per post (which usually means finding an off-site roller instead of using Iwaku's).
Otherwise all your posts will be stopped short because the person will need to it anything they do anything requiring a die roll (swing a sword, tell a lie, recall a certain fact etc.).
This either leads to an insanely slow RP (with short posts at that), or means a shit ton of multi-posting because people need to make a new post every time they do something that requires a roll.

However finding a means to roll multiple times in one post?
That means you can roll for that specific action, and then keep going in the same post without halting.

This however comes with it's own concerns.
Because Iwaku's dice roller is designed in a way to prevent cheating by only letting you roll after the post is made*.
If you use a roller off-site you won't have this safety net (unless if you use very specific dice rollers), so you either make the rolling more complicated, or you rely on the honour system.

*This add's to the issue above about multi-posting, because now you need actually submit the post and roll before even knowing if you succeed or not.
So I would either have to go:

->Posts "I swing my sword"
->Roll Die
->Findout Result
->Choose between editing post to account for the role, make a new post to account for the roll, or wait for a reply.
->If you continue, note that doing another roll action require's another roll, probably requiring a second post.

Very Diverse.

You got your High Fantasy like D&D that at later levels makes players almost invincible, Call of Cthulhu where you're going to die... there's no debate, it's just a matter of when, how and will it be from insanity? Your GURPs which is brutal realistic but can be in any time era etc.

Gawd 0__0 that's really complicated, though it's interesting as well... I don't if I should make one soon... thanks though~

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Gawd 0__0 that's really complicated, though it's interesting as well... I don't if I should make one soon... thanks though~

If you do choose to have a Dice RP you definitely need to know and understand the system you're using.
Like if you use D&D, have a solid grasp of that system before trying a forum version, because learning the base game is complicated enough.
You don't need to be trying to translate it to the forums on top of that.

@Brovo Might be able to help in more detail.
To my understand is Renalta RP that's several years old also makes use of a dice (or at least point buy) system.

 

[Kehvarl]

1. Is Dice RP a lot more complicated than Literature RP? is so please state the reason?

In all honestly, I find dice-based games far simpler than other types. First, there's a simple mechanic for defining your character (stats); secondly there's a simple mechanic for determining success (dice); and thirdly, starting off with a well-balanced and agreed upon set of rules help in character balance.

2. What's do we attributes need to have as a GM? Like strict or...?

A dice-based RPG needs a GM who is willing to weave a story for the characters. The GM should know the rules well enough to use them without constantly looking them up. If the GM is an absolute stickler for the rules and never bends, that tends to detract from the player's fun.

3.What makes a Dice RP fun? I know it's a relative answer for each person...

Dice-based RPGs are a lot more balanced, a lot more fair, and a lot more enjoyable than freeform interactive storytelling. Characters can be built far more quickly, and it's easy to tell at a glance if someone is trying to sneakily overpower their character.

4.How to lay Dice RP out?

The forum has the ability to attach die rolls to posts, but it's really a clunky system for tabletop gaming. You might be better off checking into some alternatives and then posting logs to your thread.

5.Is the game mechanic diverse from one rp to another?

If every RP is played using the same system, then it doesn't have to be. The first step will be finding a dice-based system you like. A lot of people on Iwaku already play D&D or Pathfinder, so those systems will get you players easily enough. There are a few GURPS players, but GURPS doesn't have a pre-existing "core" setting that everyone is likely to be familiar with. Other systems are available two, just a few that I have played are: Big Eyes Small Mouth, Ironclaw, Rifts, Palladium Fantasy, Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, and Vampire. There are dozens or even hundreds of other systems to choose, some with settings some just sets of rules.

 

[Jorick]

1. Is Dice RP a lot more complicated than Literature RP? is so please state the reason?

More complicated in some ways, less complicated in others. It's a little more complicated because you have to deal with a dice system, but that can be made very simple if you don't want it to get overwhelming. It's a little less complicated in that instead of having no solid response aside from "I am the GM and I said so" when players complain that your judgment of how a fight or whatever action turned out wasn't fair and should be changed, with a dice system you can tell them the rolls and say "sorry, you signed up for a dice roleplay, the dice didn't like you today, deal with it." Also, diceless RPs are a little more complicated for the GM in that they have to think up how everything ever goes, but for dice RPs they have the option of just sitting back and letting the rolls decide everything. There are pros and cons to each type, as far as complexity goes.

2. What's do we attributes need to have as a GM? Like strict or...?

Mostly the same attributes needed to GM a roleplay without dice. You only need the strictness to enforce your own rules, including following the results of whatever the dice decide. You also need to have a bit of organizational skill and discipline to make sure you're following all the rules of whatever dice system you're using, and to keep track of stats and modifiers and stuff if you're using them.

3.What makes a Dice RP fun? I know it's a relative answer for each person...

Dice add an element of randomness and challenge to things. In most roleplays, the player characters only have major failures if the player decides they want that to happen. In dice roleplays, there's always a chance that your character could mess up big time at a critical moment. Having failure be a really plausible option that could come as a surprise adds a whole layer of tension and mystery to a roleplay that is lacking in others, and I enjoy it a lot.

4.How to lay Dice RP out?

If you mean to run a dice roleplay on the forum in a play-by-post format, then not all that differently to a normal roleplay. Decide what sort of dice system you want to use, figure out how often and for what sort of events you will want to roll to determine player success or failure, and then run the game. The one thing that should always be dealt with via dice in such a roleplay is combat actions, meaning one of the rules for the roleplay should be to tell players they can't auto-hit enemies because you will roll to decide if they hit. You can also do rolls to determine if the characters notice things, can tell when someone is lying, are successful in persuading an NPC to do something, and so on. Essentially you ought to end up running a normal roleplay that just adds the element of possibly rolling to determine an action's success in each player post, though that obviously won't be necessary if they're just talking amongst themselves or are traveling in a safe area with no chance of random encounters.

5.Is the game mechanic diverse from one rp to another?

For play-by-post forum dice roleplays, yeah, there are plenty of diverse mechanics. Different people will have different character attributes (strength and dexterity and such) in play, or they might not use attributes at all. Some people will have a system for skills (diplomacy, leatherworking, etc.) alongside or instead of attributes. Some people will forgo all that complicated stuff that would go on a character sheet and just do flat dice rolls with no special stuff like stat bonuses to modify the result.

If you want to see what sort of diversity is out there, just look at how crazy and different tabletop RPGs can be. The 5th edition (also the newest one) of Dungeons & Dragons uses a 20-sided die for most rolls but also uses a lot of other types of dice for weapon damage and such, and it has classes and races that do different things and 6 attributes and a list of 18 skills and a bunch of feats (which do extra fun stuff) and special abilities learned at certain levels of each class. Apocalypse World uses two 6-sided dice for all things, and you only get to select a class and they use 5 attributes and no skills system and each class comes with a small set of moves (six or so) for that class. Scion uses tons of 10-sided dice (you can get up to needing to roll 100+ 10-sided dice at the highest levels), and instead of classes or races you have to pick a pantheon to belong to and a god to have as your parent and it has 9 attributes and a list of 24 skills (called abilities) and it has things called boons and knacks that are a mix between magic spells and various special bonuses to your character. Those games all play very differently to one another, and those are only three of the many tabletop RPGs I know of. You can adapt pretty much any tabletop dice system to work with a forum roleplay, with some tweaks of course, so take that as an example of how diverse the forum roleplay mechanics can be.