One of my favorite hobbies is playing tabletop roleplaying games. I mentioned tabletop role playing games a few weeks ago in reference to my latest book. If you have no idea what that is, hold on! We are going to talk about one of the funnest hobbies with story and characters and of course, dice!
What is a tabletop role playing game?
The best way I can describe these types of games is collaborative storytelling. The players create characters. These characters all have unique goals and backstories. They are breathed to life by their various creators.
One person, the game master or dungeon master, sets the scene. They narrate the story. Their words paint the world’s picture. But the characters are free to act however their player decides. Does the story go off the rails sometime? Always. Is it delightful and fun? Of course!
What does that have to do with dice?
In order to determine if a character is successful at doing something,the players roll a dice.
For example, if a player wants their character to do a backflip onto a table, they roll a twenty sided dice to confirm if they are successfully able to do it. Success depends on how difficult the activity they are attempting to do is. The higher the number they roll, the better.
Rolling a twenty is almost always a success. Rolling a one is a critical failure and usually leads to a catastrophe.
Some of the most memorable moments I have from playing the game is from the luck or misfortune of the dice.
Where can you learn more?
If you are interested in learning more, there are a lot of awesome podcasts where they play games like that. One of my favorites is a family friendly podcast where they play a game called Pathfinder. It’s called Gathering of the Ages.
Check out their podcast here to see how the game is played. And here an adventurous tale!
What kind of games do you like to play?
