Chance Rolls in Dungeons & Dragons Are Able to Aid You Be a Better DM

As a game master, I historically steered clear of extensive use of chance during my Dungeons & Dragons adventures. I preferred was for story direction and session development to be guided by player choice as opposed to random chance. Recently, I decided to try something different, and I'm very pleased with the outcome.

The Catalyst: Seeing 'Luck Rolls'

A well-known streamed game utilizes a DM who regularly asks for "chance rolls" from the participants. He does this by choosing a specific dice and outlining consequences based on the result. While it's fundamentally no distinct from using a pre-generated chart, these get invented spontaneously when a player's action has no clear conclusion.

I opted to test this method at my own game, mostly because it looked novel and provided a change from my standard routine. The outcome were fantastic, prompting me to reconsider the often-debated tension between planning and improvisation in a D&D campaign.

An Emotional Story Beat

In a recent session, my players had concluded a large-scale conflict. When the dust settled, a cleric character wondered if two key NPCs—a brother and sister—had made it. In place of choosing an outcome, I asked for a roll. I instructed the player to roll a d20. The possible results were: on a 1-4, both died; on a 5-9, a single one succumbed; on a 10+, they made it.

The player rolled a 4. This resulted in a incredibly moving moment where the characters came upon the remains of their companions, still united in their final moments. The party performed a ceremony, which was uniquely powerful due to previous roleplaying. As a final reward, I decided that the NPCs' bodies were strangely restored, revealing a magical Prayer Bead. By chance, the item's contained spell was perfectly what the group needed to address another major story problem. It's impossible to plan such serendipitous moments.

Sharpening Your Improvisation

This incident led me to ponder if improvisation and making it up are in fact the essence of this game. Even if you are a meticulously planning DM, your ability to adapt may atrophy. Adventurers often excel at derailing the best constructed plots. Therefore, a good DM needs to be able to pivot effectively and invent content in real-time.

Utilizing luck rolls is a excellent way to develop these abilities without straying too much outside your preparation. The key is to deploy them for small-scale decisions that don't fundamentally change the campaign's main plot. To illustrate, I would not employ it to determine if the main villain is a traitor. However, I would consider using it to figure out if the characters reach a location right after a critical event unfolds.

Empowering Player Agency

Luck rolls also serves to keep players engaged and cultivate the sensation that the game world is responsive, shaping in reaction to their decisions in real-time. It reduces the feeling that they are merely characters in a rigidly planned story, thereby enhancing the cooperative foundation of storytelling.

This approach has long been part of the game's DNA. Original D&D were filled with charts, which fit a playstyle focused on treasure hunting. Although modern D&D tends to focuses on plot-driven play, leading many DMs to feel they need exhaustive notes, this isn't always the only path.

Achieving the Sweet Spot

Absolutely no problem with doing your prep. However, it's also fine nothing wrong with relinquishing control and letting the whim of chance to determine certain outcomes instead of you. Control is a big part of a DM's job. We need it to manage the world, yet we frequently find it hard to give some up, even when doing so might improve the game.

A piece of suggestion is this: Do not fear of temporarily losing your plan. Embrace a little randomness for smaller details. It may discover that the surprising result is significantly more powerful than anything you could have pre-written in advance.