Diceless Roleplaying

Using Cards instead of Dice

For gamers who want to keep randomness when determining results, cards can be used instead of dice.  Each player should start the game with a standard deck of 54 playing cards.  The cards should be shuffled at the beginning of each game.  When determining an action, draw a card instead of rolling dice.

Aces are treated as ones.  Numbered cards use their value.  If a face card is drawn, consider the result to be a “5” and draw again.  If the next card is another face card, the final result is considered to be a “10”.  Otherwise, the draw result is considered to be a five.  If an Ace is drawn, use the Rule of 1.  If a natural 10 (but not two face cards) is drawn, use the Rule of 10.

Jokers are generally discarded.  However, if the Ape Master wants to add an unexpected element, the following rule can be used.  If a Joker is drawn, draw another card.  If the new card is black, a mishap has occurred.  The attempted Task or Test fails in some unexpected and spectacular way, which is left to the Ape Master’s imagination.  If the second card is red, the action is automatically successful, usually owing to luck rather than skill (again, the Ape Master can use her imagination to give the result an interesting and creative meaning).

Those are the only differences in the basic game.  All the other rules described in this book apply normally.  Damage rolls are either replaced with the set damage numbers written in parentheses, or the dice are kept for that part of the game.

Player-Controlled Outcomes

With card-based gaming, the Game Master can allow the players more control over their “luck” when performing Tasks or Tests.  This is a special subsystem that can only be used with cards.

At the beginning of the game, each player draws a “hand” of six cards from the deck.  The player then decides which card she will use on a given Task or Test.  If the player thinks the attempt is important and she really wants to succeed at it, she plays the best card in her hand.  The player, however, cannot draw new cards until her entire hand is “dealt.”

Unless the player’s hand is downright terrible, she will be able to choose which Tasks are successful, simply by using her highest value cards on a specific Task or Test.  Of course, if the player uses up her best cards too quickly, she may be stuck with a couple of aces at a critical point of the story!

When the Rule of 10, the Rule of 1, or face cards come into play, the second card is drawn from the deck, not the hand.  Also, if the player initiates an action, the Game Master may require her to draw from the deck.  This eliminates instances of players using up low cards in meaningless actions.

This subsystem is particularly appropriate for dramatic moments.  Nobody wants to “fumble” when trying to cast the Invocation that might decide the fate of an entire city, for example.  It also encourages strategic thinking—the player must decide when to play her best cards, and when to accept failure with good grace.  By taking into account the needs of the story, the player may decide her Cast Member should fail at certain points, adding to the drama of the game.

This optional rule requires that the players spend some time deciding what cards to use in a given situation—they still do not know how difficult the situation may be, or what the opposition may draw against them.  It usually helps move the story along in a dramatically appropriate way, as the Cast Member tends to have “good luck” when the story calls for it more often than not.  On the other hand, this method cuts down on the uncertainty of the moment, and may end up having the players think more about strategy than the flow of the story.

Story-Driven Roleplaying

For Game Masters and players who want to avoid random rolls or card drawing entirely, the Unisystem can be used in the Story-Driven Method.  The Game Master assigns outcomes dependent on the flow of the Story and the basic abilities of the player.

Task Resolution

The Story-Driven Method games use a straight number comparison.  If the character’s appropriate Attributes and skills are equal to or greater than the Difficulty Number (see table nearby), the Task or Test is successful.  The Game Master determines the Difficulty Number based on the needs of the story, and how detailed and creative the player is in describing her Cast Member’s action.  If the roleplaying part of the action is good enough, the numbers involved should not be a factor, and the action should be successful automatically.

Difficulty Numbers Table
Type of Task      Difficulty Number
Easy                        1-2
Challenging              3-5
Difficult                    6-8
Very Difficult            9-10
Heroic                     11-12
Impossible               13-15

For example, Stacy the servile handmaid, played by Jenny, wants to talk (using her Smooth Talking Skill) a security guard into letting her sneak into one of the master bedrooms.  Jenny gives a great performance as Stacy, making many excuses and servile remarks that show the guard that he is really in charge.  The Game Master does not bother comparing numbers or results, but simply plays the guard, who, feeling suitably superior, lets her pass.

In another example, Raven, a desperate escaped prisoner, is played by Stuart.  He is trying to break into a warehouse to secure some supplies.  The Game Master decides that this is a Difficult Task, and asks Stuart what Raven’s combined Dexterity and Lock Picking skill is.  Raven’s Dexterity is a four; his Lock Picking is a five.  The total of nine is better than what is required for a Difficult task (usually a six to eight), so Raven is successful.

When two characters are using skills against each other, the higher combination of Attribute and skill wins.  Only special circumstances alter this.  A weaker fighter who goes on the defensive and is extra careful may last for a while before being defeated by her stronger enemy.  A player who comes up with a good “dirty trick” or tactic may prevail against superior odds.  Again, it is description, narrative skills and the Game Master’s judgment that are the final determinants of most outcomes.

Diceless Damage

In the Story-Driven Method of the Unisystem, damage can be applied using the fixed values (listed in parentheses in all weapon or damage descriptions).  Alternatively, damage can be adjusted to suit the dramatic needs of the game.  Here, a light wound is a cut on a limb, a nasty bruise, or a cracked rib.  It is not immediately incapacitating, but requires medical or supernatural help or it may worsen in time.  Most weapons that inflict an average of less than ten points of damage cause light wounds.

A serious wound can do a number of things.  It can drop the target immediately (the victim may or may not survive the ordeal) or it can kill the victim if no medical help is available (the victim may still continue to move and act for several minutes or even hours, however).  Being shot or stabbed in the torso area is the most common serious wound.  The Game Master decides if the victim falls down, either as the result of physical shock, or just the psychological realization that she has been injured, or whether the victim carries on with her actions (people have been known to continue fighting or running even after sustaining mortal wounds).  As a rule of thumb, any weapon whose average damage is 10-20 points inflicts serious wounds on a direct hit.  Consider most handguns, regardless of their average damage, to inflict serious wounds in the torso area.  Even small caliber bullets can do a lot of damage by bouncing around the victim’s body.

A critical wound instantly drops the victim, and in all probability kills her.  Critical wounds include beheading, a large caliber bullet hit to the head, being cut in half by a train, and similar mass trauma.