Second Chances: Rerolling Dice

In which Dyo shows how, much as in real life, sometimes there are do-overs in the Rise universe.

If you've played RISE for even a small amount of time, chances are that you know about the ability to tweak--i.e. almost entirely remake-- your character at certain junctures in the game, as in the instance where you spent three levels making your character into an encyclopedia of the arcane, only to realize that your GM never puts you in situations where your knowledge in arcana, linguistics, and runes was actually applicable (Note: I don't think that could ever happen. If it does, speak to your GM! No GM wants to be known as the one who turns his or her back on the archaic, or indeed on any competency, feature, or other characteristic that one of the players in the party wants to practice. But, as usual, I mildly digress.) You know how to raise a specific attribute score, changing your mediocre agility into something admirable. You even know how to "game" the system to get more points as you spend them! (Nope, those loopholes are there for a reason. They reward the apt pupil of RISE. But feel sneaky if you like, you pirate, you.) Yes, you're in it to win it. (Nope, again, because if you play RISE you know that it's primarily collaborative... it's pretty rare and maybe even disastrous to have more than the occasional session where all party members save one lay dead, the lone victor cackling into the heavens about having defeated his own team... with notable exception--you know who you are--that's not how it works.) But enough with all the parentheses. Let's jump into ANOTHER fine trick that I know... how to maximize the chances that the dice roll your way... and how not to, so much.

When the party informs the GM about Brutal... after the seventh re-roll. Simó Gómez The Dice Players 1874

I have played, once or twice, with a die that was improperly made, and thus always landed on a three. There are few situations where this is ideal-- a limit check, say, where you must equal or be lesser than the specified number... and even so, a cattywampus die is clearly cheating, so let me caveat that I plan to show several LEGITIMATE ways to have the dice roll in your favor. The other obvious way is to just lie about your rolls (nope) or to do math poorly accidentally (this, sadly, has happened to Dyo, but the way that you know it's unintentional is that the math issues pervade beyond dice rolls. You'll know the difference). But again, onto the up-and-up:

CONFIRMATION. BRUTAL. DEPENDABLE. GENTLE. It almost sounds like a set of character adjectives, sort of an Arya Stark list of "To do's" and "How's" (i.e. confirm the Hound's death, be brutal and dependable.. gentle, not so much, but actually in this context, gentleness is kind of a bane, as you will see). Here be several intriguing mechanics that govern dice rolls, and much like Arya and her list of names, you should memorize them so you can "kill" it on your rolls.

Confirmation: a situation where a successful die roll must be repeated, and if not successful the second time, the initial success is ignored. "Wait, you silver-tongued bard," you cry, "You said you would show me how to maximize my dice efforts. This is a chance to undo all the good work I've done, all that beautiful luck on that "natty 20"!" Yes, that's true. And it was your fault for saying "natty 20" in the first place!* But now you know the mechanic, and you'll be on the lookout, should the term "confirmation" rear its terrible head. Now that I've presented the orcish brother (apologies to all the orcs out there), here is the beautiful elfin (or elvin, as Tolkein would have it) sibling-- Dependable: Any natural result of a die roll less than or equal to the Dependable value causes that die to be rerolled. Dependable is a nice insurance policy against those times where you're poised to stab the dragon directly in the tender underbelly, and in the critical moment of battle, perfectly positioned and splendidly trained and marvelously equipped for the task, you improbably roll that most baleful 3 and the GM has to tell everyone that at the last moment, you tripped over your own boots or were distracted by the glittering embers of death in the dragon's eye... Dependable saves you from shame, and sometimes even saves you from certain smiting (be it by dragon or by fellow players who rise up and demand that you toss out those low-rolling pink dice once and for all...but no personal stories). If you like your dice, and you don't want to be the squeaky wheel of the party, Dependable says it all.

So much for that pair. Onto the second set-- Brutal and Gentle. The general rule in battle holds: you'd prefer to be brutal against gentle enemies, rather than vice-versa. Brutal: Any weapon with the Brutal property rerolls all damage dice that are less than or equal to the Brutal value. If a Brutal value equals or exceeds the maximum damage of a die rolled, the result is the maximum of that die and no rerolls occur. "Hey hey," you say, "Some good news!" Yes, it's good to be Brutal. But beware Brutal's dangerous fraternal twin, Gentle, which strips you of your ability to hit maximum damage. Should you be so lucky as to roll a critical hit or otherwise achieve perfection with the help of bonuses, you will be forced to reroll until you achieve a lesser result. Here is a time where prowess does not pay, a perfect waste of a good roll.

And while I'm on a roll, a few quick clarifications:

Q: Is there a mechanic that allows you to preserve that natural 20 for a different context?

A: Yes! And now you have another incentive to read the book!**

Q: If the die rolls off the table and on the floor or is otherwise "interrupted," do I get to disregard that roll and try again?

A: Yes or no. Pick a ruling metric and then honor it faithfully. If you would accept a critical hit on the carpet, you also have to accept the die's crueler results.

Q: If my die lands in a crack or somesuch, do I get to choose the better of the two numbers facing "up"?

A: No, you scrofulous bog troll! You have to (or maybe get to, depending on how good/bad the faces were) roll again.

Dice are a matter of chance. Better said, they're a matter of probability. And the PROBABILITY is that if you have a mechanic where you can roll a good dice to make it better, you'll succeed. So, look for opportunities to maximize your results. There are plenty of them available to the careful RISE reader and player.

If that's not how you roll (you knew that low-hanging fruit was coming-- I can't resist a trite-and-true pun), tell us of a mechanic you'd like to see (once you've read the book, preferably, so you know how we already roll) at https://www.rpgrise.com/rules-submission. We're always on the lookout for the best ways to RISE!

*Shout-out to a couple of my fellow RISE bloggers, who stole this delightful term from a beloved podcast about a glass machine of war of some type... maybe a crystal cannon? Check them out and enjoy! https://glasscannonnetwork.com/

**Ah, you're reading the blog-- and what is the blog for, but to give you a leg up on RISE? Take a peek at "Divination," which allows to you 'store' up an unusually good roll for a later date.