Redcap's Universal Table For Almost Everything

Longtime players of D&D will most certainly remember the original "Reaction Table", which was also used in the first edition of Gamma World, by the way. This table utilized the simplified mechanic of rolling two standard 6-sided dice, adding the total, and comparing to the chart. The beauty and simplicity of this minor table was never lost on me, and followed me throughout 39 years of gaming. Even when playing other game systems that didn't use a similar device, or have rules governing a particular circumstance, I would default to grabbing two dice and wing it. Not only has this kept the action moving along without interruption, but has kept my behind-the-screen decision making fairly consistent. Players can often sense when dice rolls are arbitrarily random, which does much to breed mistrust.

Back in July, I wrote an article on using Decision Dice ("Using The Dice to Improvise"), that touched on the subject of using random dice rolls during games, but only gave generic guidelines. The primary focus of that article was on showcasing Decision Dice. This article covers my personally preferred approach, using only two normal dice.

I prefer this method because rolling two dice allows for 36 random combinations, for 11 possible unmodified results, which I then further break down into 5 categories of severity. While this might appear very math intensive, it's actually quite simple in practice. The odds and percentages have only been included for those who are interested in how the system is derived.

2d6 Odds and Probabilities

My system uses five successive levels of possible outcome, ranging from the worst to best possible results. The Game Master may apply any bonuses or penalties depending on situational conditions, precautions being taken, quality of materials being used, a particularly favorable (or unfavorable) character trait the character might possess, etc.

2d6	Outcome	Probability
2	Unfavorable, Complication	3%
3-5	Unfavorable	25%
6-8	Neutral	44%
9-11	Favorable	25%
12	Favorable, Beneficial	3%

• 2 - Unfavorable, Complication - Not only don't things look good, but this result will further complicate the situation.
• 3-5 - Unfavorable - Things don't go well, but aren't overly complicated by further misfortune.
• 7-9 - Neutral - The situation is neither favorable, nor unfavorable.
• 10-11 - Favorable - Things fall into place in favor of the situation.
• 12 - Favorable, Beneficial - Not only are things good, but are further beneficial to the situation

Here are a few examples of possible outcomes, depending on the situation being determined:

Encounter Reaction:

• Attacks immediately
• Hostile, will probably attack unless the situation changes
• Uncertain, guarded behavior, but willing to parley
• Not hostile, possibly friendly
• Peaceful, makes overtures of friendship in good faith

Daily Weather

• The worst possible type of extreme weather for the climate, season, and region, be it a typhoon, massive blizzard, sand storm, whatever!
• Bad weather, possibly dangerous depending on prevailing climate
• Typical weather conditions
• Favorable weather conditions
• Best possible weather conditions

Character Attempting An Action:

• Not only has the action failed, but the proverbial Fickle Middle Finger of Fate makes an appearance!
• The action fails, possibly resulting in further problems (alarm goes off, etc)
• The character succeeds, but only just
• Clear success, fortune smiles upon the character
• Outstanding! Not only does the character succeed, but gains an advantage or added benefit doing so

Success of A Project: (for example -  crafting a magic item)

• Dismal failure! Not only are all materials ruined and wasted, but research notes may have been compromised (accidentally set on fire, etc)
• Failure. Only the natural results of failing may occur as a result
• Success. The item is crafted and functional
• Well done. The item is well crafted as though by a master craftsman
• Eureka! The item is an exceptional specimen of its kind, possibly with an unforeseen benefit

Optional Rule - Rolling Doubles:

Rolling doubles results in hard preset results that supersede any modifiers that may have been applied to the dice roll. This is done to ensure nothing is guaranteed to be an automatic success or failure.

2d6	Outcome	Odds
1,1	The Jolly Roger!	1 in 36
2,2	Consequences	1 in 36
3,3	Automatic Failure	1 in 36
4,4	Automatic Success	1 in 36
5,5	Beneficial	1 in 36
6,6	Outstanding!	1 in 36

• The Jolly Roger! - Named after a particular set of dice I had that replaced the 1 with a skull and crossbones.
• Consequences - Unfavorable outcome, resulting in possible consequences (alarms, broken equipment, etc)
• Automatic Failure - Despite your best efforts, you just fall short. You may attempt a re-do
• Automatic Success - Yes! Well done
• Beneficial/Excellent - You make this $@#! look good
• Bonus! - You succeed beyond expectations, and may enjoy an additional unexpected bonus

Game Review: SCRAWL, a Solo Game Play Engine from Stuart Lloyd

Beowulf Kills Grendel's Mother - John Henry Frederick Bacon, 1910

I've been a role-player since late 1978. In the first few years I was in high school, so I was never at a loss for players, but after graduation available players dried up. It became a serious chore to find, teach, and game with new players. Often there were months, then years, without finding other players. Ask any player that hasn't been able to scratch their gaming itch in awhile, it sucks. And the few options there were for solo play weren't very appealing, so the idea of gaming alone was soon forgotten.

Recently I came across Stuart Lloyd's solo game playing engine, SCRAWL (short for Solo Crawl). The game mechanics were simple and straight forward, the tables and layout were clear and linear, and there was plenty of support material to help flesh things out so that you weren't left with a few pages of endless cramped charts and a handful dice to roll for each and every action. SCRAWL is a limitless sandbox for an adventurer to wander through. Not unlike the early computer ASCII based dungeon crawl game, Rogue, where the player followed a grid, and encountered random events and monsters, SCRAWL allows a player to wander through a classic hex-crawl, using dice and their own imagination to discover what's discovered next.

SCRAWL allows a player to make up their own adventures, and play them out through random events tied together by their pre-decided plot-line. It's not just endless rolls on random tables, wandering from room to room, mindlessly collecting treasure tallies on a sheet. The solo games follow the player's internal logic and story-line, offering uncertainty and surprises to keep it fun and exciting. And unlike many previous game offerings, SCRAWL, allows players to adventure in dungeons, wilderness, ruins, towns, and cities. Its options are only limited by your imagination.

I strongly suggest that when you buy the initial SCRAWL rulebook, which is basically only a simple stand-along game system, that you purchase one of the additional adventures or add-ons. By themselves, the basic SCRAWL game isn't solo friendly. The books are PWYW (Pay What You Want), so you can buy them rather affordably. Yes, you could download the entire game and supplements free, but Stuart really did a good amount of work putting this all together and supporting his efforts isn't too much to ask. 

You can purchase SCRAWL on sites like RPGNow and DriveThruRPG.

SCRAWL and its add-ons available on RPGNow

SCRAWL and its add-ons available on DriveThruRPG

Stuart Lloyd's website and blog