"No Dice!" RPGs that don't use dice.
Przemek Bednarski
United Kingdom
Coventry
West Midlands
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Dice are great: they come in variety of sizes, types and colours, they make a great sound when rolled on the table. Dice are so great, that almost every RPG uses them to some extent.
But there are some great RPGs that don't use dice at all. Just because they do not use them, doesn't mean they are lesser in any way, in fact -they might bring a lot to the table (pardon the pun).
This is a tribute to all those games!
Feel free to add any game You know that does not use dice, be it the non-randomised diceless games or ones using some uncommon type of randomiser. Write a brief description how the mechanic is used and let others discover a new world of roleplaying without dice!
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Przemek Bednarski
United Kingdom
Coventry
West Midlands
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This game inspired me to start this geeklist. It uses dominos as a randomiser. Player always has 3 randomly chosen dominos in his hand and chooses which one to play against a secret difficulty rating. It helps the player plan and prepare for the macabre things to come.
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RPG Item: Dread
[Average Rating:8.05 Overall Rank:95]
Przemek Bednarski
United Kingdom
Coventry
West Midlands
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A horror game that really brings out the tension to the table. It uses a Jenga tower for the task resolution. Each time you would normally test a trait, instead, you draw a block from the tower and put it on top. If the tower collapses - you die! This gamde marvellously simulates the pacing of slasher-flicks, where most of the characters will end up asthe victims of a supernatural killer.
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Andrew Hodkinson
Canada
Kemble
Ontario
兵者詭道也
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No list would be complete without this game. Set in Roger Zelazny's Princes of Amber novel world, this was one of the first, if not the first RPG to not use dice.
If he had been interviewed for this geeklist item, Roger might well have said, "As a young toddler, I put dice in my mouth and nearly choked to death. Since then, I have always feared dice, and when this RPG game was coming out, I nixed the idea of dice. Actually, my exact words were 'if you use dice, I will kill you'".
A surviving designer (Eric Wujcik) came up with a point, attribute, rank, and Dungeon Master resolution system.
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Przemek Bednarski
United Kingdom
Coventry
West Midlands
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This GMless collaborative storytelling game uses coins (or similar tokens) as a wagering currency to put obstacles into the story. It also incorporates simple rock/paper/scissors resolution for duels. All the rules are presented by either a publisher of the book, or the Baron Munchausen himself! A great little beer and pretzel (or wine and cheese) game.
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Richard
Greece
Marousi
Athens
RPGGrEEK Guild, γινετε μελος εδω:http://rpggeek.com/guild/1256
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There is that which is one of the best I think. You can nearly make your own system using this book.
And there is a half buried geeklist that has some Unusual randomizers in RPGs
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Richard
Greece
Marousi
Athens
RPGGrEEK Guild, γινετε μελος εδω:http://rpggeek.com/guild/1256
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Fastlane uses a roulette.
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Antti Hoo.
Finland
Helsinki
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CF uses a deck of cards instead of dice. It's an ok system for giving some control over the randomness (players have a hand of four cards to choose from, with the suits representing different abilities), and there's even some thematic justification – dice games were frowned upon in Victorian times.
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Hans Messersmith
Canada
Hamilton
Ontario
Freder: It was their hands that built this city of ours, Father. But where do the hands belong in your scheme?
Joh Frederson: In their proper place, the depths.
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Uses cards, with a poker-hand like mechanic, for conflict resolution.
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Hans Messersmith
Canada
Hamilton
Ontario
Freder: It was their hands that built this city of ours, Father. But where do the hands belong in your scheme?
Joh Frederson: In their proper place, the depths.
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Another one that uses cards, in a way that is a bit complicated to describe in a geeklist post, but is pretty clever.
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Hans Messersmith
Canada
Hamilton
Ontario
Freder: It was their hands that built this city of ours, Father. But where do the hands belong in your scheme?
Joh Frederson: In their proper place, the depths.
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Another one that uses cards. The extended conflict resolution system in this game, with GM and players playing cards back and forth, and switching suits symbolizing a change in venue of the conflict (sneaking to fisticuffs, energy blasts to taunting) is really very fun.
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Anthony DuLac
United States
Minnesota
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Still the best super-hero RPG, imho, ever made. Great production values and the card-based system is amazingly excellent and conveys a ton of information while also providing a fantastic means of creativity for DMing, as well.
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Anthony DuLac
United States
Minnesota
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Another game, like the Marvel game I've posted above, that utilizes the innovative card-based SAGA system. For my money, this one isn't quite as good being diceless as Marvel was but it's still worth owning.
I think one other issue was that the art on the Marvel cards seems spashier and better in quality (to me) than the subdued art on the DL cards.
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Fortune cookies as the randomiser! Happiness is a kong foo sing.
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Adam
United States
Bloomington
Illinois
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Some printings of this were released with numbered chits that had to be drawn from a cup, rather than dice. Does that count?
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Bifford Van Bifford (Sam)
England
Semington
Wiltshire
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A card based games, uses one or more normal decks of playing cards (including jokers).
The whole idea of this RPG game is to have fun and laugh! Each person takes a turn at being the "Labyrinth Lord" and cards are used to determine each labyrinth's layout, and monster randomness as well as combat/choice resolution.
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Jesse McGatha
United States
Sammamish
Washington
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GMs use the Three Laws: Karma, Drama, and Fortune. The Law of Karma says to look at the stats and think about what would most realistically happen. The Law of Drama says to think about what would make the best story. The Law of Fortune says to draw a card from the tarot-like Fortune Deck and see what it suggests should happen. The GM takes these three things into account, blends them together according to the needs of the adventure, and just describes what happens.
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Tome Loh
Singapore
Singapore
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Although the system can use a D10 to resolve actions, it does have a funky finger game which replaces the D10 roll - basically both the GM and the player flashes fingers to indicate a number between 1-10 at the same time and the number is added together to give you your roll; subtracting 10 if the total was between 11-20.
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Hell's Belle
United States
Dillsburg
Pennsylvania
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This is a world building game that explores a history you make up as you play. On your turn, you are the GM and you can enter new facts about the game world with complete authority, unless you frame a scene to answer a specific question. In a scene everyone makes up a character on the fly and interacts until they answer the question about the game world. The players are the randomizers. No dice are needed.
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Hell's Belle
United States
Dillsburg
Pennsylvania
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Like Microscope, Mortal Coil is a game where you make your own game, essentially. Both provide a framework for inventing and exploring your own fictiional world. Mortal Coil, however, focuses specifically on magic and requires a GM. Conflict resolution involves blind bidding instead of dice.
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