Dice and Books

Notadate

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Opinion on writing a book with dice being used to create “plot”. Still keeping fixed points of plot or not. I am only asking about your opinion on dice being used in writing a book.
 

J_Chemist

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Mentioned it before in a similar thread but so long as you stay true to your rolls, go for it. I use dice, myself, but generally only for fighting, charismatic actions, and merchant interactions. These situations are all able to be adjusted based off the rolls and affect the plot in mostly minor ways. Comedic value as well. The dice just give me some creative guidance and keep me on my toes. Though, some fights like my most recent one, I write following a planned script/choreography since I need specific events to happen.

However, when you roll you need to leave yourself open to the possible outcomes, lest you just waste your time. And, whatever you roll, you need to competent enough to write the results properly. I.e; you roll a nat 0 and proceed to fail to write it intelligently by nuking your party, or you roll a nat 20 and then end up with plot armor all over the place. Maintain the rules of your novel and use the dice more or less as a guide to the inevitable planned outcome of the interaction.

If it's a plot heavy interaction, I do not recommend using dice to influence it unless you have multiple planned routes that you can take afterwards. So, if you roll low and your character/party gets sacked, they can grow and the plot can continue without much trouble without you having to now drag out the story because Lady Luck decided to take the opportunity to laugh at you.
 
D

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How's that work? Like you have multiple situations numbered and whichever face it lands on is the one you go with?
 

Rhaps

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This is my writing method, keep it fun and interesting
 
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