‘Alea iacta est’ -- Gaius Julius Caesar, 49 BC

In the last article, I mentioned using a random bead draw or other random mechanic as a way to determine a character’s fate. Here I’m going to expand on this.

A variety of larps use some form of randomness to determine in game flow. Some examples I’ve seen over the years:

• Rock-paper-Scissors-(bomb), as used by Mind’s Eye Theatre. Some players replace these with cards, which makes it harder to ‘read’ the opponent.
• A five symbol version, used to resolve mage duels in a fantasy larp. The clever twist is different grades of mages are only able to use a particular fixed number of symbols. A master mage who can execute four symbols can probably crush an apprentice who can only work two, especially if he learns in advance which two symbols those are.
• Dice. The published live star wars rules and the Rules to Live By system both use D6.
• Cards, in place of dice, as used by the new version of Mind’s Eye Theatre.
• A bead draw. Lots of different variations on this exist. One clever one I’ve seen in fantasy larp gives mages a bag of beads equal to their mana points, plus a number of ‘dead beads’ (defaults to 50%, but mages have a rating called ‘mana purity’ which improves this ratio). Mages pull a number of beads equal to the spell cost (1 to 5), but if any are dead the spell fails and whole lot are wasted. As this larp handled it (which is only one possible variation here)), the bead bag was off-game (so couldn’t be stolen) but anything the mage did to it was in-game (so if they dropped all their beads, they lost their mana). Physically handling the beads effectively becomes a manual gesture to work magic. Mageswould often draw a single bead and carry it in a closed hand, effectively drawing their power ready.
• Envelopes. The character is given an envelope to open when an event happens, such as when they cast a spell. This could be pre-determined by the organiser, or could be randomly shuffled. Rip-open lammies could also be used in the same way.

Another use of randomness is in resolving downtime, in the sense of what happens to characters in an ongoing campaign between larps. Some examples I’ve seen

• A random encounter roll. For example, rolling to see if a vampire runs into problems while hunting during the month. This can be modified based on their character, their access to hunting grounds, and the situation (e.g. having the police on the lookout for them). If the roll comes up, a black box scene is then played out. This serves to remind the players what their characters have to do to survive, without tediously playing it out constantly. It also allows for chance meetings with characters that wouldn’t turn up to the public Elysium meeting, such as aloof elders.
• A random rumour system, where players given some randomly drawn rumours from a bag about goings on and other characters. This is a simple and labour-efficient (from the organiser’s perspective) way to distribute information across different characters, or give new players something to go on.
• Randomness to determine affairs beyond the characters control, such as the productivity of their off-screen holdings, the clash of rival armies or how successful their experimental lab research has been. This is used in tabletop rpgs that have a downtime mechanic such as Pendragon, Ars Magica and Orcworld. In the recent ‘Just a little loving’ larp, a random lottery was used to determine which characters got sick with aids over a year of downtime.

Thinking more abstractly, there are two different ways to use randomness; your use is likely to depend on your creative agenda:

• As part of a simulated setting, to reflect aspects of the setting that effectively random. The MET example of whether an opposed ‘power’ works or not for example.
• As a narrative tool, to suggest a narrative twist that might not occur to conscious design, such as the Just a Little Loving example. Rather than trying to model the internal logic of the setting, they prompt player creativity. For example, the Black Dog scenario uses a card based mechanic to control the narrative flow and pacing.

In more competitive game contexts randomness also has the benefit of being ‘fair’ and ‘equal,’ in situations where the alternative is ‘GM Fiat.’

Part of the difficulty with randomness can be finding a way to include it without breaking the immersion of play. Sometimes this can be done by including it in-game, such as the mage duel example. Other times this problem can be avoided by using it for downtime rather than uptime.

While some object to randomness as non-immersive, ironically it can make a setting more believable. An entirely mechanistic setting can actually seem unbelievable in the long run.

Bear in mind that while a dice roll itself is not roleplaying (most of the time), a lot of roleplaying can occur before and after it. A character concerned about whether or not their off-screen ship will make it home to port safely so they can pay off their debts has a lot of worry about and play on, both during the day before and the day after it’s due to arrive, regardless of which way the hand of fate falls when the organisers rolls the dice that night and sends in a messenger with the news.