Using Dice to Determine Success
The most important part of any role playing game is determining the actions of your character. These actions will shape your character, the game, and ultimately your enjoyment of role playing games.
Role Playing Your Character
The first thing you will need to know as a player is who your character is. Your player character should have a name, personality, background, motivations, and quirks. These, first and foremost, should guide your actions.
Is your character good natured?
Your character will probably help those in need.
Is your character greedy?
Your character will do almost anything for money.
Is your character funny, shy, a leader, a follower?
This will help determine what role you will play in the group.
These are all things that you will need to know playing the Atomic RPG System to help guide you while you play the game. Role playing the character will guide you through all steps of playing the Atomic RPG System system.
Rolling Dice for your Character
Now that you know the basics of who your character is and how they will act, now is the time to use dice to see if they are successful in their actions.
You will roll dice often to determine if your chosen course of action is successful or not. You can, as a player, also use dice to help you make character decision if you so choose. As an example, if you roll an odd number you go right. If you roll an even number you go left.
We have also created this digital dice roller with some modifications to fit the Atomic RPG System.
Rolling dice determines the outcome of most actions during Turn Time and Battle Time. However, many role players use dice rolls to determine their actions even in Real Time.
This can be the easiest and most comfortable way for a player to determine their actions. Most of the time, you will be using a d20, a twenty sided die, to determine your success or failure in an action. Sometimes you will roll opposing checks, such as an Attack Roll against an enemy’s Defense. Other times you will roll against a static number that is either determined in the Atomic RPG System rules or by the GM (Game Master).
You may use other dice as well during game play. Here are the abbreviations of the dice you will likely use during normal Atomic RPG System play time. These will be referenced frequently through the Atomic RPG System rules.
4 Sided
aka d4
6 Sided
aka d6
8 Sided
aka d8
10 Sided
aka d10
12 Sided
aka d12
16 Sided
aka d16
20 Sided
aka d20
You will also frequently see a number in front of the (d). This number represents how many of a particular dice you will roll. For example, when you see 3d12, it means you will roll three twelve-sided dice and then add them all together for your total. These are most often used to determine damage and healing done with a Power. If you roll the needed difficulty number or higher, you are successful.
High rolls are always better then low rolls in the Atomic RPG System.
Here are some situations in which you’ll NEED to roll dice.
- To slash someone with your sword as a Basic Attack (d20 Combatant Attack versus Body Defense).
- To climb a cliff face (d20 Athletics Skill Check against a static difficulty of 25 set by the Game Master).
- To determine the amount of damage you inflict on an enemy (5d8 damage to an enemy).
- To see who you hit with your psychic mind blast Power (d20 Mystic Power Attack versus Mind Defense).
Here are some situations in which you may DECIDE to roll dice.
- To determine if you go left or right at the fork in the road (roll a d6: 1-3 is left, 4-6 is right).
- To see if you crack a joke in front of the Admiral (d20 against Spirit Trait).
- To decide if you will attack or parley (roll any die: odd number attack, even number parley).
- To see if you are going to yell and scream at someone that wronged you. (Moderate Social Skill Check)
This is just an overview of decision making and checking to see if the actions you make for your character are successful or not. There are a set of rules around dice rolls and checks that have to be made. Those checks that you decide to make are more open to what you would like to do as a player.
Dice Rolling Adds Drama and Excitement
Dice rolling adds chance, excitement, and drama to the Atomic RPG System. Having a personality drives your actions and the Atomic RPG System stats (Traits, Attack, Damage, and Skill numbers) represent how good or bad your character is at certain things. However, that doesn’t mean your chance, unexpected actions, or lucky hits will not happen. This is what the dice are for! With a high Attack Check you may score a dramatic Critical Hit killing a dangerous foe. Or perhaps you roll a 1 on a Skill Check and slide down the slippery slope back into the beast pit, causing the party to turn around and jump in to save you. And sometimes you will be faced with whether to refuel at one planet or another. A seemingly pointless choice, until the dice turn up even and you decide to go to the planet where the assassin that has been tracking the group is!
Many role play gamers buy special sets of dice for their characters, something that might represent them. Some even buy several sets so if one set of dice is not rolling well they can switch to another set.
Dice rolling will be required during Turn Time and Battle time but I would suggest that every player figure out as many details as they can about their character so that the player can make decisions for their character, rather than use dice to make decisions for them. Unless of course you are playing a character like Two-Face and chance is your only guide!
Find Some Awesome Gaming Dice
Good rolls with dice you love will help you have a great adventure.
The Atomic RPG System Dice are Streamlined
Just as in other role play games, the Atomic RPG System uses dice. However, you will soon come to notice that the Atomic RPG System is also streamlined so the game itself is not derailed while one player makes attack rolls. In the Atomic RPG System, your characters will make one Attack Roll per round regardless of the number of targets they may be attacking. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons, the Atomic RPG System characters roll once for an Attack Roll and not once for each target. This is especially useful when your Power attacks multiple targets or your character is using multiple weapons. One and done, succeed or fail, and then the turn moves to the next player. This keeps the drama high, with only one roll, and keeps the action moving. Experienced gamers will soon learn that Atomic games move much faster, get more done, have a higher level of excitement, and ultimately will be better than any other table top role play gaming experience.
Optional Ways to Roll Dice
You may choose one of these optional die rules to make it easier for you to roll damage and/or healing (not to Hit):
- Averaging - You may choose to average your dice completely. This is for those who don't want to roll anything. This is fast and easy though it lacks some of the drama of rolling.
- Rolling Average - In this method you can average any number of dice you want: you can decide how much rolling and drama you want in your actions. IE: you have a power that does 10d12 points of damage. You can choose to roll 5d12+30, 8d12+12, or 1d12+54. For the sake of simplicity choose one method and stick with it. You cannot change your rolling method during combat.
- You may use the Atomic RPG System Random Dice Roller.
- You may use a Game Master pre-approved electronic die roller.
- You may use a Game Master pre-approved electronic die roller.
Note: The GM reserves the right to modify die roll styles according to the pace of the game.
If you need some dice your local game store will probably have some or you can check online for a wider variety of dice on websites like RPG Dice on Amazon.