The Roll of the Dice

...or the d20 at least.

A group of my closer MMO friends (specifically, that I have never met in real life) and I have recently started a Pathfinder group via Skype. The reasons for this are many, and maybe the subject of a future blog post regarding our jaded disenchantment with the state of the MMO industry at the moment.

Dystopian outlook aside, the experience has been fun. Only our GM has any clue what he's doing, the rest of us are green and fumbling along as we go. He's been kind and we've been introducing mechanics over time. I figure by the fourth or fifth session, we might actually understand most of what we're doing. At which point we'll add more mechanics no doubt.

I have to say, the most captivating aspect of the game came as a surprise to me: The dice roll.

If you know me, you know I'm kind of a control freak. "God Complex" may or may not be an appropriate term. So the fact that I enjoy letting fate decide my hand kind of caught me off guard. I'm still trying to reason out what it is. The uncertainty? Knowing I may have to completely redo my strategy on a whim because of a bad roll? I don't know but it's there.

I know at least of a part of my likes the extremely tangible aspect of the roll. Dice on wood. The sound. There's something very real about it. It's a nice contrast to the digital gaming world I'm used to.