: Posted by Andrew Robinson in GM Course & Exam

: : "Paper and Dice
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: : Even in STF some GMs still fall back to what they know best. They plot out their sims and use paper and dice to make decisions and guide the players. There is nothing wrong with this so long as the GM remembers that STF is a text based RPG and turns his plotting into well written posts. "
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: : I question whether any STF GM here actually uses paper and dice. How many of us GMs encounter the situation of "Player X fires phaser" (rolls for success and power of the phaer shot)?
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: I've only ever known one GM who openly used dice for determining success and that was Colin Wyers. He was a very odd man to GM with. I use a combination of a posters realism, skill and practicality in determining whether what they're doing is successful.
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A somewhat peanut gallery comment, but whether or not this section is removed, I can see value in using dice. If I ever get a chance to GM, I probably would. Not to a crazy extent like having paper sheets for each character and ship with stats and what not, but sometimes dice are nice to keep things a little randomized. Does the bad guy hit the good guy with his phaser blast? I don't know, lets take a roll and see. How much damage did that grenade do? Hmmm where's my D20... ? <G> This particular section does hit home to me, since my first real role playing was paper and pen D&D, I was a DM, and can certainly see how dice could be applicable here. Or maybe I'm just weird like Colin. :P

Jen