I’ve mentioned it a few times in various topics, but I use the Force dice to determine “luck” in my games. When a situation calls for a chancy roll, and the characters’ skills are not applicable because it is luck of the draw, I prefer to use the Force die. It’s flexible, thematic, and has been quite useful for me.
I usually break it down thusly:
Double-light: Something positively good happens.
Light: Something bad doesn’t happen, or something marginally beneficial happens.
Dark: Usually neutral, unless I need to shift the luck towards bad.
Double-dark: Not only does nothing good happen, but something positively bad happens instead.
Sometimes, the situation would call for something bad to be more likely to happen, in which case I shift single dark to be the unlucky counterpart of a single light, and either shift single light to be neutral, or simply remove a “neutral” option, depending on the circumstance.
I’ve toyed with the idea, but never tried it. Can you share any experience implementing this? Did it work as intended? How did the players react? Are you satisfied with this method?
Yes it worked as intended, the players loved it, and I am completely satisfied with it.
Here are some examples:
Mynocks kidnapped the character’s droid babies and then fled into the four tunnels leading away from the central junction.
The PCs then failed the various checks I had provided, and it came to a game of eeny-meeny-miny-moe. So I had them each roll a Force die for the tunnel they took. Double light meant they found two droids, single light meant they found a single droid, single dark meant they found nothing, and double dark meant that they got attacked by… something… >:)
I’ve also had them roll luck to determine their timing for something. Once, I used it to wrap up an encounter that was dragging on a bit too long and becoming repetitive, with the result dictating how well each PC made out. In that case, single light was neutral (“nothing bad happens”), a single dark was a few wounds, and a double dark was a few wounds and a crit. Double light just made the PC feel really good about themselves and narrate how well they did, there wasn’t really any mechanical benefit there.
I think I’ve also used it like a coin flip a couple times, but I can’t really remember any specific incidences because they would never have been important. (Yes, I know it isn’t a 50/50 split, I would’ve had particular reasons for using it that way.)
The mynock example is great, I like it! Though in the second case (Had it sometimes when I badly tune a combat scene) I use the One-check resolution optional rule.
An example where I’ve used it, the city the group used as a “home base” was under siege by the Empire. They were trying to get across town to where their ship was docked to get away. Periodically, as they’d round a corner or go down a different path on the way there, I’d have them designate someone to roll a Force die: light side, that new path was clear (at the moment); dark side, Imperial forces were there.