The Dice Tell the Story

“It is as if we are trapped in a never-ending game, our lives hinging on the roll of a dice or the turn of a card. ”― Richard A. Knaak, Night of the Dragon

We’ve talked about the people components of Tabletop Gaming, those components that are in control of a person, one way or another, and now we come to the Dice. Dice are a common component in Tabletop Gaming, however, they can also be cards or another manipulative that the human element doesn’t have full control over. To keep things simple, we will stick with talking about dice, but we encourage you to explore other styles of games that suit your needs in the therapeutic space.

Control and the Dice

Dice have an important use in Tabletop Gaming, they help determine the success of an action. This can be hitting an enemy, trying to take a well-aimed shot, trying to slide under the cave-in, or picking a lock. Different games have different rules for how the dice are determined, but it all usually falls under the same “The lower the number the worse you did” with 1s being a complete failure and the highest dice number being a complete success.

When someone says “The Dice Tell the Story” what they mean is the random chance of the dice will determine how the story goes. The only thing we can control is the roll and the dice will land where they will. This says a lot about control and the control we have in certain situations. 

Sparrow is a human thief, tasked with breaking into the most secure facility in Neo-York. Their high internal security makes it impossible to just hack through using the computer systems on the van. However, the corporation made the biggest mistake when they thought the art of manual break-ins was a dying art. Sparrow knelt next to the keypad that required a specific card chip and attempted to crack open the casing so she could hot wire her way in. Her player rolls the correct dice and is instructed she has to beat a 7 to succeed. They roll a 6 and set the silent alarm that locks that specific door down and were unsuccessful in that door.

The player was not able to control their success rate, but they are able to control both their own reaction and the character’s reaction to the failure. Will they try a different method? Will they give up? This lack of control represents the unexpected in life and can help group members learn flexibility, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and a number of other helpful things.

Failure in Therapy

In therapeutic tabletop gaming, I use a “fail forward” and “No, but” rule in my groups. This means even a 1 can uncover something in the game. It won’t be what the player was looking for, and it might make the situation worse, but it’s always information they can use to drive the game forward. It’s important to remember that sometimes the player is just unlucky and can be rolling low all group sessions. By using a fail-forward method, these players still have something they can gain for the group and represents the idea that even failure can lead to opportunity.