“Rules as Written”: Game Algorithms as Game Capital

Abstract

A common theme of many RPGs is what could be summed up to chance: the reliance on tables and die rolls to demonstrate success or failure in a particular life task. The common belief is that by opening all actions to the will of the die roll, a fairer interpretation of what could happen in a given scenario is based on the successes or failure of the supposed skills of the character, and not the actual skills of the player. How would it change Dungeons & Dragons, for example, if every person playing a bard had to break out in song or strum an instrument, with the Dungeon Master (DM) as the final arbiter of accomplishment? The benefit of the die system is the core ability to be abstract; to allow numbers on a page to represent skills, abilities, and attributes of a character that either completely differ from the player or represent systems (e.g. magic) that do not exist in the postmodern world.