From the first Dungeons & Dragons session onward, roleplaying games have been associated with dice and the uncertainty and excitement they add to every major character action. The following RPGs, however, buck this trend, using rulesets and storytelling principles that are completely dice-free. Some of these no-dice tabletop RPGs are free-form narrative engines, others use alternate tools such as cards or tokens, and all prove players don't need polyhedral shapes with numbers on them to have a good time.
Most roleplaying games have their own unique rules for when and how a player rolls dice, but the majority of dice rule for RPGs boil down to two general systems. There's the "Dice + Bonus" system promulgated by Dungeons & Dragons, where a player, when faced with a significant challenge, rolls a die, adds a numerical bonus, and compares it to a set difficulty rating. Then there's the "Dice Pool" system seen in games like Vampire: The Masquerade, where players roll a handful of identical dice and count the number of faces above a certain level to see if they succeeded. Both of these dice-rolling systems are designed to add variance to a roleplaying game session, giving even the most clumsy of oafs a chance to succeed and the most clever of plans a change to go entertainingly astray.
Dice can be notoriously fickle sometimes, and for every entertaining success or failure in a dice-based roleplaying game, there are also moments where a critical success defeats a villain too early, or a critical failure creates a plot-wrecking disaster. For these reasons and others, a number of dice-free roleplaying games have diverged from the template set out by Dungeons & Dragons, using alternatives to dice-based conflict resolution that encourage more narrative play or introduce different elements of dangers and suspense to a game session. Here are some of these innovative games, thanks in part to the folks at Geek & Sundry.
Tabletop RPGs With No Dice - Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game
Based on the acclaimed novels by fantasy author Robert Zelzany, the 1991 Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game puts players in the shoes of scions from the Royal Family of Amber, a clan of bickering, godlike immortals with the ability to Shadowwalk (i.e., travel between the countless parallel universes branching off from their own root reality). As a self-proclaimed "Diceless System" with an emphasis on inter-player conflict, success or failure is determined purely by the flat strength of the player's attributes (Psyche, Strength, Endurance, Warfare) and their various world-hopping abilities. The "Auction" character creation rules of Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game force players to bid for high-value attributes and sorcerous powers, ensuring each player character has their own unique proficiencies.
Tabletop RPGs With No Dice - Dread: A Game Of Horror And Hope
The basic rules for Dread: A Game Of Horror And Hope are brutally simple. Players create their horror story protagonist by filling out a questionnaire with ominous inquiries such as "What did you bury in your backyard last summer?" and "What did you do before entering Witness Protection?" Then, whenever players encounter a risky situation during their campaign, they must pull a block from a Jenga Tower to see if they succeed. If the Tower falls, the character of the player who toppled it dies gruesomely or suffers a fate worse than death. Despite their simplicity, the rules for Dread work marvelously as a tool for telling "dwindling party" horror stories, where the main cast gets picked off one by one.
Tabletop RPGs With No Dice - Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple
The world of Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple is an endless expanse of blue skies and clouds, filled with floating islands of rock, drifting hot air balloons, fantastical creatures, and colorful societies of people with problems that need solving. Players take on the role of naive teenage acolytes who are sent out from the mythical Flying Temple on missions and coming-of-age journeys inspired by TV Avatar: The Last Airbender and books like The Little Prince. By drawing combinations of black and white tokens from a drawstring bag, players figure out whether their well-intentioned Pilgrims actually help people with their problems or just get themselves into trouble. At the end of a Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple session, a player's total count of black and white tokens also determines whether they return to the Flying Temple or embrace a worldly life.
Tabletop RPGs With No Dice - Phoenix: Dawn Command
Phoenix: Dawn Command is a boxed RPG set designed by Keith Baker, the creator of the Magic: The Gathering-style. Each time a player dies and resurrects, they level up, but they also draw closer and closer to their final, poignant death.
Source: Geek & Sundry
