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When I am a game master, I historically shied away from significant use of chance during my Dungeons & Dragons adventures. My preference was for story direction and what happened in a game to be guided by character actions rather than the roll of a die. Recently, I decided to alter my method, and I'm incredibly glad I did.

The Spark: Observing a Custom Mechanic

A popular podcast features a DM who regularly requests "fate rolls" from the players. He does this by picking a polyhedral and outlining consequences based on the result. While it's fundamentally no unlike consulting a random table, these are devised on the spot when a player's action has no obvious conclusion.

I decided to try this method at my own table, primarily because it appeared engaging and provided a change from my standard routine. The results were remarkable, prompting me to think deeply about the perennial dynamic between planning and improvisation in a tabletop session.

An Emotional Story Beat

During one session, my group had concluded a massive conflict. When the dust settled, a player wondered if two key NPCs—a pair—had lived. Instead of deciding myself, I handed it over to chance. I asked the player to make a twenty-sided die roll. The stakes were: on a 1-4, both died; a middling roll, only one would die; on a 10+, they both lived.

The die came up a 4. This triggered a profoundly poignant moment where the characters discovered the bodies of their companions, still clasped together in their final moments. The cleric performed funeral rites, which was particularly significant due to previous story developments. As a parting reward, I improvised that the remains were miraculously transformed, showing a magical Prayer Bead. By chance, the bead's contained spell was perfectly what the group needed to resolve another critical situation. It's impossible to orchestrate such serendipitous coincidences.

Honing DM Agility

This incident led me to ponder if chance and making it up are actually the essence of D&D. While you are a prep-heavy DM, your improvisation muscles can rust. Groups frequently find joy in ignoring the most detailed narratives. Therefore, a skilled DM needs to be able to pivot effectively and invent scenarios on the fly.

Using similar mechanics is a excellent way to train these talents without going completely outside your usual style. The key is to deploy them for small-scale decisions that don't fundamentally change the campaign's main plot. As an example, I would not employ it to establish if the king's advisor is a traitor. Instead, I might use it to figure out whether the PCs enter a room just in time to see a critical event unfolds.

Strengthening Player Agency

This technique also helps keep players engaged and cultivate the feeling that the story is dynamic, evolving according to their actions in real-time. It reduces the perception that they are merely characters in a rigidly planned story, thereby bolstering the shared foundation of roleplaying.

This approach has historically been part of the core of D&D. Early editions were reliant on encounter generators, which made sense for a game focused on dungeon crawling. Even though modern D&D frequently emphasizes story and character, leading many DMs to feel they must prep extensively, that may not be the required method.

Finding the Sweet Spot

Absolutely no problem with thorough preparation. However, equally valid no issue with letting go and permitting the whim of chance to decide some things in place of you. Control is a big factor in a DM's responsibilities. We require it to run the game, yet we can be reluctant to cede it, in situations where doing so could be beneficial.

My final recommendation is this: Don't be afraid of relinquishing a bit of the reins. Embrace a little randomness for smaller details. It may find that the surprising result is significantly more memorable than anything you would have scripted on your own.