How Dice Rolls Became Modern Gaming’s Most Important Mechanic

The influence that tabletop gaming has had on the video game landscape is hard to deny. From deck-building titles to strategy experiences, the digital world has taken plenty of inspiration from the realms of physical play. Sometimes, these concepts are proudly placed on display, in a title that celebrates its tabletop origins. But arguably, these techniques and tools have become so entrenched within the video game industry that we hardly notice them anymore. They are simply a part of the language, and although we may recognize the connection between the two mediums, video game mechanics rely upon those concepts much more often than we think. 

One prominent tabletop element that has consistently been applied to video gaming is the rolling of dice. Fate and luck come into play whenever this mechanic is used. The importance of rolling dice within the medium of tabletop gaming was slowly transferred to video gaming and has become so critical to developers’ tool sets that they have woven themselves into the very fabric of many titles without the fanfare they perhaps deserve. 

The Impact of Dice Rolling on Tabletop Gaming

Firstly, we’ve got to dive into what makes dice rolling so important in the tabletop realms. It might seem obvious since it’s such a major part of most games, but rolling the dice is so much more than a handy catalyst for action. Dice rolling can measure luck and make choices for players. It can keep gameplay fair and balanced and will lead to unusual avenues that make the direction of play that much more exciting. It replicates the uncertainty of the real world and is fantastic for helping to craft narratives with unpredictability. There’s no outwitting a dice, and with all the strategy in the world, nothing can outweigh its final decision. 

Dice rolling is irreplaceable as a gameplay mechanic because of its versatility. The tool has been revised and reviewed across decades of game development, helping to trace combat, aiding the movement of pieces across the board, and even finalizing whether a character’s choice made the impact that the player hoped it would. Whether it’s a classic board game or an RPG, dice are called upon to keep the session moving and provide that sense of momentum.

Dice were used in one of the earliest known board games, Royal Game of Ur, which dates back to around 2600–2400 BC. However, in recent years dice mechanics have been more commonly associated with role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The fact that consumers now purchase custom dice, to aid in their RPG campaigns, is an indication of how important this seemingly simple component has become. And of course, the design of dice has changed too, with everything from a D6 to a D120 being invented to keep up with the scale and ambition of players. 

It should come as no surprise that a mechanic that has been so intrinsically linked to an industry, would suddenly become integral to another. But perhaps we haven’t been paying attention enough, because the benefits of using a dice in gameplay have been slowly seeping into the video game industry, one title at a time. 

How Dice Rolling Shaped Early CRPGs

The most natural place to look for dice-rolling mechanics is within computer role-playing games also known as CRPGs. This genre is one of the earliest and most obvious adopters of the tool, largely because the medium is hugely inspired by tabletop gaming.

Early CRPGs such as Ultima and Wizardry tried to utilize the gameplay mechanics of the RPG genre, replicating some of the elements of Dungeons and Dragons. Character stats, open decision-making, NPC interaction, and crucially dice rolling, are all tropes of the medium that have been adapted to CRPGs. Early on, though, those digital dice rolls often occurred in the background as randomized interactions played out. Rather than imagining the action, players are faced with a representation of their choices, but the rules remain the same. As the genre developed, early D&D games like Pool of Radiance expanded the use of these mechanics, leading eventually to hits like Baldur’s Gate.

The use of dice within those games became more obvious. Players are often faced with a litany of dice styles when rolling in these games, representing the wide variety of types used in real-world RPGs. These mechanics are usually built into the game by pressing a button to prompt a digital dice roll.

Occasionally, something more interactive is used. Depending on the title, where players can actually choose the dice they wish to roll. From Tharsis to Baldur’s Gate 3, the application of the mechanic has continuously been altered, but gamers will be able to easily identify a long list of titles that take this basic approach; of stealing from a tabletop gaming experience that has already provided a tried and true method of testing players. As this genre continues to gather popularity within the digital space, those dice roll mechanics will be used by more and more developers, learning from recent successes and taking advantage of the rising interest in classic RPGs. 

The Dice Roll Moves Beyond RPGs

Outside of CRPGs, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the only other prominent place in which dice rolls are significant to gameplay is in the digital board gaming market. Of course, the likes of Monopoly or Risk are other titles where this concept is rather prominent. But they are literal copy-and-paste formulas that have already been mastered. Compared to CRPGs, there’s very little alteration needed to adapt these titles to a new medium.

A completely different genre has also been born of those ideas too, with an array of dice-rolling games launching that use the mechanic to guide the entire play session. Strategy titles such as Die In The Dungeon or Roll have honed in on what makes this kind of gameplay so addictive, and have ultimately produced original styles that have enchanted audiences. 

However, moving away from the tabletop-esque titles that utilize dice-rolling mechanics, the concept has continuously evolved as it becomes evermore interlinked with video gaming. That’s partially due to the increasingly popular incorporation of RPG-lite mechanics in a wider variety of games. Even concepts such as loot boxes are variations on the dice roll. That’s a classic example, as the very nature of a loot box is built on a random reveal with a positive or negative outcome. While it’s not visually expressed as a dice roll, loot boxes take the exact same principles of the mechanic and paint them in a different light. 

Titles that use random number generators in their coding or RNG techniques also make use of the basics of dice-rolling, but again with a slightly different setup. Fortnite for instance has RNG mechanics built in, to create unpredictability on a battlefield. What weapons might appear and what gear can be found changes based on the number that’s chosen by the software. Pokémon takes advantage of that same notion, but players are faced with random wild Pokémon appearing, with a smaller and smaller likelihood of Shinies or shape-shifters like Dittos showing up. In truth, the video game industry would look incredibly different without dice-rolling. Regardless of the form it takes, it’s still a relevant and reliable tool that can make a genuine difference to the player’s experience in every capacity. 

Invisible Dice Rolling In Today’s Gaming 

On some level, dice-rolling in video games might seem like a bit of a gimmick. A way to tie two industries together that have a few things in common, and to vary gameplay styles. However, players will find that invisible dice-rolling tools are now present in most titles today. RNG and loot boxes are just two examples, but anywhere choice and chance are brought into play – from enemy spawns to dynamic NPC dialogue – essentially what’s happening is a dice is being rolled without anyone taking the time to recognize that movement. 

It’s such a unique way to bring variation to gameplay and now the industry couldn’t do without it. It’s strange that what was once a major part of a physical game has now become an invisible part of most titles. In fact, it might be hard to find any games that don’t involve a take on dice rolling in some form. The idea is so prevalent that it has been molded into the rest of the industry. It’s such a simple technique to rely upon to solve so many challenges. Those issues faced within tabletop gaming, such as fairness and balance, or realistic unpredictability, can all be solved with the use of dice. It’s incredible how this basic concept has become so embraced by developers. 

Interestingly, there are very few other tabletop mechanics that have been utilized in this same way. The prior example of deck building, for instance, is a very obvious concept to use and is rarely hidden quite like dice rolls. But it’s just not as versatile. Many of these other tabletop ideas are too specific for such widespread usage and thus are discarded very quickly. But for dice rolling, the benefits go even deeper than just the gameplay mechanics that players interact with.

Even during the development of VFX for titles, digital dice are essentially constantly being rolled to impact the visuals players see. Take an explosion; the sparks and shrapnel that fire away from the effect, which might even injure players in some detailed titles, are randomly chosen to look realistic and are constantly shifting to create visual variety. As bizarre as it may seem, that’s the laws of luck and chance at play once more. 

While CRPGs might have been some of the earliest adopters of obvious dice-rolling mechanics, the truth is that this concept of randomization has been around for a very long time. We don’t want to shy away from the negatives of the mechanics. The implications of gambling and the downsides of artists relieving some creative control over their titles in favor of fate, can have an impact on the player’s experience. There’s even an argument to be made that many of these ideas are now too prevalent within the industry and are taking over. But dice-rolling is relevant to almost every area of gameplay design, and should perhaps be celebrated far more than it is for the contributions it has made. Tabletop gaming might have initially prompted the use of dice rolling within a run of play, but the video game world has mastered the art for better or worse.