Dice Rolling Rules
Mirage can be played either with or without the dice, depending on your preference.
In the diceless version, the GM simply uses their judgement to decide the outcomes of the player’s actions. But if you want, you can use the simple dice rolling rules to add randomness and unpredictable outcomes to your game.
To play with the dice, you will need four 20-sided dice for each player (but you can get by with the four dice for the whole group). If you’re playing over discord - you can use Avrae bot to roll the dice for you automatically (instructions below).
Rolling Dice (For Players)
When you attempt to do something difficult or risky, the GM will tell you to roll one or more 20-sided dice (also called d20). The number you roll will determine the result of your action:
- 20 - Triumph
You succeed in an exceptionally spectacular way.
If you’re dealing damage, double it. - 15-19 - Success
You successfully perform the action you were attempting. - 7-14 - Success at a cost
You succeed, but suffer some negative consequence, complication, or a setback. - 2-6 - Failure
You fail, and suffer some negative consequence, complication, or a setback. - 1 - Disaster
You dramatically fail and things get worse. You might suffer a severe setback, lose equipment, take damage from an enemy counterattack, or face some other misfortune.
An easy way to remember this:
- If you roll 7 or higher - you succeed at an action, otherwise you fail.
- If you roll 14 or lower - your action also leads to some negative consequence, complication, or a setback.
Advantage and Disadvantage
Depending on the difficulty of the task, the GM can tell you to roll several (2, 3, or 4) dice with ”Advantage” or ”Disadvantage”. You will have Advantage when the task is relatively easy, likely to succeed, or when you came up with a clever/creative approach to solving it. You will have Disadvantage on partiularly difficult tasks. The harder the task - the more Disadvantage you’ll have.
- If you have Advantage - use the highest one of the rolls and ignore the rest.
- If you have Disadvantage - use the lowest one of the rolls and ignore the rest.
For example, if GM tells you “Roll 3 Dice with Advantage”, and you roll 4, 17, and 9, your result is 17. If GM tells you “Roll 2 Dice with Disadvantage” and you roll 5 and 16, your result is 5.
Bonus Dice
Bonus dice allow you to improve your chances. Each bonus die allows you to add one advantage die or remove one disadvantage die.
There are 3 ways to gain bonus dice:
- Using Powers
Use an ability, spell, or an item relevant to the task you are attempting. - Being Creative
Creatively use the world around you, find some clever way to approach the task to maximize your chances, or use teamwork to accomplish the task together with other players (describe how you’re helping each other out). - Excellent Roleplaying
Act out a dramatic moment, make a speech, describe what you do in an exceptionally vivid and awesome way.
Each one of these options can give you at most 1 bonus die, so you can have at most 3 bonus dice in total.
When you’re attempting an action, before making a roll, describe what you’re doing to gain the bonus dice. The GM will tell you if what you do allows you to gain the bonus dice.
Rolling Dice on Discord
Our discord server has a list of commands you can use to roll the dice automatically. To add these commands to your own server, use this guide.
Type the command in the chat to make a roll:
!rl- roll 1 die (Flat Roll).!adv2- roll 2 dice with Advantage.!adv3- roll 3 dice with Advantage.!adv4- roll 4 dice with Advantage.!dis2- roll 2 dice with Disadvantage.!dis3- roll 3 dice with Disadvantage.!dis4- roll 4 dice with Disadvantage.
Rolling Dice (For GMs)
Tell players to roll the dice only in high stakes, meaningful, dramatic moments when both succeeding and failing at the action could each contribute something interesting to the story. If the roll result doesn’t lead to the significant consequences, or if the failure roll doesn’t have anything interesting to contribute (“nothing happens”) - don’t call for a roll, just make the judgement yourself.
To modify difficulty, tell the player to roll multiple dice (2, 3, or 4). For example, for extremely difficult tasks tell them to roll 4 dice with disadvantage. For extremely easy tasks, tell them to roll 4 dice with advantage.
In combat, the weapons deal static damage and hit automatically, so rolling dice every turn isn’t necessary. Call for a die roll only when there’s a reason the attack would be extra difficult/risky, or when it’s interesting to have an unpredictable outcome.
The spells never fail to work. Outcomes and results can depend on a roll, but if the player casts a spell, the spell is going to go off and do what it’s description says.
Don’t hide information behind the roll. If the player describes looking for clues - they find them.
To give you some intuition on how advantage and disadvantage modify the likelihood of player’s success, here are the chances of rolling “Complete Success” or higher, and “Success at a Cost” or higher:
