There have been many times when I’ve had to adjudicate ‘luck’ during game sessions. Sometimes, it’s as simple as determining whether something would be readily available (“hey, we’re in a tool shed! Is the power drill charged?”) or fortuitously brought along (“I know I didn’t mention it, but my character probably would carry chewing gum in her pocket”). Usually on these occasions I just use GM fiat or make up a percentage chance; still, it would be handy to have something meatier.
While playing The Laundry (which is a variant of Call of Cthulhu) a few nights ago, I was pleasantly surprised at how convenient it was to have a Luck score available for me to use. Whenever I needed fortune to fall in a PC’s favor I simply had her make a Luck roll. This came in extremely handy when one PC, left behind as the other PCs took off in a van, looked around to see if there was something he could take. After a successful Luck roll I told him he saw a man just hopping on his scooter.
In Basic Roleplaying (from which the previously mentioned games are derived), Luck is determined by Power, which is a combination of willpower, magical ability, and spiritual awareness. Luck = Power x5, which turns it into a percentage. If you roll under the percentage, then luck is on your side. Easy rolls double the percentage, Difficult rolls halve it. Special rolls are at 1/5th the success percentage (indicating either a spectacular success or what is needed for a very difficult roll), while Fumbles are at 1/5th the failure percentage; your bad luck just got worse.
So while running The Laundry, all I needed to do was decide whether luck was really on the PC’s side (Easy), about 50/50 (Normal), not that likely (Difficult), or really a stretch (Special). If the PC made the roll then fortune is on her side. Sometimes I called for the Luck roll based on the situation; sometimes the player prompted me, usually indirectly.
The concept of a Luck stat is easily transportable to other systems although not every RPG has a stat to represent the mystical. Some RPGs, like HERO, GURPS, and Unisystem, have powers or traits (or even some version of ‘bennie points’) that represent luck . Other RPGs, like Dungeons & Dragons in its multiple iterations, don’t have a statistic that easily models Basic Roleplaying’s Power stat. In the case of the former, you’ll need to decide whether a more general Luck stat is necessary, and in the latter you’ll need to decide how to derive a luck score.
For example, adding Luck to a d20 game is simple; take the average of all a PC’s ability scores in order to find the Luck stat (for the Elite array it’s 12, or +1). Then, decide whether your PCs lead charmed lives or whether the weaker PCs get the lucky breaks; flip the modifier if you go with the latter (so a +1 becomes a -1). Grant the PC 4 “skill ranks” in Luck and add 1 for each level above 1st. Now you can treat luck like any other skill and use difficulty levels to simulate the likelihood of luck being on the PC’s side. One can never “take 10 0r 20” on Luck rolls. A ‘Lucky’ feat could add a bonus.
Alternately, you could simply run Luck as straight percentages for any system, so long as you have appropriate dice handy. Easy rolls are 75%, Average rolls are 50%, Difficult rolls are 25% and Special rolls are 5% (in addition to numerous values in between).
So, what kinds of things can Luck be used for?
1. Serendipity: Obstacles are bypassed because something happens to aid you (the villain closes the elevator door but the doors to the adjacent elevator aids you. The person you’ve been looking for just happens to stop at the same fast food joint for lunch.
2. Props: You’re out of bullets and trapped in a shed when the monster attacks. How lucky would it be if this backwoods shed had an extra shotgun in it for emergencies?
3. Relationships: How are you going to get into that exclusive club? Hey wait, didn’t that bouncer go to high school with you? And didn’t you happen to help him out of a jam in the past?
4. Trivia: No, you aren’t a historian, but you just happen to enjoy the Elizabethan era; so much so that you’d be familiar with the works of John Dee. This just happens to be extremely useful in interpreting the ritual you just stumbled into.
5. Skill: While you didn’t take any ranged combat skills, you may recall that you did a bit of archery during a couple of summer camps. Maybe that’s enough for you to perform a trick now?
The downside to adding Luck, of course, is that you’ve created another statistic to track or, in some RPGs, risk watering down or usurping a mechanic already in place. Still, I’ve found that having some luck mechanic in place helps mitigate concerns of GM fiat, railroading, or convenience.
How about you? How do you incorporate the role of Luck in RPGs that lack a mechanic for it? Do you stick with GM fiat or do something else? Do you think adding a Luck mechanic would help your campaign or just complicate it?
It’s not really what it’s for, but when running Shadowrun (4th Ed) I often ask my players for an Edge Test to determine serendipity and props. Things like Contacts and Knowledge skills cover relationships and trivia under that system, and tricks are already covered.
It makes me feel a lot better – Edge is a stat that players can choose to spend Karma on to improve, and has a lot of other applications, so rewarding a higher score doesn’t seem unreasonable. There’s some variability, since rolling one hit is going to be a less useful outcome than rolling five hits, and of course there’s the chance to really push your luck by spending Edge on the Test to get exploding dice and the opportunity for way more hits…
You beat me to it! I also do this with my Shadowrun group. If the player asks for something that falls outside the purview of specific gear or skills or an obvious answer, I have them roll Edge just like a normal Attribute only test (without them having to expend a point, unless they want to be really lucky) and use that as a guide as to whether they get what they want or not.
Otherwise, if I’m working in a system without a similar mechanic or a situation that is not based strictly on one player’s luck, I’ll do as Walt mentioned and make up a percentage and roll an appropriate die or two.
While the luck stat can be very handy, I have rarely found it needed in my games. When I do, I often just call for a strait roll, or just use a closely associated roll with a slight penalty.
Most of the systems I use have some kind of style/fate/plot/hero point mechanic. Depending on how unlikely, or how much it would bend the plot, they can spend points to have that needed bit of equipment, “get out of death” point, reduce damage, have some deus ex machina, or some other “luck” element.
I do enjoy deterministic luck–if you want X to happen, spend a bennie or Fate Point, or whatever your resource is. Of course, I also find that luck tends to follow the laws of drama instead of probability in most of my games…
It can be fun to let luck rule–it just becomes important to ensure that it doesn’t overshadow actual training and skill.
I forgot to mention: I just finished playing in a Top Secret/SI game. Each character has 1d6(?) luck points, rolled and secretly tracked by the GM. If you need a re-roll because your patient is dying or the bullet’s going to splatter you, you ask for it. The GM crosses off a point–if you have one left. Otherwise, he shrugs and says, “You’re out of luck.”
This is actually how I add this luck idea to my D&D/Pathfinder games, I make it an aspect of fate points (or whatever). So apart from the normal uses for these points, you also have the more story based. Admittedly, my players rarely use them that way, but it’s happened a few times. We’ll see how it comes up when I start to run Wrath of the Righteous next month.
I’ve got a couple of ways to represent luck.
In the would this specific thing randomly be in this pile/chest/cache of related things vein, I’ll ask the player/s to “call it High or Low”. I’ll then roll any die that’s handy. Using a d12 as an example 1-6 = Low & 7-12 = High. If the players called it correctly, then the thing is there. For something a bit less likely to be there, I’ll ask ’em to “call it High, Low, Middle.” 1-4 = Low, 5-8 = Middle, 9-12 = High. (Easiest w/ d12 or d6.) Call it correctly, and again it’s totally there. If it is possible but unlikely that something will be there, I’ll typically just say no; however, if I’m feeling puckish, I’ll have the players call it High/Low with the understanding that the die has to land on the highest or lowest possible number. For this a d12 represents apx. an 8% chance of success: d20 represents a 5% shot. (I wouldn’t use any die lower than a d12.)
As far as representing actually lucky characters, I’ve got a skill in my system called Luck. Taking the skill means the first time you roll a 1 on any action each day (game-time, you re-roll the result. I like it because it doesn’t require the players to make a decision the characters aren’t, while still representing the trope of blessed fate or just guys with annoyingly good luck. Instead of contemplating when to spend that fate/plot/special/bad-ass point, the odds simply skew a bit in the character’s favor. It leaves more brain-space for pretending to be a mighty warrior, mischievous space-ship captain, or hipster psychic mushroom.
I run a d20 system game and added luck as another stat, having the PC’s roll 4d6 and keep the best three dice. It’s a quasi Pathfinder hero point, quasi “something just killed my character and I want to survive” tool. The players get to use it only once per session. If a lethal crit is scored they can use a luck point to keep the Character alive, but the score lowers by one. If the player wants to use it to aid a situation, then I use it as a stat (12 luck is +1, 14 is +2 etc.) and give them a DC 10 or 15 or whatever seems appropriate to the scenario. A luck point is not lost in this case. When a particularly clever idea is thought up or a player has perfect attendance for 6 months or so I award a bonus luck point.