I saw a post on BlueSky by Ktrey of the d4 Caltrops blog fame about ‘Usage Dice’, and wanted to spotlight this idea on my blog:
TL/DR:
Here’s what Ktrey had to say:
“But my biggest advice for Usage Die in general is never deplete to Zero: The d4 can go down to “last one” instead, nothing beats the tension of that!”
I really love the idea of usage dice, but I’ve found that in online play, they don’t have quite the same impact. You could display them on a whiteboard or something similar, but I find that using a clock mechanic from FitD is a much simpler and more visual way to track resources.
How do others handle usage dice in online games? Any creative solutions?
These days I do tend to use them primarily for less quantifiable things, as I don’t see the Resource tracking to be too onerous and I dislike how it can obviate Player Decisions associated with their Supplies and Preparedness.
But I do love them for things that are “Uncountable” or have variable uses. Wand Charges are a big one where they show up in my games, as well as Durations for things like Protection Scrolls (the tension they introduce in those is worth randomizing!) or the progression of Illness/Diseases/Venoms (again: when it’s hard to be sure how long something will take!)
There is a tactile component to them though: Placing a Die in the Player’s hands and letting them watch it shrink as a result of their decisions or the fictional situation is pretty interesting. I do imagine that as @elmcat mentions…this might be less impactful with virtual rollers/online.
Not entirely creative but adding a “token” or note to the VTT or shared view for a visual reminder could work. Or just asking the player to roll physical dice for that effect. But as @ktrey mentions:
I actually really like the d4 to 1 idea. I’ve enjoyed playing games with usage dice in the past and think this would be an interesting change that would definitely ratchet up the tension when my quiver goes to 1 arrow (etc.)
i must say, i’ve never actually done this, but for things like magic wands, or other unquantifyable, unknown limited resources… i really want the d4 die to be GM rolled in secret. like, the players know its running low, but never know for sure till they take an action and the wand just fizzles and smokes. nice trope!
I’m conflicted on usage die because I consider them a mechanic designed to simplify bookwork and add interesting wrinkles to a story, which are goals that are sometimes at odds OSR principles related to planning.
I once read (somewhere) that the intention of usage dice is to model the feeling of watching an action movie where the hero shoots an improbable number of bullets only to have an empty clip during a pivotable moment. Whether this feeling is successfully modeled at table seems to be pretty heavily debated. There will always be those people that feel like their characters should be able have an unerring track of their resources as part of their basic competency as adventurers.
Usage dice implemented for standard consumables take decision making out of player hands and leave them up to fate. To me this randomness is justified by representing factors that occur outside of player control (food spoilage).With this mechanic in play a party can no longer track precisely the correct amount of food they may need to hike to the forest or exactly how many torches they need to explore a dungeon within the allotted time slot of a D&D session. To some people this will require a certain suspension of disbelief they may not be predisposed to. I still think it has merit because it introduces uncertainty that can lead to hard choices and more drama where there would otherwise be none.
While I really like the idea of items reducing to one instead of expiring completely in order to increase dramatic effect, I know some players that are terrible misers and are anxious around expending resources so 1 might as well still be 0 for them. Despite that I’d love to test this rule more and find out.
Love the usage die. In play I found my PCs still buying and scavenging to top up anyway so not sure how often we’d get to the last one. Still, super cool modification to the rule.
I think my only experience with the usage die was in Forbidden Lands where it was used for food, drink, etc. I really like the concept. It’s a neat abstraction. However, I remember disliking all the small interactions of “recovering your arrows”, “giving stuff to someone”, etc which lead to some attempts to game the system because it was a much better idea to keep a few usage die at high values than many at low values.
I really like this change. Very small, but it does create tension. And it’s kind of a trope in movies. Reaching for your quiver only to realize it’s your last arrow.
That’s actually a really good idea! I dislike keep track of stuff like that. Food, arrows and such can be very concrete and tangible. But the duration of a condition or spell is a bit tedious to track to me. I might give this a test.
In Blades in the Dark, there’s a clock mechanic where you draw a simple circle, divide it into segments, and fill them in to track progress.
In the context of Usage Dice and resource tracking in an online environment, I’d use a clock to represent it visually. You roll the dice, and if you roll low, you fill in a segment and (optionally) reduce the dice type. Once the clock is filled, the resource is depleted.
This can be easily and quickly done on a whiteboard or VTT for everyone to see.
I added the optional for no reason really you can just do Usage Dice mechanics. The clock here is just another form of visualization not a new mechanic in this context.
The idea of usage dice is cool, but playing with it never seemed interesting. Rolling a die at the end of combat/day seemed just as complicated as marking things off. One would never run out during combat, and you would know you weere out before the next time you needed the consumable.
That being said, i like the way Black Sword Hack used UD, it looks like it would actually add to the tension instead of substituting one system for another.
UD seem to be a ‘marmite’ type issue (i.e. you either like it or hate it). Of course, this idea is for the UD believers, and not a defense of the UD concept as a whole