As a big tabletop project begins to come together (coming soon 👀) and I’m booking my travel for a December trip to Philadelphia to attend PAX Unplugged, I’ve had dice on the mind. Specifically, I’ve been perceiving aspects of everyday life through the lens of the dice games I can’t quite stop thinking about.

The typical Dungeons and Dragons style of dice rolling is mostly ubiquitous in culture these days:

• Your character encounters a challenge or a task they want to complete,
• You negotiate with the Game Master to determine which skill or attribute will be tested by this challenge,
• The Game Master sets a number goal commensurate with the challenge that your character must roll over to succeed
• You roll the die to determine how well you succeed or fail at your goal.

But, as they say, tabletop games have come a long way since D&D or Candyland, even if the little doo-dads we chuck across a table haven’t. What has really stood out to me, especially in the games I’m going to talk about today—Citizen Sleeper, Amberspire, and Mothership—is how the value of the dice roll is less about success or failure, and instead has deep storytelling potential.