Tom Van Winkle's Return to Gaming

This post gives a name to a very fast method of using dice that is already found in several games. It points out the similarity of the odds of this method to the even more widespread 2d6+/-modifiers method as well as current iterations of the d20 method. The familiar 2d6 method with a target of 10 Many role-playing games resolve uncertainty with 2d6 rolls and a target number of 10 for success. You add the results of two six-sided dice and add modifiers, positive or negative, and aim for a total of 10 or higher to succeed (or to succeed fully). Typically, the modifiers are equal to, or derived from, one or more character stats. There may be more modifiers, plus or minus, for situations advantageous or disadvantageous. I will call this the 2d6/target10 method. In this system, the default, when you have no modifiers, is a 1-in-6 chance of succeeding, because there’s a 1-in-6 chance of rolling 2d6 to get a total of 10 or higher. With bonuses, the odds of success increase as follows: ...

If you are a parent of a kid who plays D&D or another role-playing game with friends, you may have a new play group to recruit right in front of you: the parents of the other kids. Here's how I got my most regular current in-person gaming group, which has been going for well over a year now. Maybe you can do something similar. This post is about how I made it work. First, I had some auspicious preconditions: Our kids already had a near-weekly game during the school year. The schedule was organized though a shared document to coordinate where and when the kids' game sessions would happen. Because my son was the kids' DM, his school-and-activity schedule was the reverse template for their game schedule over some years already, which meant the families were all used to hearing from us about availability. Most of the families of the gamer kids had volunteered to take turns hosting the kids' D&D game already over several years. This means we knew and trusted each oth...