History Main / GameplayRandomization

One of the key components of [[RuleOfFun fun gameplay]] is its ''[[UnpredictableResults unpredictability]]'' -- i.e. that the ultimate outcome of a game is not known until it is played. There are four generic ways to implement unpredictability in game design[[note]]as identified by Creator/GregCostikyan in his book ''Uncertainty in Games'' and referenced, for example, near the beginning of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXn3tGBztVc this GDC talk]][[/note]]: hidden information[[note]]such as other players' hands in a card game[[/note]], skill/performance-based challenges[[note]]also known as "twitch gameplay" in video games[[/note]], opponent uncertainty[[note]]especially in games where each player has many viable strategies, resulting in a combinatorial explosion of future game states[[/note]], and ''randomizers'' -- rules and mechanics that utilize some sort of a UsefulNotes/RandomNumberGenerator (like UsefulNotes/{{dice}} or cards) to inject randomness directly into [[http://www.lostgarden.com/2012/04/loops-and-arcs.html gameplay loops]]. Gameplay randomization comes in several distinct patterns (adapted from Creator/TheForge's [[http://socratesrpg.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-do-fortune-resolution-mehcanics.html fortune mechanics classification]]), depending on when exactly the randomness affects or informs the player's decisions:

* "Fortune in the Middle[[note]]with Teeth[[/note]]": ''Invoke mechanic, generate randomness, mitigate randomness, adjudicate outcome.'' This variation, popular in [[UsefulNotes/RolePlayingGameTerms fiction-first]] indie [=RPGs=], adds an additional player decision into the loop, where they can no longer abort an action once the dice are rolled, but may spend a limited resource to [[LuckManipulationMechanic offset particularly unlucky rolls]] before the results are finalized. This effectively allows players to steer the narrative in their preferred direction while leaving its ultimate outcome uncertain.

* CriticalFailure: When you always have a small chance of randomly [[UsefulNotes/RolePlayingGameTerms whiffing]] an attack or some other action -- often dramatically so.

* "Fortune at the Beginning": ''Generate randomness, invoke mechanic, adjudicate outcome.'' In this variation, randomness enters play before the player decides on their move in the current gameplay loop, which is then resolved deterministically. Great examples of this in board games are ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'', where each player ''must'' roll dice at the start of their turn, before reacting and adapting to their new resources and/or position. ''Settlers'' also contains a second type of such input randomness, in its randomly determined initial board state.

->'''Anakin:''' Whether Qui-Gon lives or dies is being decided '''at random'''?\\