Rolling dice

I’m currently running an Achtung! Cthulhu one-shot using Fate Accelerated. Our heroes are investigating a legend about three ancient crowns protecting the Normandy coast that the Allies need dealing with before the invasion.

I’ve noticed that when I’m running a game, I don’t roll dice all that much. I’m almost not engaging with the rules at all - we could be playing pretty much anything. I’m sure I’ll use the rules when we come to the exciting action scenes, but not yet (the players are still gathering information).

So the times I am rolling dice is to answer a player question when I’m not sure of the answer. Or when it doesn’t matter.

• Is there a phonebox nearby?
• Does the town have a museum?
• Have I been here before?
• Can I see any cats?

I normally just roll 2d6 and use my judgement. A high roll works is good news for the players, a low roll bad.

Sometimes I ask the players to roll...

Yesterday, the players sourced a copy of the Necronomicon, and when they saw it one of my players asked “As a published medieval historian, have I seen this before?” So I asked him to roll.

He rolled -4 (four minuses - the worst roll you can get in Fate). Heh heh heh.

So I explained that yes, he’d seen this book before - in his dreams. When he was younger he had had recurring nightmares involving an old book (this one) that stole his life essence and prematurely aged him.

And they’ve got to take it with them...