Why we roll

In my obsesion with Warhammer, I've figured out a prime example of why the system is (so far) proving itself to be superior to other more basic systems (what I call the pass/fail system).

In games, we roll dice. We roll dice when the outcome is not always certain. A little secret is: every so often, that roll is worthless. What I mean by that is that the outcome is already certain. But the GM either wants to give the illusion of chance (that you could have succeed or failed) or has some other motive behind the roll.

Now *I* do not try to do this on purpose. But a lot of GM's do it. As a good example: Investigation rolls. A lot of games (as I've previously stated) are Mysteries in their own right. The point is to try to collect info and solve it. The GM can't just 'give' the players all the clues when they walk into a locale so they make them roll for it.

But the problem here is, secretly, the GM wants/needs the info to get to the players. The players need that info or they stall out and have no clue where to go next.

A fair GM makes them roll and if they succeed, they get all the right info and if they fail, they get nothing. A bad GM makes them roll and success or fail, the players get all the right info. A good GM might give them the info (success or fail) but will find some sort of negative result to go along with a failure. You find the results, but you get some sort of negative, such as it takes you hours to figure it out, you cut your hand by finding some evidence or whatever (okay these negatives suck but the point remains).

Warhammer presents an interesting level for the difficulty of the dice. You can make it tougher by adding Challenge dice (which increases the odds of failure) OR you can increase the odds of getting Banes (which trigger negative side-effects) by adding Misfortune dice.

The point here being, since you need the information to get out to the player, instead of heaping Challenge dice on their investigation, instead you have the opportunity to add Misfortune dice. Here you are encouraging (via the system itself) the success of your characters (setting them up to succeed as it were) so that you can get your information out but you are also promoting more Banes so you can at the very least pretend that you're not just giving them the information.

Pretty sweet.