Okay, this has been a subject that has made me curious what people's opinions are for it, because I notice this is becoming a more and more common thing among roleplays. Now, when I say RNG or coin flipping I mean these scenarios: -RNGing groups together based on a number system -Determining who wins and loses a fight based on a coin flip -Determining whether someone lives or dies based on random chance -Determining the outcome of a scenario based on random chance (whether it be RNG, coin flipping, dice rolls, or another method) -Determining how much damage an enemy does to the player -Determining how much damage the player does to the enemy There are many other ways these can be used, but these are the scenarios that tend to pop up the most. When you hear that RNG is being used, do you not care, or do you get really bothered but just stay silent about it. My opinion on the RP chance game changes depending on how it is used. I prefer if RNG is being used to be told about it beforehand, so I can know whether or not I will join an rp because of it. I do not mind, if for instance, your rp has a predetermined destiny that all players are aware of, and RNG is just picking who goes first, I don't mind that. What I do not like, is when RNG conflicts with other systems within the RP. Imagine something like so: You play a nobody in a kingdom hearts rp, and you have spent a lot of time levelling up your character to make sure they can fight in the final battle because you know you will last that long. But something happens in the RP and the creator takes a list of every character, gives them a number, and presses the randomize button. Your character's number was chosen, and no matter what the outcome is, your character will die. You can fight all you want but the result will still be the same, all because a computer picked your number. And now that my thoughts are out, what are yours?
So, for when it comes to using RNG and coin flipping in RPs, I think I'll go through each example one at a time. For this example, if a group were to be split up by some sort of like, event then yes. That's totally fine. Like, say your on a boat and you get caught in a freak storm and then you wash ashore in different groups, then sure. That's totally fine and a reasonable way of doing it. (Obviously not referencing anything.) However, if it were to be some sort of like, crossroads thing where your group is consciously aware of the decision that they are splitting up and the players or characters themselves have preferences as to where they would like to go or whom they would like to go with, then no. It makes no sense. No. Absolutely not. It's a bullshit way to reach an outcome that doesn't consider anything about either of the characters strengths/weaknesses and is just overall brainless. Doesn't matter when the flip happens (before/during the fight,) it's still a totally unfair way to decide an outcome and will ultimately make one (or more) people feel like they were totally screwed over. I mean, I doubt anyone wants to lose a fight because whoops, guess you weren't lucky enough. Depends. In the situation where you're consciously aware that you're going to die by random chance when you join the RP, then maybe. But other than that, again, bullshit. It's very unfair to a player to just kill a character off with them being unable to do anything about it, without their consent, and your only reasoning is that you pulled their name out of a hat, or again, they just weren't lucky enough. I don't think random choice should be used to determine what kind of an outcome you get. That should come from how the player's approach the situation and interact with it. If your mission was to escape from a collapsing building and a coin flip determined whether you made it or not (especially before you do anything,) then that is completely unfair to the players. It even dissuades trying to do anything, because your success is determined not by what you do, by what kind of numerical you manage to get by luck. These two fall under the same category for me. I do like a more fixed system (in terms of a stat based RP,) or a more common sense one (like in any other form of combat in an rp.) However, I'm fine with random chance for all of these as long as there's a min/max to it. Like, for damage, you have minimum damage you can do and a maximum and the roll just helps you pick which one. Obviously the min and max would be determined by what action your player is doing, the setting, what your opponent does in response, and just common sense. So yeah, overall, I don't think luck is a good method to determine how something happens in an rp, because it is unfair to players and in your totally non-relatable leveling up your character situation, it makes it pointless to even do so when all that work means literally nothing at all.
