What’s The Story, Muthur?
To the point, tabletop gaming
Cheap Medieval Fantasy Terrain for Tabletop Games
Whether you play TTRPGs or miniature war games, sooner or later you might want some fantasy terrain. This piece is about where I get my terrain from and how I paint it using simple and fast methods.
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
Whether you play TTRPGs or miniature war games, sooner or later you might want some fantasy terrain. This piece is about where I get my terrain from and how I paint it using simple and fast methods.
Disclaimer
Heads up, there’s a few affiliate links in this piece, typically for bits and bobs that I use during the painting process. If you do click on them and then buy from them - I’ll earn a small kickback, but you won’t incur any additional charge over the normal price you’d pay.
Introduction
Months ago, I went to the UK Games Expo with my mate, and whilst we were there I picked up Guards of Traitor’s Toll (GoTT) and the Busy Streets expansion. If you’re unfamiliar, GoTT is a 1-4 player, semi-cooperative skirmish game set in the fantasy city of Traitor’s Toll. You play the role of paramilitary guards in the employment of one of the great houses. It’s your job to keep order in the city and arrest any ne’er do wells. You’re competing with the other player’s guards representing different houses trying to do the same thing in order to secure the honour of being most effective.
I have a bit of a personal issue though: I flat out refuse to play any ‘miniatures game’ unless everything is modelled and painted to a tabletop or better standard, and consequently, my set has been sat patiently, taking up space on my Kallax unit waiting for its moment in the sun.
In order to begin addressing this issue, naturally I found myself needing to acquire more grey plastic. If you collect and occasionally paint minis then you know what I’m talking about! In my case, I went out hunting for suitable terrain to represent the medieval city of Traitor’s Toll.
Ulvheim
I am fortunate enough to own a Bambu Labs A1 3d printer (not affiliate or sponsored, just linking), so I pretty much never have to buy terrain anymore. If you have the cash, and you have the space - I 100% recommend them. Mine has been plug and play in every sense of the word, and I’ve barely had any issues with it the entire time I’ve owned it.
Anyway, in this case I went over to Yeggi.com and started searching, and it wasn’t long before I came across this enormous Ulvheim range of terrain for free on Thingiverse. Unfortunately, the scale was ever so slightly off I thought, so I bumped it up to 120% nice and easy in my slicer and began printing several buildings, market stalls, fountains, and sections of city walls. Several reels of cheap PLA later and I have more than enough terrain to fill the required 3’ x 3’ play area. Result!
How to Paint Medieval Buildings
Logically enough, the first step is priming the models to allow the next layers of paint to stick. In my case, if you’re wanting to copy my method I recommend getting both a black and white spray can. I use Colour Forge as I consider them to be great value for money, and high quality. I’ll provide affiliate links from here on to point you at the tools and paints that I think are suitable.
Zenithal Priming
Start off by spraying the entire piece black. If you’re not familiar with spraying - good technique is to hold the can about 30 cm away and in 1 second bursts, sweep across your terrain with a spray. Rotate your piece if required and repeat. For best results, warm the can first in warm (not hot) water in the sink, and make sure to do it in a ventilated area like outside, or in the garage with the big door open.
Once it’s black, let it dry, and then taking your white primer - perform the same trick, but only attack the piece from the top, spraying downwards. You’re simulating the way light falls, making the top surface lighter than the bottom and lower surfaces.
Easily Blending Speed Paints
When your terrain piece is completely dry, for the stonework - I take two paints, these need to be speed paint, or contrast style paints if you’re following this quick and simple method. I personally use Citadel Contrast Garaghak’s Sewer & Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 Runic Grey but you should feel free to mix it up and use more than two paints, or different colours as befits your desired aesthetic.
I then take a fairly decent sized old brush, mine’s an ancient Army Painter “Monster” brush I’ve had for about a decade now, and I ‘raw dog’ the two paints onto the model in splodges. Before it has chance to start drying, I then take my brush, dunk it in water then transfer it to my model and use it to roughly swish and swash the “raw dogged” paint around. You’ll notice it blends together really nicely, and it takes a while to dry. Once it has, you can feel free to move onto the next area.
As an aside - you should be conscious about letting the paint pool as per the bottom left of my right side image below - in these cases, wick away the excess with your brush.
I use the same technique for the roofs, wood, rendering and any other elements, just changing up the paint colours as required. My roofs for example, I use a dark green and a black.
I have found that when doing the beams this way, less watered down is better as the paint has a tendency to soak in and run along the layers via capillary action into the ‘rendering’ areas otherwise. A useful behaviour for blending the walls, and less so for the clean precision of the beams!
Dry Brushing
Once the building is fully painted this way and completely dry, I then take a normal khaki paint and use it to drybrush the entire piece. This adds subtle edge highlighting and gives the terrain a dirty appearance that I like. As an added bonus, khaki works well as a highlight like this for any colour, but you feel free to use any colour that makes sense to you.
To drybrush effectively, take a brush like this one and dip it into your chosen paint, then wipe most of the paint off it by brushing against (preferably) a texture palette, or at a push, some paper towel until the paint that’s coming off no longer seems wet and streaky. I find it’s good to do a final test against the back of your thumb - it’s easy to tell if the colour is just catching the imperfections of your skin, or drenching you!
Thank You Sinan Atamer
The painting method that I’ve used today came from a video I found by a guy called Sinan Atamer. It’s a pretty basic video, but it’s short and gets to the point quickly. So if you think you’d benefit from watching this painting process rather than reading about it - I got you covered:
Traitor’s Toll So Far
This is my city board so far - it’s not finished yet, but there’s enough for some glamour shots. At some point I might add some sponge work to it to add extra popping highlights, but for now I’m happy with tabletop quality here.
You can see the other scatter terrain items that I’ve done here too, so if you want tips on those, drop me a message in the comments below.
Conclusion
Obviously I’ve framed this entire piece around Guards of Traitor’s Toll, and I hope to make a post about that once I’ve got a few games under my belt, but there’s no reason you can’t use this advice to make sets for other tabletop war games, or even as sets for TTRPGs if you’re a very visual GM. I’d really appreciate it if you could let me know if this has been useful, or if you have any questions in the comments below.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running!
Catch you laters, alligators.
The Five Variables of a Core Dice Mechanic That Matter
A core dice roll is a bundle of variables that shape how a game feels, how players assess risk, and how much work the GM has to do. This post breaks down the five big factors inside the dice loop: who sets the target, what shape the randomness takes, how odds get modified, how outcomes are interpreted, and when you should actually roll in the first place. Each of these choices changes tension, pacing, tone, and player responsibility.
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
A core dice roll is a bundle of variables that shape how a game feels, how players assess risk, and how much work the GM has to do. This post breaks down the five big factors inside the dice loop: who sets the target, what shape the randomness takes, how odds get modified, how outcomes are interpreted, and when you should actually roll in the first place. Each of these choices changes tension, pacing, tone, and player responsibility.
Introduction
Last time we talked about what a core dice mechanic is, so today we’re going to dive into the five variable elements of a dice loop to dissect what happens between the expression of player’s intent and the result, and then why so many systems seemingly reinvent it.
Get yourself a cup of tea for this one, there’s a lot to unpack here.
The Dice Loop
Quick refresher first for those at the back: what do I mean when I talk about dice loops? Well, I’m talking about the four stage process that happens whenever you engage in the core mechanic. Specifically:
1. Action declared
2. Variables Applied
3. Dice Rolled
4. Consequences Interpreted
This post drills into everything that happens between declaring the action and reading the outcome. That is the variables that shape odds, difficulty, and tone.
Variable 1 - What Are We Rolling Against, And Who Decides?
Whether you call it the DC, TN, AC, or number of successes, this variable is simply the target you need to beat. Different systems decide that target in different ways, and that choice carries a lot of weight.
Some games put the decision in the GM’s hands. In 5e, for example, the GM sets the DC, which gives them fine control over difficulty but also creates a subtle conflict of interest to manage: you want the players to succeed, but you also want the challenge to feel meaningful. On top of that, every judgement call adds to the GM’s mental load, which is already stretched thin.
Other systems remove that burden entirely. In GOZR, for instance, the GM doesn’t set a difficulty at all — the “target” is simply the relevant character stat. That strips out GM bias and keeps the load light, but also means the GM can’t tune difficulty moment to moment.
Therefore this choice changes the feel of the game. Rolling against fixed values gives players more meta-knowledge and puts responsibility for risk firmly in their hands, encouraging calculated decision-making. However, when the GM sets the target instead, players may feel the GM shares responsibility for success or failure — which is why you often hear GMs say things like “I killed my player last session.”
Variable 2 - What Shape Does Randomness Take?
You can also radically impact the game by what the game has you roll, due to the way different combinations of dice affect results distributions.
Single Dice
A single dice, take a d20 for instance, has a 5% chance of landing on any given result. For this reason, single dice rolls can feel swingy as the range of possible outcomes is equally likely. This is part of why 5e feels “heroic” - massive rolls are not uncommon in comparison to other results, and there’s a good chance of getting a stunningly high roll at any given time. In isolation it also contributes to comedy goofy moments where massive failure is also a very realistic prospect.
Multiple Dice
However, if you roll multiple dice and combine the score, then you’re in a bell curve distribution situation where the final result will heavily favour the median possible outcome, and outcomes at the extreme success and failure ends will be significantly rarer. This has the effect of making the game more predictable, and therefore gives the player more ownership over the outcomes they generated. It works well for games with high lethality because players can predict odds more reliably:
2d6 result | Odds
2 or 12 | 3%
3 or 11 | 6%
4 or 10 | 8%
5 or 9 | 11%
6 or 8 | 14%
7 | 17%
Dice Pool
If you have a dice pool system, like in AlienRPG where each result of 6 is a success, in that circumstance each dice added to the pool increases your chance of obtaining at least one success, but the impact on the odds that each new dice added to your pool shrinks massively with each new dice added via diminishing returns:
Dice | Odds | Increase
1d6 | 17% | +17%
2d6 | 31% | +14%
3d6 | 42% | +11%
4d6 | 52% | +10%
5d6 | 60% | +8%
6d6 | 67% | +7%
7d6 | 72% | +5%
8d6 | 76% | +4%
This type of system is good for capping the ability of player characters within a certain range, keeping abilities grounded which is important for systems where you want your players to never feel invulnerable.
It’s undoubtedly true that rolling big handfuls of dice is not only fun, but also that fraction of a second you spend sorting through the results hoping for a success is tense.
Variable 3 - How Do We Modify The Odds?
This works very closely with variable 2, because different dice methods of generating RNG present us with different options for modifying those rolls.
Additive Modifiers
A common method to change the odds of a roll is to use your character’s derived stats and “add your modifiers” to the result of the roll. This is clean and intuitive from a simplicity standpoint, but in doing so, it takes certain low results off the table completely. For example, a 5e Rogue with a +9 in stealth is never going to score less than 10 on their roll (we’ll talk about critical fails in a bit) and that’s a problem, because now our modifiers have moved beyond adjusting the odds toward creating certainty and in doing so risks undermining the purpose behind having a core dice mechanic in the first place.
If you want to create a game where the players can indulge in a power fantasy, this is the route to take.
Dice Chains/Step Dice
Rather than giving players a bonus of an absolute value to add to their dice roll, dice chains and step dice elect to give them a different sized dice instead. Let’s assume that you want to roll high - in this case, a character rolling a d6 is capped out at 6, vs. a character rolling a d12 is capped out at 12.
The potential of the d12 character is therefore twice that of the d6 character, but we’ve avoided creating certainty, as a d12 can still roll low. So instead of narrowing the result range as with additive modifiers, step dice grow or shrink the entire results band upward or downward.
This works well where we want to give players meaningful variances in ability without turning their characters into unbeatable demi-gods, but it does make dice rolls slightly less intuitive. Who hasn’t had that player that asks every time about what dice they need to roll, even when it’s always a d20? This will probably exacerbate that problem!
Advantage/Disadvantage
Advantage/disadvantage is one of the simplest difficulty tools you can give a GM: roll twice, keep the better or worse result. It shows up in different forms across systems, but the core idea is always the same.
There’s a lot to like about it:
It’s clean. No maths, no modifiers, no lookup tables.
It’s emotional. Players immediately feel the stakes when the dice leave their hand a second time.
It’s universal. You can bolt it onto almost any core mechanic without breaking anything — d20, roll-under, step dice, dice pools, whatever.
But it’s not flawless.
Firstly, the maths isn’t intuitive. Rolling twice feels like a small nudge, but in a d20 system advantage is worth roughly a +3 to +5 bonus depending on the situation which can be bigger than many GMs intend. The reverse is true too. If you don’t know the underlying probability shift, you may end up modifying odds more aggressively than you realise.
Secondly, it adds friction. You’re doubling the number of rolls, and while that sounds trivial, groups who rely on this mechanic heavily might notice the slowdown, especially at tables where players already hesitate or re-check dice.
For those reasons, the only time I’d avoid using advantage/disadvantage is when the system already has too many levers to pull. If you’ve got static modifiers, step dice, DC adjustments, and situational tags all competing for attention, adding another knob to twist just dumps more cognitive load onto the GM and makes it harder to stay consistent.
Variable 4 - How Do We Measure Outcomes?
Binary
Essentially we have three options. Firstly, we could argue that it is purely binary - the roll resulted in either a success or failure. This is clean and simple for sure, but it does not lend itself well to interesting outcomes, or keeping the game moving forwards. We’ve all heard the advice that as a GM, you should try to avoid saying “no”, well that’s what a failure is in this circumstance - it’s “no”. The problem is that it’s shut down an avenue of progress without opening up an alternative.
On the plus side though, it’s light on GM load. There’s nothing difficult about interpreting a binary result, and it’s clean and fast, and there’s less chance of the players feeling like they’ve been victims to some unanticipated gotcha.
GM Fiat
The second option creates GM load in the extreme, and opens you right up to conflict of interest: There is no codified success or failure - the GM simply interprets the strength of the result and assigns a suitable outcome to it based upon fiat, circumstance, and vibes.
GM fiat isn’t an official mechanic, but it becomes a de facto one when rules don’t specify degrees of success - you’ve seen it in action when the GM calls for a roll, you score a 4 and everyone at the table understands intrinsically that you’ve failed, yet the GM sort of awkwardly goes on to award you a success of sorts because failure wouldn’t have made sense.
It’s only really an option for non dice pool mechanics though. No one would be able to get away with witnessing a dice pool result of zero successes and then contorting that into a limited success!
Degrees of Success
This option is a middle ground. In this system the game has some codified way of defining outcomes more than yes or no. Typically opening up to:
yes and
yes
yes but
no but
no
no and
Now different mechanics will allow this in different ways. With a dice pool, it might be that you strengthen the outcome with the more successes you roll. With other systems they break possible dice results down into ranges, either according to absolute values (such as 1 below TN) or percentages (such as 10% below TN) and then transpose the list above to those ranges.
We’ve seen this applied to great effect in games like Call of Cthulhu where the ranges regular, hard, and extreme are mapped to a percentage over or under your stat, or Powered by the Apocalypse, which favours absolute values.
Critical Hits
Critical hits are a wildcard baked into many core mechanics; that sudden spike of drama when the dice explode, double, or land on that one special result. In design terms, crits are a way to break the expected curve, injecting moments of swinginess into systems that might otherwise feel predictable.
The simplest form is the classic natural 20 in D&D: roll the highest face on the die and you get a bigger, flashier result. What’s important is that this happens regardless of modifiers. Even a clumsy novice can occasionally land a perfect blow, and even an expert can fumble catastrophically. Crits flatten the power curve in tiny unexpected moments, and as a consequence they’re exciting.
Different systems spin this idea in different ways, and they tell you what sort of game you’re playing:
Linear dice systems (like d20 games) produce crits fairly often because all outcomes are equally likely. This reinforces the “heroic swinginess” the d20 is known for.
Bell-curve systems (like 2d6 or 3d6) make crits rare and meaningful, because the extreme ends of the curve hardly ever come up. You’ll still occasionally roll a double six or triple six, but it’s much rarer and less reliable.
Dice pool systems handle crits by counting multiple successes, matching numbers, or converting high results into special effects. This lets crits scale with character competence: more dice rolled equals more chances to spike, but still without guaranteeing it.
Exploding dice create a different flavour of critical entirely: every max roll triggers another roll, allowing theoretically infinite results. I use them when I play D&D because it kind of represents the lowly peasant hitting the dragon in his eye with an arrow.
Under the hood, critical hits interrupt the normal flow of risk and reward. They’re a “spike of possibility” that keeps players hoping, even when the odds aren’t in their favour.
Variable 5 - What Justifies A Roll?
Of all the variables in the dice loop, this one is the most misunderstood: when should you roll at all? It sounds trivial — “roll when there’s uncertainty” — but in practice, this decision shapes the entire pace, tone, and feel of a system far more than most people realise.
I’ve written about this before in my older post (Do You Call For Too Many Rolls?), but it’s worth pulling back into this series, because it turtley belongs on the list of core variables.
A game that rolls sparingly feels empowering, deliberate, investigative, even cinematic.
A game that rolls constantly feels random, procedural, or punishing.
A game that leaves it vague risks becoming muddled, inconsistent, and exhausting for the GM.
Conclusion
Well done, you got to the end! Honestly that one was a lot of work and took ages to write up, so I hope it proves useful to all the TTRPG dice nerds, academics, and designers out there. If you didn’t catch the first post in this series, you can check it out here, and stay tuned for the next piece on what mechanics work well with different tones and genres.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running!
Catch you laters, alligators.
I Went To The National Maritime Museum in London to View The Pirate Exhibition!
Pirates have cemented their place in human culture quite firmly, with hundreds of entries ranging from books, films, tabletop games and computer games.
By JimmiWazEre
The fiercest opinionated tabletop gaming chap to sail the seven seas
TL;DR:
I visited London’s National Maritime Museum to see the pirate exhibition, and I brought a bunch of pictures and piratey facts for my readers to enjoy.
Introduction
Now then, it was my birthday the other day so at my request (because I’m on such a Pirate facination at the minute, eagerly awaiting beginning my first Pirate Borg campaign!), Mrs. WazEre packed me up and took me down to London to visit the Pirate exhibition on at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
Firstly, Bristol - sort yourself out! You’re the home of Blackbeard the pirate and yet you’re telling me you don’t have a dedicated pirate or Blackbeard museum? That’d be like Nottinghamshire not having a Robin Hood museum. This was, ofcourse, my first port of call when I was planning places to go, and I was bitterly disappointed by Bristol’s utter failure!
Additionally, I investigated Cornwall, there’s museums and ships and cool things the more South West you go, but the transport networks to Cornwall is basically a joke, I’d be looking at half a day’s worth of expensive travel no matter how I sliced it, which is firmly out of the question - travelling sucks.
So, all ranting aside, London it was! A mere two hours on the train and we got to stay overnight at my brother in law’s house. (Thanks Phil!).
The exhibition was pretty general I’d say, and I’d have liked to to go into deeper focus on fewer elements, eras, or personalities. Instead it covered a broad range covering cultural impact, piracy in the ‘West Indies’, off Africa and China, and eras from the 1600s right up to the modern day. A pretty cool overview.
It’s photo time!
Ha, this is like when you go on holiday and then you show all your mates in the office your holiday photos. I sincerely hope that you find it more interesting than I would in that situation!
Pirates influence on Culture
Pirates have cemented their place in human culture quite firmly, with hundreds of entries ranging from books, films, tabletop games and computer games. Below, we have my childhood favourite game; The Secret of Monkey Island by Lucas Arts in 1990, Sid Miers Pirates! by Micropose in 1987, and a diorama based upon R L Stevenson’s Treasure Island 1883
Model Ships
There were a range of masted vessels on display from across the eras, ranging from single masted ‘sloop style’ ships, to multi-masted, square rigging. There was even a model of the Flying Dutchman - the legendary Ghost Ship allegedly captained by Davy Jones himself according to the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Artefacts - Weapons and Tools
I enjoyed seeing the different weapons and tools that have been preserved. These were all kept in glass cases to protect them from the Cheeto’d fingered masses, which caused a bit of reflection on the photos. Apologies for that! From left to right:
A display of 18th-century pirate and naval weapons, including flintlock pistols, muskets, cutlasses, powder horns, and a blunderbuss. Quite the brutal mix of naval standard issue and stolen arms that sailors and sea rogues were armed with during the Golden Age of Piracy.
A 17th-century flintlock pistol made of iron, brass, and wood. It’s the same kind of weapon Robert Louis Stevenson immortalised in Treasure Island.
A display of 19th-century naval and colonial weapons, including an ornate officer’s sword, boarding pikes, a harpoon, and a ship’s gun
A mid-18th-century mariner’s compass, made by Johnathan Eade around 1750
Artefacts - Documentation
These are pretty cool, from top left to bottom right as follows:
Charles Price’s 1730 “Chart of Hispaniola with the Windward Passage” captures the Caribbean at the exact moment piracy was being stamped out. This was the same sea lane once haunted by Blackbeard now redrawn for the navy captains sent to hunt his kind.
A watercolor of H.M. Brig Columbine (Commander John Dalrymple Hay) shows the ship during the Second Opium War (1856–60), likely off the Chinese coast.
A British royal decree intended to combat the surge of piracy and privateering in the Americas, likely dating from around 1687–1688 (James II’s reign).
Another watercolor from the same artist shows H.M. Steam Sloop Fury (Commander Jas. Wilcox) attacking piratical junks off Shapoo (Zhapu), China, on Oct 20, 1848.
The third edition of A General History of the Pyrates first published in 1724 by “Captain Charles Johnson” — widely believed to be a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe — is the book that defined the modern pirate myth, turning real figures like Blackbeard, Mary Read, and Anne Bonny into enduring legends of the Golden Age of Piracy.
This 1725 Dublin edition of A General History of the Pyrates features the first known printed image of Blackbeard — the fearsome portrait that cemented his legend as the archetypal pirate, blending fact and fiction in the book that shaped how the world still imagines piracy today.
Piratey Paintings
Not gonna lie, I think these were my favourite bits. I’m particularly fond of the Bombardment of Algiers. That one was massive too, like about 2x1 meters or near abouts. Anyway - some details, from top left to bottom right:
Dominic Serres, The Capture of Geriah, February 1756 (painted 1771).
Willem van de Velde the Younger, Spanish Men-of-War Engaging Barbary Corsairs (c.1675–1680)
George Chambers Senior, The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816 (1836). A sweeping portrayal of the Anglo-Dutch fleet’s assault on Algiers, capturing the decisive moment when maritime power was wielded to end Christian slavery in the Barbary ports.
William Lionel Wyllie, Davy Jones’s Locker (1890). An underwater vision of a shipwreck reclaimed by the sea.
Sir Thomas Lawrence, Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth (c. 1797). Pellew was the hero of the Bombardment of Algiers, painted by Britain’s foremost portraitist at the height of his fame.
Richard Paton, View of Port Royal, Jamaica (c. 1758). Seascape of Britain’s Caribbean stronghold, painted by one of the Royal Navy’s favoured artists during an era when Port Royal had transformed from pirate haven to imperial naval base.
Conclusion
So there we go. I hope you found this interesting, and if you’d like to visit the exhibition, I believe it’s running until 4th January 2026!
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running!
Catch you laters, alligators.
What’s in a Core Dice Mechanic?
I’ve been asked to review a lot of systems lately, and I’ve noticed myself drawn immediately to an analysis of the core mechanic of the game in question. Long may this continue, but wouldn’t it be helpful, thought I, if there was some well thought out way for me to sort and identify techniques, using common language and a clearly developed pitch regarding what does what well?
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
Every tabletop RPG needs a way to decide if an action succeeds; that’s its core dice mechanic. On the surface, all dice just generate randomness, but the way that randomness is expressed shapes the whole experience. This first post defines what a core mechanic actually is, why simplicity and modifiability matter, and sets up a short series exploring how different dice systems create different vibes and outcomes.
Introduction
I’ve been asked to review a lot of systems lately, and I’ve noticed myself drawn immediately to an analysis of the core mechanic of the game in question. Long may this continue, but wouldn’t it be helpful, thought I, if there was some well thought out way for me to sort and identify techniques, using common language and a clearly developed pitch regarding what does what well?
Well, soon there will be. This is part one in a mini series that’s going to be a little self indulgent exploration of core dice mechanics.
What is a Core Dice Mechanic?
All RPGs, at least all the ones I’ve played or seen, involve a gameplay mechanism for introducing uncertainty over the outcome of player actions, and the uncertainty is the point. Without it, there’s no tension or surprise, and no sense that player choices might actually matter.
So to be clear, this uncertainty doesn’t just randomise outcomes for the sake of it, it injects suspense so nobody (especially not the GM!) can predict what’ll happen next.
Now often there’s one overriding procedure for this upon which all other sub mechanics are related to. A core mechanic therefore, is the single recurring way a game decides success or failure. Nearly every roll eventually points back to it.
All TTRPG’s needs a way to answer the question, “Does the action succeed?” But how that answer is generated, and how it feels is the heart of a well defined system.
Versatility, Not Complexity
Take for example, D&D 5e: Roll a d20, add your relevant modifiers and aim to meet or beat a DC set by the GM. This same mechanic is then recycled in combat in the same way: roll a d20 add a different modifier, and meet or beat the target’s AC.
In this way, you could argue that 5e’s mechanic is both simple and versatile. Which is important, because when you have lots of wildly different methods and processes to follow, then you’ve entered the territory of “complicated” and it’s cousin; “confusing”.
I’m a firm advocate that that’s something to be keenly avoided because any jock with an imagination can keep piling processes and mechanics onto a game system, but a talented designer knows it’s more about killing your darlings, and whittling away the chaff to unearth of the gem at the centre.
Modifiable, Not Messy
Good core mechanics should also be neatly modifiable to reflect tweaks that the GM might like to make to your odds of success. Let’s be absolutely clear here - fundamentally, that’s all you’re trying to accomplish – reducing the odds of success from 66% to 33%, or whatever you need to do.
So again, the core mechanic should lend itself to simple modifications: to this end, in 5e for example, we have advantage/disadvantage (roll two d20 and keep the best/worst result) and adjusting the DC according to what the GM deems fair. Other systems go their own way, but they all should have comparable functionality to this.
There is a trap there connected to modifying core mechanics, that is: don’t overwhelm the core mechanic with variable options. Options create analysis paralysis and stress. If you’re running a game, you’ve got enough to think about without repeatedly having to decide which lever to pull to achieve the same impact of affecting the odds of success for a given roll.
So to put it simply; you can tweak difficulty and/or tweak circumstance but anything more than that, and you’re pulling too many levers for one simple outcome.
Thesis: One RNG Is Much The Same As Another RNG - Right?
This brings me onto what I really want to explore in this mini series. Are all core dice mechanics doing the same thing? Are they interchangeable or do they lend themselves towards different subsystems? Do they vibe differently and affect the game’s tone?
I suspect not. But more than this, I expect it'll be interesting to deep dive into these questions.
In the meantime, I had a run down of my games shelf as well as all the games I’ve reviewed this year and created a list of all the different expressions of key elements of the dice loop for core mechanics:
Dice used
d20
d100
d6
Step dice
Objective
Roll over
Roll under
Count number of successes
Degrees of success/failure determined by
Not applicable
Critical success/fail
Highest/lowest natural result
Rolling a “double”
Rolling over 90th percentile of stat
Over/Under TN/stat by absolute amount
Over/Under TN/stat by percentage
Number of successes rolled
Variables dictated by the GM
TN
Positive/negative modifiers to dice result
Step dice rolled
Dice pool size
Advantage/Disadvantage
Variables dictated by character stats
Positive/negative modifiers to dice result
TN
Dice pool size
Step dice rolled
Phew, there’s a lot there to consider. Definitely one for another day me thinks.
Conclusion
This was just part one, an appetizer so to speak. Next time, I’ll start breaking these down. Modifiers, targets, roll-under, roll-over and see how those tiny shifts in probability shape entirely different kinds of games.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running!
Catch you laters, alligators.
1970’s Italian Horror Mysteries! First Look at Lies by Omission & L’Isola Lacrime
LxO tries to capture the tone and aesthetics of 1960s and 70s Italian Giallo films - thrillers that mixed mystery, horror, and eroticism, often featuring stylized violence, psychological tension, and vivid visual design.
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated tabletop gaming chap
TL;DR:
Lies by Omission is a rules-lite, tarot-driven horror RPG steeped in the mood of 1960s–70s Italian Giallo cinema. It’s gorgeously presented and thematically confident, with evocative art, clever pacing tools, and a distinct cinematic flair. If you’re into atmospheric, story-first experiences and Italian horror vibes, it’s absolutely worth a look. If you prefer games where mechanics drive tension and consequence, this one might not be for you.
Disclaimer
A few months ago, I was sent the physical press kit for Lies by Omission (LxO) by the creator with a request that I might feature it in an upcoming post. At the time of receipt, this kit represented a work in progress state of the game, with certain elements missing and others awaiting their final polish. As per usual, I have not received financial incentive to write nice things.
Finally, it’s well worth noting that I’ll be presenting this in a ‘first look’ format as I’ve not played LxO yet, so don’t go thinking that this a review :)
What Is Lies by Omission?
Just the Facts
| Type | TTRPG |
| Theme | Giallo, Horror |
| Players | 2-5 |
| Ages | Explicitly Adult |
| Dev | Chain Assembly |
| Pages | 68 |
Created and edited by Nick Ribera and Leslie Haas of Chain Assembly and launched on Gamefound just the other day, Lies by Omission (LxO) and it’s accompanying campaign setting; L’isola Lacrime achieved their modest funding goal of $1,000 in a mere 7 minutes - that’s roughly $2.40 per second, and a pretty decent salary by anyone’s reckoning.
More importantly, it demonstrates the clear appeal that the project has managed to generate against a backdrop of so many otherwise ignored indie RPGs. Congratulations Chain Assembly!
In fact, as of the time of writing, with 26 days to go until the Gamefound completes, it’s currently sitting on $9.9k from 120 backers. Plenty of time left for you to join the crowd and get involved if you like the sound of it.
What’s it Trying to Do?
Core Rules
Fundamentally LxO tries to capture the tone and aesthetics of 1960s and 70s Italian Giallo films - thrillers that mixed mystery, horror, and eroticism, often featuring stylized violence, psychological tension, and vivid visual design.
I must confess, it’s not a horror sub-genre that I’m particularly knowledgeable about - but despite this, I was surprised by how familiar I was with the key cultural ingredients which carry the game forwards, to the extent that I can’t imagine that I’d have any problems running it.
From my readthrough, it’s clear to me that Ribera and Haas are trying to double down on these striking vibes whilst attempting to offer a rules-lite framework for the GM (Director) to operate from. The books, props, even the suggested Spotify playlist all serve well to boil that theme into a juicy stew and then inject it directly into your face, whilst the simple game mechanics on the players side seem to want to stay out of the way as much as possible.
This manifests as a very mechanically light, narrative focused game. I get the impression that it’ll feel less like playing a gamey game in the traditional RPG sense, and more about inhabiting a mystery story that’s already partially written, with the mechanics as more of a faint pulse beneath the surface rather than a driving engine.
L’isola Lacrime
In addition to the core rules, there’s a campaign setting; L’isola Lacrime, which takes place on an island in the Mediterranean sea. This setting provides the GM with a bunch of mysteries which all link together, combining a wealth of locations, NPCs, factions, events into a cohesive whole which could be used piecemeal for a one shot, or over the course of a sandbox style campaign.
As with the core rules, the campaign setting maintains the style and vibes of Giallo films; strange locals, secretive institutions, and a lingering sense of something beautiful yet rotten lurking just out of sight.
What Stands out to Me?
Action Scenes
LxO’s “Action Scenes” use a structure that will feel familiar to anyone who’s played Forged in the Dark games. Essentially over the course of a number of granular challenges, the player decides how they’re going to resolve them in turn. The GM then converts the players intentions into a specific stat to test against. The overall objective is to achieve a set number of successes before reaching too many failures. I’ve written about this mechanic in the form of progress clocks before, and I like it a lot.
It’s a clean way of providing a clear sense of pacing and tension without resorting to complexity, a smart and cinematic mechanic if you will. It mirrors the rhythm of a thriller montage: each draw raises the suspense and pulls the group toward a satisfying and earned climax.
For a game built on mood and narrative flow, I happy to go on record as saying that it genuinely complements its cinematic ambitions.
Confident and Thematic Artwork
Visually, LxO is a triumph. The artwork is striking from the front cover onwards, using a desaturated palette of washed-out reds, greys, and yellows that instantly evokes the faded glamour of 1960s and 70s cinema posters. The choice of fonts and layout work in concert to reinforce that era’s aesthetic, right down to the slightly grainy print texture that makes it feel like a lost artifact from an Italian art-house.
The black and white illustrations and photography are equally effective, often depicting eerie, half-familiar scenes — a discarded toy doll caught mid-blink, a figure just out of focus, a face obscured by shadow. It all feels intentionally off-kilter, capturing the unsettling, dreamlike tone that defines the genre.
Fans of Giallo will find a lot of joy in simply flipping through these books and taking in the visual tone, and in terms of setting the scene, it accomplishes this wonderfully.
Story Tracks
Another mechanic I like is the use of Story Tracks. These are essentially progress bars that help the Director manage the game’s pacing and trigger key events as the investigation unfolds. Each track ties to a specific narrative thread, ticking forward when players make discoveries or complete actions.
Once a track fills, a related event or scene is triggered, often adjusting the games difficulty via it’s core mechanic or unlocking new information. It’s a simple but effective tool that gives the GM a tangible way to measure story progression without having to improvise every beat.
GMs generally have a lot to get right in games, and pacing is a big one. A tool like this that explicitly codifies the structure of the adventure is a fantastic inclusion which gives the GM a little more much needed break from heavy cognitive load.
Potential Friction Points
These are the parts of LxO where either I think something missed the mark, or where the game has intentionally drawn a line in the sand and said “I am designed for people who like X, not Y” (and unfortunately, I happen to be team “Y”). That being said, as ever, I’m acutely aware that I am just a peculiar little dude from Yorkshire, and just because something works or doesn’t work for me, doesn’t mean that you’ll feel the same way.
To borrow a phrase; ‘your mileage may vary’. So I’m gonna call it like I see it, and I will be genuinely happy if the following points describe the kind of game that you’ll enjoy :)
Tarot Based Core Mechanic
At the heart of Lies by Omission lies an ostensibly tarot-based resolution system. The players share a single tarot deck composed from the minor Arcana cards known as the “Dread Deck,” drawing cards up to their relevant stat to resolve actions instead of rolling dice. Drawn face-up cards represent success; face-down cards represent failure. The tension builds as the balance of the deck shifts over time, simulating the rising dread of the story as the Director shuffles more face down cards into the deck in response to game events.
It’s an elegant idea on paper, but in practice the tarot’s symbolism and imagery never actually factor into play, they’re only used as binary tokens. The result is a mechanic that looks striking on the table and is definitely in line with the game’s tone, but feels functionally indistinguishable from sticking your hand in a bag and blindly drawing out pieces of paper marked ‘success’ or ‘fail’.
The Major Arcana cards, meanwhile, serve as markers of discovery rather than tools of play. Whenever the players uncover a key piece of information (By Golly! There’s a pack of werewolves living in the woods!), the Director awards them the most appropriate card that is available to abstractly represent that revelation. In theory, this gives the group a tangible record of what they’ve learned but in reality it’s little more than set dressing, as the cards serve no mechanical purpose other than as a kind of souvenir.
For me - it’s a big shame, because the game’s moody, surreal tone feels perfectly suited to genuine divinatory play where the meaning of each card might shape the fiction or foreshadow what’s to come. If I’m being honest - that’s what I was really excited for when I first heard about the game using a tarot deck for it’s core mechanic, and given all that it could have been, I can’t help but feel a little salty about this one.
But! And it’s a big but! It’s only fair to say that the game is very forward about being rules-lite, and that this simple ‘push your luck’ system certainly meets that criteria neatly and effectively.
Gated Social Flow
OK, so, in a typical investigative game, social encounters tend to flow organically — players follow their instincts, probe at interesting details, and test the boundaries of what NPCs know. LxO disrupts that rhythm by gating certain conversation topics behind Major Arcana cards, effectively requiring a “knowledge token” before a player can pursue a lead they may have already guessed at.
It’s meant to represent piecing together a mystery step by step, maybe I’m missing something, but I struggle to see the need for this codified process. In my games, players rarely ask about things they don’t know, and if they do, it hardly breaks immersion. This seems redundant?
On top of this, I have concerns that this codification risks turning dialogue into a faltering mechanical checklist rather than a naturally flowing conversation, somewhat counter to the ethos of your typical rules-lite game.
By no means is this a show stopper though - it’s a minor rule that can simply be house ruled away :)
Action Accountability
I have a suspicion that this will be the most contentious issue I’ve raised. You see, character death in LxO is a narrative beat that occurs only when the Director deems it dramatically appropriate. The rules even state that players effectively have “plot armour,” dying only when it serves the story and a replacement character is ready. In fact, in the section describing the core mechanic, the rules even suggest using literal misdirection and slight of hand to slyly tip the deck in the players favour if things are becoming too difficult for them.
It’s a choice that aligns with the game’s cinematic ambitions but IMHO strips away a sense of agency and consequence. Rather than the players shaping their fate through risk and tension, the Director decides when their moment ends though acts of fiat, and consequently must own all that GM conflict of interest too.
I want to be fair because I know that many players like this style of play - where the story arc comes first, and all is in service to it. In these circumstances, I can see how a main character’s death would create problems! For me though, I’m turned off by the implication that my actions don’t have clearly and fairly defined consequences, and as such, as a player, I feel the same way about this mechanic as I do about GMs fudging dice to keep players alive in games of D&D; a bit like I’m just along for the ride.
Do You Want to Know More?
In a dramatic turn of events, it seems that other people A) Exist, and B) have opinions about LxO also! Probably be well worth checking them out to see what they have to say!
Conclusion
Fans of the blog will know that I’m generally more drawn towards games with mechanics that significantly affect emergent narratives rather than ones where a pre-written story takes precedent over mechanical expressions of player agency, so something like LxO was realistically always going to be a very hard sell for me.
I’m torn though, because all said, the deeper I looked, the more I found to appreciate. It’s undeniably stylish, focused, and thematically bold with the kind of design that is supremely confident about the niche it occupies and who it is for. While I can’t see it becoming a regular fixture at my table, I can absolutely imagine running it as a one shot for narrative driven players already invested in the Giallo aesthetic.
I want to thank Nick again for sending this over, it takes guts to share your creative expression with the world and I have nothing but admiration for anyone who dares to do so. To the rest of you guys, if Lies by Omission sounds like it scratches your itch, then I would absolutely encourage you to check out the Gamefound and secure yourself a copy!
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials - it really helps me out and costs you nothing! If you’re super into it and want to make sure you catch more of my content, subscribe to my free monthly Mailer of Many Things newsletter - it really makes a huge difference, and helps me keep this thing running!
Catch you laters, alligators.
Whether you play TTRPGs or miniature war games, sooner or later you might want some fantasy terrain. This piece is about where I get my terrain from and how I paint it using simple and fast methods.