You are the Dice Monitor! You complicate things and make players roll dice.

Complicate Things

To keep the story from getting stale, you may interrupt a Scene Monitor or Quest Monitor’s narration to make things more complicated. Examples follow:

The Scene Monitor describes the small port town and its inhabitants. As the Dice Monitor, you Complicate Things by saying that a pirate ship is approaching the harbor.
The Quest Monitor describes your journey from one city to the next. As the Dice Monitor, you Complicate Things by saying that the bridge is out.

You can come up with your own complications or roll from the Complications Table below.

Complications Table

You can roll a d10 to pick a complication. (You may reroll if the complication is redundant or not applicable.) Complications follow:

Number	Complication	Example
1	Add an obstacle.	But a tree has fallen on tracks!
2	Describe a danger or threat.	But the ceiling collapses!
3	Describe an environmental hazard.	But it begins to storm!
4	Add some enemies.	But pirates attack!
5	Add a time pressure.	But the room begins to flood!
6	Disable an item or ability.	But your phone isn’t working!
7	Reveal a betrayal.	But the druid betrays us!
8	Add an expectation or cost.	But they say we owe them money!
9	Add an internal struggle.	But we are racked with guilt!
10	Reveal a controversy.	But we argue over who goes first!

Make Players Roll Dice

As the Dice Monitor, you make players roll dice when their characters attempt actions that have a reasonable chance of failure.

Assess the Cost

As the Dice Monitor, you may make the roll free, especially if the effort or resources needed to perform the action would be trivial. Otherwise, the roll will have a cost.

<aside> 💡

One reason why the roll may be free is if it’s a random or situational roll (e.g., roll to see who goes first, roll to see if you recognize the person, etc.).

</aside>

Decide the Arena

For each roll, you decide the arena. Examples follow:

The Combat Arena is for attacking, blocking, defending, fighting, healing, or withstanding.
The Moving Arena is for burrowing, climbing, escaping, flying, gliding, jumping, piloting vehicles, riding mounts, running, or swimming.
The Social Arena is for debating, engaging in diplomacy, flirting, haggling, influencing, pacifying, persuading, provoking, speaking languages, and trading.
The Tactical Arena is for comprehending, examining, inventing, learning, making plans, remembering, repairing, understanding, and using tools.