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One Roll Only

The roll-only-once rule saves a lot of real-world time. Nobody rolls again. Every roll means something.

Multiple Rolls Guarantee Success

Let's say the PCs want to pick a lock. The first one fails the roll, but they have plenty of time. Another rolls the dice and fails. A third sighs, knowing they will make it out of here. With six players at the table, they have an 82% chance someone will roll a '15' or more.

BIND works differently. Once a roll fails, that means something. The GM explains, 'the lock is rusted shut, you can't pick it. Mark off another ration for the time spent trying to pick it'.

No matter what the players do now, the lock will not budge. They will have to think of another way out, or starve to death in this little cell.

The plot instantly moves on, freed from the fascination with the lock.

Multiple Rolls Guarantee Failure

images/stealth_spread.png

Let's say the PCs are sneaking into some castle. "You need to roll 15 or more", the GM tells them, and everyone gives a sigh. With six players rolling dice, we already know that someone will fail the roll, and the guards will notice. Before adjustments, they have only an 18% chance of sneaking in properly. The group have no choice but to send a single, stealthy 'rogue' forward to murder a guard.

But it doesn't have to be this way. If the players make a single roll for the entire group, then they might all sneak into the castle. As long as the loudest and clumsiest of them succeeds, the rest will also succeed.

Of course, a thousand large men won't sneak into a castle easily, but we can adjust for these situations with standard modifiers.

Try Again without Rolling Again

Let's say the PCs want to convince the doorman to let them in. One says to him 'listen, I think that...' and immediately the 'gamer', the awful 'munchkin', the dreaded 'min-maxer', chimes in to say 'wait, who has the highest Charisma bonus?', and everyone moans. But it's not their fault - the rules have clearly stated that Charisma does stuff, and Aristotle has clearly stated that the last flute should go to the best flute player. If the players want to do well, they really should ensure everyone shuts up, except that one 'high-Charisma' PC. If the dullards speak first, they might ruin the encounter. If we allow re-rolls, then everyone has to wait while players 'take turns', until someone rolls the right number.

But we can recycle that dice-roll instead of rolling again. If someone with a Charisma Bonus of -1 rolls an 8, that means a total of 7. If that doesn't suffice, then 'mister fabulous PC', with a Charisma + Empathy score of +6, can step in and automatically obtain a roll of 14. Nothing needs to be fixed, so the PCs don't need to think of themselves as 'the low Charisma one', unless they fail, and need help.

Anyone can 'have a go', without penalizing the group's situation in any way.