fs: can you trick players into roleplay <7>

26 Feb, 2026

so i've been working on this game of mine, freespell lately. it's majorly inspired by frieren, trying to chase the freedom of magic and its ability to grow and change.

lately i've been trying to make the dice system a little closer to 'lasers and feelings'. first off, in lasers and feelings, you pick a number from 2-5. you roll a d6, aiming to go above or below that number, where landing on it exactly is a major bonus.

in freespell, there's a darkness level, from 1-7. this value changes over the course of the game. if the characters are acting heroically, darkness stays low. if the characters are acting selfishly, darkness goes up. no matter what, the players are always trying to roll to hit the number (or higher). if darkness is 6, they can only succeed on a 6. if darkness is 7, success is literally impossible.

i've been trying to think of ways to make the dice system somehow more interesting/dynamic, as well as figuring out how to allow players to create their own distinct characters, without having skill lists (similar to legends in the mist). for now, everything is trying to roll darkness+ but i'm thinking having special feats/abilities that give you additional dice on rolls.

success can be like in lasers & feelings. check #of_successes

0 - complete failure
1 - partial success
2 - full success
3+ - CRITICAL :O

but also, what makes failure dynamic?

i'm thinking that for failure, it removes dice from that pool if you use the same action again. so if you attack with 4 dice, and 3 succeed, that last die that didnt hit darkness? removed from the pool if you just go "i attack again :V" but if you go "i run along the walls and attack from there" it lets you use the whole pool again.

can i trick the players into roleplaying? can i twist this towards good? was freespell even a good idea in the first place?