Attackers and defenders roll dice against each other at the same time to determine everything from how much damage an attacker inflicts to whether or not a character contracts a disease to how effective a cure wounds spell is.

The most common types of rolls in DiceMob pit attackers against defenders with the attacker allotted a certain number of dice based on the effectiveness of the weapon, magic, or skill being used and the defenders allotted a certain number of dice based on their ability to defend against that form of attack. (We’ll go into more about attacks, defense, and the number of dice in other sections.)

There are two types of combat rolls, those which cause a particular amount of damage and those which have one side win.

This is probably self-explanatory, but damage rolls are used when an attacker is trying to cause damage to a defender (as opposed to restraining them, pickpocketing from them, or changing them into a newt).

On each roll, the attacker and defender roll their number of allotted dice simultaneously. (We’ll talk about the amount of dice the attacker and defender roll later, but they don’t have to be the same amount of dice each.)

Then they place the highest dice from their rolls against each other, then the next highest dice, and so on until all dice are accounted for. When each pair of dice are compared, if the attacker has the highest number, the attacker wins that pair. Otherwise the defender wins the pair. (In other words, ties go to the defender.) The number of attacker victories are counted up and that number is used to determine the success and severity of an attack, a skill, or anything else in the game. If zero comparisons are successful the entire attack failed (which could be important when determining if other effects like poison also happen.)

Example: Without going into skills and defenses just yet, let’s assume Hugo the Human is attacking a zombie with his sword and he rolls three dice to inflict damage. Let’s assume the zombie also rolls three dice. Hugo rolls a 6, 1, and 4 on his dice. The zombie, rolled by the GM, rolls a 4,5, and 3 on its dice. Dice are compared with the highest numbered dice for the attacker and the defender compared first. A 6 vs a 5. The next highest dice are compared next, a 4 vs a 4. And the next dice next, a 1 vs a 2. Hugo won once, lost once, and tied once. So what do we do with the tie? Ties go to the defender. So after knowing that, Hugo won once and lost twice. Losses just mean the attacker’s blow failed to cause the maximum possible damage. But winning once means that Hugo did cause some damage. In this case, because he only won once, he only inflicted one point of damage on the zombie.

There won’t always be an equal number of dice for both attackers and defenders. Extra dice on the attackers side count as an automatic victory for that pair of dice when they are being compared. In a normal combat situation, each attacker win would count as one point of damage inflicted upon the defender. If an attacker were rolling five dice and a defender two, the attacker would automatically inflict between three and five points of damage upon the defender depending on how well the defender defended, as seen in the following example.

Example: Hugo the Human, after attaining a magical sword of punishing zombies, fights a second zombie with an exceptionally bad limp which prevents him from avoiding attacks very easily. Let’s say Hugo’s new sword allows him to attack with five dice instead of the standard three. And let’s say this zombie isn’t as mobile as the last zombie and only gets to roll two dice. Hugo gets very unlucky and rolls a 2, 2, 1, 1, 1. The zombie rolls a 5 and a 3. Comparing the 2 with the 5 means the zombie wins. And comparing the 3 with the next highest number, also a 2, means the zombie wins again. The three extra 1s count as automatic victories for Hugo. If Hugo had rolled better, he could have done as much as five points of damage, but he only managed to do three.

But there won’t always be a dice advantage to the attacker. Sometimes a defender is particularly well defended. If there are extra dice on the defenders side, they don’t matter except to give extra opportunities to defeat the attacker’s dice. Defenders do not inflict damage; they just avoid taking damage from enemy attacks.

Example: Hugo has dispatched the limping zombie with no problem. He ducks into the next room and cringes at the site of a zombified soldier, still wearing the platemail it died in. Hugo’s sword still allows him to roll five dice vs zombies, but this zombie is no chump. Let’s say the armor it’s wearing gives it seven defensive dice instead of the standard three. Not wanting to shy from a fight, Hugo attacks, rolling his five dice and getting a 4, 6, 2, 1, 6. The GM rolls seven dice for the zombie and gets a 6, 6, 2, 6, 1, 3, and 1. Comparing dice with the attacking number listed first yields 6 vs 6, 6 vs 6, 4 vs 6, 2 vs 3, 1 vs 2. And two additional defending dice with 1s on them. Those extra 1s don’t do anything and are discarded. The attacker has discovered that he didn’t win a single comparison and does no damage. Now it’s the zombie’s turn to attack! Has Hugo bitten off more than he can chew?

Win-Loss rolls are also attacker vs defender rolls but no actual damage is caused by the attack. Instead it’s either an all or nothing success by either the attacker or the defender. This is most often used for mental struggles where the attacker is trying to overcome the cognitive or emotional fortitude of the defenders mind, but it could also come into play when hiders are hiding from seekers, purse-snatchers are trying to get away with the loot, or a wizard is trying to shape change someone against their will. No matter the reason, resolving these are simple. The winner is the one who gets the most successful comparisons with a tie of comparisons going to the defender.

Example: Mysterious Mel tries to dominate Brainy Bob’s brain and force him to attack his companion from behind. Mysterious Mel is of sufficient skill degree to have a powerful six dice attack plus a ring and a crown which each give him one extra die for mental attacks and defense for a total of eight dice. Brainy Bob, being no chump, has a six dice defense against cognitive attacks, plus two extra dice for being forced to do something against his own nature for a total of eight dice as well. Mel rolls a 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 2, and 1. Bob rolls a 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 1, 1, and 1. When matched up, we get 6 vs 6, 5 vs 6, 5 vs 5, 5 vs 4, 5 vs 4, 3 vs 1, 2 vs 1, and 1 vs 1 which yields four wins apiece. Because ties go to the defender, Bob has successfully prevented himself from attacking his companion… barely.

Sometimes there are no defenders. The player is rolling a check to see if they can accomplish a skill successfully. In these cases, the player is simply rolling based the proper number of dice, and the number of 4s, 5s, and 6s are considered successes. Generally an average difficulty task requires two successes to accomplish but particularly easy tasks can be performed with one or even no dice, especially for knowledgeable characters. Conversely more difficult tasks could require more than two successes.

Sometimes a character has a certain skill that rolls dice to determine how potent it was. A good example of this is a healing potion or First Aid knowledge. If a healing potion with a potency of five dice were imbibed by a character, the player would roll five dice. The number of 4s, 5s, and 6s on the dice would determine how many hit points were healed.

The number of dice rolled really the crux of the Dice Mob rules. There aren’t really any to-hit rolls, per se. It’s all about winning as many dice pairs as possible, with each attack victory inflicting more and more damage and each defense victory allowing an opponent a chance to live to fight another day.

So how many dice are we talking? Five? Eight? Thirteen? Twenty? One hundred? As a matter of practicality, games using actual dice should limit themselves to twenty dice on each side except in the case of potency rolls, which we’ve touched on briefly. Games using apps or computers to compare the dice do not have a limit.