Bali, Paul

English

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                 on Luck, the Attribute      i. there's Player's luck, and there's Character's Luck.  ii. there's Player's luck, rather, only if luck is real.  iii. real luck, the Player's roll, is immediate cause of all their Character's attributes: STR, INT, CON     -     and LUCK.  iv. a kid's proper error, on hearing RPG:  to  hear the Role as Roll, a gameworld built on dice.  v. luck is inexplicable.  we call someone lucky when baffled by their success.  vi. luck is an enigma, like charisma.  we see its effects but comprehend little.  vii. lucky could mean: favoured by the gods. but then, the Regress: why am i favoured?  it's me they're rewarding, but why?  viii. perhaps because i'm strong, i'm smart: they gift me with a weighted die.  ix. luck would then derive from my other attributes    -     plus the will of the gods, their possible caprice in honouring mortals.  x. rather than a column on the Character Sheet, or pinky-nail square of cardboard counter, Luck could be a roll we make on behalf of an extra Order of players, the gods.  xi. or prior to play we invoke the gods,  remember that our rolls are made by them, all along, that rolls are where their favours and displeasures enter.  xii. perhaps it's just lucky that i'm lucky.  then why i am meta-lucky?  to push this regress is to misconceive luck, perhaps: luck just is where the regress stops, as order resolves into chaos.  xiii. i should not say: 'i have 18 Luck.'  i can perhaps say: 'i've been lucky so far.'  xiv. randomness is what luck operates on.  luck is like a weighted die, skewing rolls in my favour.  rather than an Attribute, Luck could enter thru the granting of the dice, an opening ritual. each Player is randomly handed one from a varied set of weighted dice.  xv. or luck is left to the Player     -     it transfers to their Character by the many in-game die-rolls. INT, too, we could leave off the Character Card, let flow from the Player's own decisions.  the Player cannot pick locks for their avatar but must roll dice and decide what actions to take, to roll for.  Luck and INT are super-personal attributes, as far as the Character can tell.  xvi. 'and as for thinking, our Players shall do that for us'    -    said a Character named Valéry.  xvii. the Player's own luck, the Player's own thoughts, are crucial to Game's outcome; but his physical strength is not.   xviii. yet in marathon sessions the Gamer's own strength & constitution affect their mental stamina, thus their decision making.  and what role throughout does posture play, and serotonin?  xix. in roll-based games, Character's Luck may be redundant.  give a Player a die, and you've let in real luck     -     epistemically, at least. xx. luck is where the magic enters, where rule-set lets in something more alive, chaotic.  the stat-count autist is outside life proper, gaunt on the edge of human fellowship, but Luck re-infuses.  charisma wins the day.  xxi. cannot come to life without something like Luck, in the room, or on our Character Sheet; Luck is where the breath of god enters.  xxii. i repeat: lucky could mean: in randomized outcomes, favoured.  yet why am i favoured?  favour implies a pattern in my Encounters, a common cause. my performance stats imply a higher friend, or something outside the system of Causation     -     we may as well call it the will of the gods.  xxiii. people call 'prophecy' those subtle inductions prophets have despaired of explaining, the synchronicity stories we never quite get. they've tried and we snicker, gloat in our unknowing.  xxiv. Luck is unreal, perhaps, an artifact of our ignorance.  'my character has been lucky so far' means:  i cannot well explain his success in Encounters.  xxv. even in scenario xiv, where dice are variably weighted, each Player has equal chance of receiving the best. only once we've rolled a while, will we see who's Lucky.     

on Luck, the Attribute

https://philpapers.org/archive/BALOLT.pdf

on Luck, the Attribute

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