We all know that nerds love dice.

For Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons, and even Magic, dice is an important part of the game. It's all about counting and chance. In D&D, it's really apparent just what a die can do for you.

Maybe you're in an encounter with some orcs and really want to shove one off of a cliff that you're standing right next to, so you roll for it. Maybe you roll an amazing number like 20 and not only manage to shove the orc off of the cliff, but also manage to roll him into his town and knock down a few houses along the way.

Or maybe you roll something terrible like a one, and then you don't really shove him off the cliff. You just kind of put your hands on him in a very odd way. Maybe then the orc rolls to throw you off the cliff, and also gets a one, and somehow the two of you are hugging on the edge of a cliff. Maybe this orc isn't just anyone, but your future spouse.

But really, chance is something that appeals to many storytellers. Chance is what keeps the story alive and interesting. It's what takes D&D and moves it away from just a game where you save the world, to a game where you somehow save the world while also screwing up in the most fantastic ways ever. The failure is just as important as the success.

For writing, that's also important. When you write a story, you want to make sure that you value the success and the failure of the characters the same. You want them to fall down just as often, if not more often, than they succeed against the evil that they are fighting against.

Well, writers are a strange breed. There's a part of us that wants to coddle our characters, to never let them into any real danger and to make sure that they find their way out of the paper bag with ease. We want to show everyone just how amazing they can be.

There's also a part of us that wants to see our characters crash and burn. We want to see the worst parts of them and never redeem them. We want them to spiral into darkness.

So how do you find a balance when you get to a moment where your character could potentially die and when your character could demonstrate those really awesome powers that they have?

You roll a die.

You pick up a d10 (a 10-sided die) and you decide. If it's five or lower, then the character dies. Then you roll.

And you roll a five and wish in your heart that you could save your character, but the dice have spoken.

So you kill your character off in a blaze of glory and try to configure the story and how it will go now that your character is gone.

Dice don't have to be just for life or death decisions. If you're struggling with whether or not your character is going to eat pancakes or waffles, then you roll to see which one they get. Maybe you're trying to figure out which way they should go down a street. The small details can be up to chance, too. You can build those small details into something larger. You can build those small details into something that's absolutely necessary to your plot.

But the point of the dice isn't to just decide, it's to take the burden off of you. You don't have to know exactly what's going to happen in your story, and if you get stuck, there's no shame in that either.

Rolling dice is a nice way to get unstuck -- to take the pressure off of your back. So if you're writing a story, bring a set of dice with you, or even just one. It may help you in ways you never knew. If you don't want to be caught dead with dice, then just use a coin. The thing is to leave the decision to chance.