What's your opinion on randomness in games?

What's your opinion on randomness in games?

Usually necessary but requires consideration on implementation. Having exactly enough randomness is important, but where that point lies depends heavily on what kind of game and what kind of experience you're creating.

100% non-random games can be fun but they require a specific sort of player and playstyle in most cases, providing advantages but very much shaping the design around the idea of being perfectly deterministic.

Rolled 6 (1d10)

On a scale of 1-10, I like it about this much.

The illusion of control veiled in random determination is more important than the implementation of true RNG

Also lol

As part of resolution in games, it's most often necessary to create a fairly impartial arbitrator of how conflict is resolved.
As part of a character concept? I wish more people understood the underlying mechanics behind randomness as they pertain to comedy so I could see better surreal or absurd characters that managed to be clever, and not just Randumb.
Otherwise you just get people parroting Deadpool or Monty without understanding what makes them good as comedic sources.

About as much as you like Skub.

Yes.

Required for it to be a game. If the dungeon master fudges rolls or directs the game for a "story", then it's not a game.

For the purposes of character generation, action resolution, and using tables for encounters/treasure, then randomness is basically necessary. That is not to say that you can "script" an event to occur regardless of chance, but leaving it up to the dice can actually prove quite interesting.
However, the only randomness I'm not fond of is critical failure or success. Rolling a 20 in combat should simply be an automatic hit, possibly with an additional benefit, whereas rolling a 1 shouldn't be anything more than an automatic failure with no need to further punish the player. Critical rolls certainly do not affect anything outside of combat, beyond the fact that it is naturally a higher number.
In the end, I suppose the biggest issue to deal with is how you let randomness screw over the players. If the tables you're using turn out to be consistently screwing over players, then the problem is likely that the tables are skewed. The fix is simply altering the tables or finding new ones.
At least that's my view on it, personally I'm for leaving everything up to the dice and using GM privileges to nudge results away from being excessively cruel.

Totally fine to me if it's not a game players are playing against each other, then it's just gambling with extra steps. I have a friend who thinks he's a strategic genius because he rolls well in RISK.

>Required for it to be a game.
Is Chess only a game if you flip a coin to decide sides?