Rolls are the primary method by which the characters to die are determined. As such, they have always been a central element of SOTF.
Rolls are conducted by the staff, in a private chat. A certain number of characters, based on precedent, number of characters remaining, and desired game speed, are selected. A die is rolled this many times, with each rolled number corresponding to a character. If multiple characters belonging to a single handler are rolled, in most circumstances any following the first are rerolled (though exceptions are made for certain adopted characters and for the last set of pre-Endgame rolls).
Selected characters are posted in the announcements/midmonth rolls. Since V5, the rolling list and logs of rolls have been made public, and staff privately maintain logs of all older versions. Rolled characters must be killed by the deadline stated at the time they are made public.
Theoretically, rolls take place approximately every two weeks, for each Mini and AU. In practice, sometimes they are postponed, for various reasons.
The number of characters rolled has ranged from one (as a rare occurrence in the site's early days) to fifteen (at the height of V4).