Seeing dice as the central component of this game initially scared me away from it, as I typically despise games where chance is the primary factor of success or failure. However, Tharsis surprised me by handling dice the right way. To paraphrase what the developer said in the System Design video (which I highly recommend watching): dice shouldn't decide exactly what happens in a game; instead, they should simply reveal what the options are and then you decide what actually happens.

That's not to say there are no 'bad' rolls or 'good' rolls, but every bad roll can be mitigated, played around, or even used in some beneficial way. Cards (research projects) play a big role in this, and I didn't realize how important refreshing for the right ones was until much later. Cards are essential for the insanely dangerous events - ones where a bad roll can mean game over. But because Tharsis is a well-designed game, you never have to take those odds (unless you made mistakes and forced yourself into a corner). You either play around them with cards and abilites, or repair your hull so you can survive the next round while you look for more options.

This is how a dice game is done right. Despite fundamentally being a game of chance, I rarely felt like I wasn't in control of my fate.