I am new to the forum and I figured this would be a great way to bounce ideas off a group of other gamers and designers.
I've been working on a dice-based game for my 5 year old daughter. I'd like to think there would be other parents who could play it with their kids and I would make it available as a PnP. The game is geared toward 5 or 6 and up.
Tentatively called Vexil, the theme is rolling dice to gain the colors necessary to complete the colors of flags from around the world. For young kids, the goal can be to complete an X amount of cards. For older kids it could be a certain amount of points. (more on that later)
Each player draws a card at random from a deck. Each card has the name of the country, an image of its flag, as well as dice squares of the colors necessary to complete the card. Additional information could also be on the card like its capitol city and a map of the country or its location plus a value to the card for victory points. The harder the card is to complete, the more points its worth, naturally.
Each player would get a set of six dice. Each side of each die is colored red, white, blue, green, black and gold. The player draws a card. For example, if a player gets the card for Germany (a 3 value card), the player rolls three dice and tries to roll a red, black and gold. If they do, they keep the card for the points and the dice pass to the next player. If they do not, they can choose to pass the dice and try next time or discard the card they have, draw a new one, and then pass the dice to the next person. They might get an easier flag or a harder one. Play continues around the table until the goal is reached, as stated before, either point value is reached or a number of cards are completed.
I was trying to think of a way to design this game with plain d-6 dice. This would negate the need for the creation of custom colored dice. Using the German flag example again, the card may show a red, black and gold die square with 4 pips in each. The player would then have to roll 3 dice (one for each color) and try to get three, fours or higher. Whatever squares they do complete, they could keep the die and cover the square on the card (this would require 6 dice per player) or there could be tokens that cover each square on the card as each player completes them which means only 6 dice in total for the game.
My dilemma is I like the idea of custom dice but for PnP that's a real turn off for many. While, plain dice could be used that people already have makes it great for PnP but if I ever wanted to actually create and sell the game, I don't see the value in that. Yes, I know it reeks of a Yahtzee mechanic but kids like rolling dice and I think this concept would be easy to understand for kids.
Any thoughts or ideas on any of the above? Do you think this is a viable game for children?
Thanks for your time.
Hmmm, I guess I give my daughter too much credit as she doesn't put stuff in her mouth. We play Carcassonne together and she would never even think of putting a meeple in her mouth. And I was playing dice games when I was 5. I suppose I could also replace the dice with a card mechanic, but then you run into the issue of dexterity as it can be difficult for tiny fingers and hands to hold cards.
Thanks or the idea. Keep 'em coming folks.