Dice games seem to be popular nowadays. Games like Quarriers, Dice Masters, Imperial Assault, and King of Tokyo use dice as their primary driving force and it works well.
But I'm starting to see more and more push for dice in indie games. But is the push for more dice games the best for your game? Does your game need customized dice? A game can have sufficient randomization without the use of dice.
Here's some creative ways to go around using dice.
Random pull bonus from the top of the deck: This is very apparent in Cardfight Vanguard where an attack or defense has an additional pull from the deck that may result in a Drive or Heal Trigger to boost your attack or heal you respectively.
Random pull attack from the top of the deck: This is a little more random and similar to the example above, but instead of a result, the pull from the top of the deck would indicate the actual attack, whether by comparisons of numbers or some kind of symbol system.
Lottery method: This is something I have prominent in my soon-to-be-released card game Conquest at Kismet. This method has players putting their cards into a shared stack with a random pull; the result of the pull is the result of the attack. It gives an element of randomness, while giving far more options of results and a makes for an exciting battle.
Rock/Paper/Scissors: I'm not really a fan of this and it's similar to the Random pull attack. The difference is that you're choosing the attack rather than letting the deck determine the attack. The cards are laid facedown and flipped over at the same time; the result determines who successfully attacked. This is very apparent in Yomi, which apparently does this very well.
But this is not to say that dice are bad. I'm just saying there are a lot of ways to incorporate randomness and going to dice may not be the right way, though it seems to be the easy way out for some games. Just be smart and maybe doing something different may give you that extra amount uniqueness that will get your game noticed.
Comments
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[REDACTED] also uses a RPS model of interaction in which players exchange cards and secretly know who won or lost in an encounter.
I think part of the fun of using dice for randomness is that it feels tactile. Throwing a handful of dice feels active in a way that pulling a card does not.
wombat929 wrote:[REDACTED]
I think part of the fun of using dice for randomness is that it feels tactile. Throwing a handful of dice feels active in a way that pulling a card does not.
I agree. The rolling of dice is has its own excitement. I think today, in this state of board gaming, we are seeing a lot of dice chucking games...especially ones with custom faces. I can see it being detrimental to an indie game because it's "just like the others".
It's like what's going on with deck building. Everyone and their brother is making deck building games and (for me) people are like, "ok, here's another deck building game..." The mechanic is becoming saturated.
To be honest, I see this as an opportunity to try and explore new game mechanics. I look for the mechanics that are not typical to board games...or at least not readily exploited or just too old for people to remember.
This thread is exactly that...
http://www.bgdf.com/node/16346
I too have had the "itch" to incorporate dice. I know cards usually have stats on them and so my thoughts were to IGNORE stats (and have none) and use DICE to randomly assign SETs of dice to the cards in play.
For example, let's say we had cards that ONLY have Active or Passive abilities. And in tandem have NO STATS. What this means is that you roll four (4) dice and then ASSIGN those dice to ONE (1) card in play.
Like you said, people like how TANGIBLE rolling dice feels: player believe that rolling dice is more than just RANDOM, there is some secret LUCK that also is in play if a player is HOT with the dice.
In my game, you have different classes of cards that are governed by an RPS-9 (http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/mechanics/rps-9-yes-or-no#commen...)...
Although you ASSIGN dice rolls to cards (I have a unique mechanic for that)... The cards are not revealed until they must be. What I mean by this is card are placed in a player's area of play such that the opponent has no idea what card has been played or must be revealed because a player wants to use an Active Ability.
BUT what I am unsure about is this: should I go the NO STATS route or have a mix of BOTH (Stats and dice)???
Here's something I can tell you.
Be they good, bad or otherwise. If they are not bought off the shelf, they are EXPENSIVE!
I have been working on a game that was going to call for 24 custom dice, now it 'only' calls for 16. Still if we don't want to mail 16 twelve cent blank dice and a sheet of stickers we will either have to charge a patently unreasonable amount per unit (Want to buy a game with 16 dice that cost a buck and a half each?) or get only that one component from China while we can source the whole rest of the game in the US. (The same US from which all of the games designers have also been sourced.)
It is another reason to consider another mechanic.
-Rob.
questccg
I too have had the "itch" to incorporate dice. I know cards usually have stats on them and so my thoughts were to IGNORE stats (and have none) and use DICE to randomly assign SETs of dice to the cards in play.
For example, let's say we had cards that ONLY have Active or Passive abilities. And in tandem have NO STATS. What this means is that you roll four (4) dice and then ASSIGN those dice to ONE (1) card in play.
Like you said, people like how TANGIBLE rolling dice feels: player believe that rolling dice is more than just RANDOM, there is some secret LUCK that also is in play if a player is HOT with the dice.
In my game, you have different classes of cards that are governed by an RPS-9 (http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/mechanics/rps-9-yes-or-no#commen...)...
Although you ASSIGN dice rolls to cards (I have a unique mechanic for that)... The cards are not revealed until they must be. What I mean by this is card are placed in a player's area of play such that the opponent has no idea what card has been played or must be revealed because a player wants to use an Active Ability.
BUT what I am unsure about is this: should I go the NO STATS route or have a mix of BOTH (Stats and dice)???
I say mix of both. It allows you to set a baseline while accounting for a random number. With no stats, you're liable to get the worst rolls, which just isn't fun for a player.
But you can assign a number to a card (from the top of the deck) and reveal when attacking. There's still a random element, but eliminates the dice. Just an idea.