I was reading Dark's "line of sight" thread and it made me think of "don't reinvent the wheel" saying. (because he didn't want to use string to measure line of sight)
So I was wondering if there is a good time to use an innovative way to acomplish the same goal.
Randomizing; one can toss dice or flip cards with the same probability, but is there a different way that might say integrate with a theme better? I was thinking for example if you had a pizza themed game, that flipping a pizza token (or a specialized piece) might be better then simply a coin, but this is more cosmetic then anything.
I know the children's game "Splat" was lots more fun because the players took playdough (modeling clay) as a piece and when you destroyed another's player's piece you didn't just remove it from the board, but literally mashed the player's piece! Sure a flat chit with a bug picture on one side and flipping it over to show a pic of a mashed bug would have worked, but wouldn't have been as fun.
I was just thinking about using a mini flashlight (one of those keychain variety) to show a piece's firing arc.
Or trying to use the level of water in a cylinder somehow to show a pieces strength.
Any thoughts on when it's best to "think outside the box" and when it's best to go with "tried and true" methods? Or are these just gimmicks?
Using a flashling is a unique idea but it is subject to debate among players, especally since the light "Fades" on the edges. People who play wargames like warhammer live to argue the rules.