I'm working on a game that is going to require worker placement. I was thinking of ways to tweak the randomness of choosing one spot on the board that yields resources, over that of another. I like dice and my favorite is the d12.
I was thinking of customizing the d12 so that each side has a resource symbol and a number. One dice would be rolled per worker placed. If the rolling player rolls the resource that corresponds to their spot or spots they have on the board, they receive that number of resources. If they rolled a resource from another spot on the board they do not necessarily receive 0 resources. Instead, they get the lowest resource number on any of the sides of the d12 that are facing up and out. There are five sides on a d12 that face up and out.
I've found that this has given me some very interesting possibilities in terms of manipulating how each spot on the board works. Admittedly, I have not played nearly as many games some people I've met. Has this mechanic been done? It seems like it could be used in very different ways in different games.
Dice mechanic for worker placement
I don't think this concept has been done before. You have an interesting idea. What will the numbers represent?
I don't know what the odds or value spread is for each die roll, so it's hard to evaluate what the impact of the mechanism really is. But I guess I approach it from the other direction:
Your goal is to mitigate the variance in how many resources you get, so as to remove some of the luck inherent in a settlers-style resource production by die-roll. There are more straightforward ways of doing that. For example, you could automatically get x resources, based on your worker placement, per turn, and in addition potentially get some resources from a die roll. That is easier. Alternatively, you could give a player more control: say the resource producing spaces were colored. You roll the dice, and assign the results to a color - resource producing resources of that color produce the number of resources show on the die. Players will choose stuff based on what is best for them, reducing the overall variance in outcomes.
The number represent the number of resources you receive. So in the example of my game, one of the resources is space dust. You put two workers on the space dust collection spot on the board. One of the dice you roll lands with a dust symbol and 5. You get 5 dust for that. The other die you roll lands with a different resource on top. So instead of getting nothing, you get the lowest visible dust symbol/number combination. For example there are two dust symbols and numbers among the 5 sides of the d12 that face up and out: one with 5 dust and another with 3 dust. In this example you get 3 dust for that worker and 8 total.