Slotting dice for combat/action resolution

Hmm! interesting. Working on a similar themed game for that mechanic.

On BGG, somebody suggested the following game:

Steampunk Rally
Claustrophobia
Set a Watch

Yes, one deck dungeon was another good suggestion. Since it's a solo game, it's an avoid threat system. Mine is a 2 player face off game, so it's more a comparison system.

jay103: You game me the idea that I could simply make player roll gold and mana dice and assign them as resources on the various cards. Not sure of those dices would be rolled before each action, or if they must be split between actions.

Not sure if slotting the die of a certain value would give another resources. For example, slot a 3+ die to gain a military power. Or if the value of the die slotted matter. So slotting a 3 or a 6 on a 3+ slot will have different impact.

The "Problem" is that I want a lot of variety with little text abilities (I suck at designing text abilities). Since I don't think my possibility space is that huge because I want to keep the game compact. Being able to have multiple variations of the same thing could be a way to make them unique.

- I can vary the required die value
- I can vary the reward after slotting
- I can vary the number of dice to slot

- I can have abilities that manipulate die value (dice mutators)
- I could give gold/mana resources usable for multiple purpose, or give specific bonus to military or education, that can be used only for a single purpose. So random and flexible VS deterministic and inflexible.

I am glad I rechecked one deck dungeon, it gives me more ideas on how to reuse cards.

The only drawback is that I need to add dice to the design. Wanted to keep the game small with maybe only cards. I'll have to see if I need that many dices in the first place.

Yes, In fact I might use both.

In order to increase possibility space I found 2 solution:

- Increase the amount of usages for a cards.
- Increase the amount of TYPE of components.

Since the game must remain small, I might add a large variety of components but in very small quantity.

So the solution could be that each card has a gold or mana value and that you roll only 1 gold and 1 mana die. When it's time to use a die to perform an action, either you use your die value, or either you use a card in hand. Which could lower your hand size, forcing you eventually to use the die you rolled to keep cards in hands.

In that case, there would not be any slotting anymore, but card would cycle much more in your hand. And that might be a good thing for small games: reuse what you have intensively.

So I might get back to san juan style abilities. Also seeking inspiration in "glory to rome" and "impulse" for the card reuse part.

Master of magic is the theme (civilization with magick)

But in this case, to keep the scale more simple, each player (2) hold a single city with it's surroundings.

Want a semi abstract game that has some variety with little components. Lot of inspiration from Microcosm and impulse mechanic wise.