Hello everyone,
This post is about a side project i wil work on during 2014. Its a "no art" project, as it
does not require fancy images, it will be an abstract game using only self-made vector art.
As the title says, its a customizable and expandable dice game - something i wanted to
do for a long time.
I try to build as many choices into the game as possible. As dice games seem
to be so random (they feel like "the game is playing you"), there must be a
decent set of choices for the player - so an action-point-sytsem is used.
I won't go into detail how the dice themselves work, instead i describe the skeleton
of the system. i have lots of ideas for dice flying around in my head already, but the
"main loop" of the game is much more important ATM.
Below you find my first thoughts so far, it suddenly stops after "attacking" when my
well of ideas dried up. maybe you have some ideas to share?
Runestones - a customizable, expandable dice game
Each player represents a mighty wizard of some sorts, using custom dice
you try to defeat your opponent. This game makes heavy use of custom
dice and features lots of die rolling - it could be interpreted as MTG converted
into a dice game.
Players: 2+
Components: Custom Dice, Player Boards & Reference cards
Custom Dice
All custom dice are 6 sided and feature special symbols that support the
player in the various actions of the game. either by dealing damage to his
opponent, or by preventing damage or by generating mana or special effects.
Dice represent creatures, spells, artifacts, terrain and all other things a wizard
can summon onto his board. Compared to other games, all dice are permanent
and stay in play until removed. There are no fast effects or one-time-spells.
Dice come in various colors and each color represents an element. each die
features an "ID" or "face" as main symbol and 5 other symbols (like attack,
defense, mana or special).
Player Board
The player board features 5 areas: above the board, on the board, left to
the board, right to the board and below the board. These are the areas where
the dice are placed. each player brings his own board. location of dice on or
beside the board matters. but there is no movement of dice in this game, there
are no tiles or spaces. its only important to keep track where your dice are located
on your board. the rest of the board is used as reference and reminders.
above the board: attack zone
left to the board: defense zone 1
right to the board: defense zone 2
on the board: mana zone
below the board: void zone (not used yet)
Reference Cards
reference cards explain the die faces, i try to incorporate them into the game
itself but right now they only act as reminders. each card represents one die.
most symbols are shared and are very common, so its easy to remember them.
there will be a maximum of 8 basic symbols. the true complexity comes from the
special symbols. these are explained on the reference cards as well. as this game
is expandable, new dice and cards can be added on a regular basis. the only problem
is remembering the meaning of symbols and the increasing amount of reference cards.
Objective
Each point of damage you deal to your opponent forces him to remove one of
his dice from his board. When the last die is removed, that player loses the game. there
are no life points, the dice themselves represent your hit points.
Game Start
Draw 8 dice from the shared dice bag (it still has to be deciced how the composition
of the dice bag will be done: either by "deckbuilding", "random", "preset" or by sharing
a common pool of dice among the players - there is also the possiblity to bid for dice,
although this might not be the best method to start the game, as it tends to slow things down).
Place the 8 dice on your board, in the middle section - referred to as the "mana zone".
Both player roll their dice, the one with the higher mana results begins.
Your game turn
First you charge mana, this is done by rolling all the dice in your mana zone. Count the
mana symbols. Each symbol grants you one point of mana to spend during the turn. The
rest of the turn follows an action-point-system and you can freely choose what to do when
and in which order (and also how often, except attacking):
Shifting
Moving a die from one zone to another is called Shifting. It costs 1 mana to move a die
from one zone to another. The zones are: mana zone, attack zone, defense zone A, defense
zone B and maybe a void zone.
you can shift as often and as many dice as you want, as long as you have enough mana.
thought: take the color of your mana results into account, maybe shifting costs 2 but shifting
a die of the same color costs only 1.
Attacking
Only the dice in your attack zone may be used for attacking and you have to pay 1 mana for
each die you want to attack with. this way, you can scale your attack by attacking with just 1,
a few or all of your dice.
when attacking you select one of the two defensive zones of your opponent and roll your dice.
count all attack symbols. your opponent just rolls the dice in that zone and counts defense
reults. is your result higher, the remainder is the amount of dice your opponent must choose
and remove from the game. when the last die is removed, he loses the game.
...
…well and thats it for now. this could almost be some of those "chain stories" or "chain games".
has anyone an idea how to continue past the … ?
help and ideas appreciated
-Fhizban
hey,
thanks for your feedback - much appreciated! it seems like "dueling wizards" is the most overdone theme in
fantasy games. but who cares. this is about dice and i wanted it to be simple (and as the dice will be referred to as "runestones" it makes things much easier for me to paint).
Reference Cards
I could also imagine to seperate the reference cards into elements. so there would be 1-2 cards per elemtn in the game. this also groups the keywords by element. later on there can be cards added - no problem.
Objective
Yep, this makes sense. after i wrote the post, i thought the same way. and here are is a new idea that could be fine:
use the fifth zone on the board as a lifepoint zone (this would be the area below the player board and could be referred to as "void zone"). you place 8 dice in that zone and keep mana dice completely seperate from this. when you loose life, you have to discard one die of your choice from your void zone.
players could also use just one single dice and turn it to keep track of life. but with 8 dice that come from your dice pool- you never know which ones will be used as life and what others will be available for playing throughout the game. also, there could be effects that target the dice in your lifepoint zone to generate effects etc.
Now, there should be some mechanic that lets you add more dice to your mana zone. like drawing cards and playing lands in magic. i therefore recommend to increase the total amount of dice a player brings to the game to 16 or even 24.
Game Start
I already thought about this. Right now i just dont know if i should go the TCG/LCG route or the deckbuilder route. players could also build their dice stacks from a common pool of available dice. the dice come from a shared dice bag and form some kind of bazaar. then you can bid for dice and add them to your board. but well, this makes things quite complex.
Using your LCG route i could imagine: each player uses a unique and personal dice bag. players choose a bit more then 8 dice, maybe 16 or even 24 (because you already need 8 of them to represent your lifepoints). and all dice come in "sets" that are elements and subgroups of elements. each set contains lets say, 4 dice. instead of choosing each single die for your dice bag - you just choose a couple of sets (6 sets for 24 dice in total).
but this is not really required, players could also build dice bags containing 24 - guess its still fast enough.
Game Turns
I wanted mana to be temporary, so any leftover points are lost at the end of your turn. I forgot a important point in my opening post: you must be able to summon new dice onto the board by paying mana.
again, mechanics will be copied from MTG (i dont care if this turns out as a copycat, as its just a quick and free dice game).
like said above: maybe you only start with life dice and no mana. then you can add one mana die from your bag to your mana zone per turn. or maybe there should be a "hand" of some sorts that allows you to choose the die.
then you roll available mana dice and sum the mana points. now you take a look at your "hand" zone and use mana points to summon dice to the board.
- this is still quite vague right now -
Combat
you made some very good point in that section!
Making the basic attack free and instead the special symbols costly sounds good. It could go even further that you need a "red point of mana" to activate a "red die's special symbol".
The two fronts idea is also very good, it simplifies the layout and increases tactical depth of the game.
I had a similiar idea about the transfer area (the "pay mana to speed them up is good BTW"), all dice feature a "ID" or "face" side that shows what the die represents. Dice put somewhere with their ID side showing means that they can still act this turn. If any other side is showing, then the die cannot perform any more actions this turn.
...
okay, back to the drawing board - there is a lot of brainstorm ahead!
all the best,
Tobias (aka Fhizban)