Well it's been a WHILE since I have blogged about "Elemental: Schools of Magic" (Elemental). I guess not much has been happening with the game. Until today. :)
I have been "feeling" the URGE to use POLYHEDRAL dice in a project of mine.
And I had been considered the GO "pawns" to be used in Elemental. But I thought, what if instead we could use POLYHEDRAL dice???
So we have FIVE (5) Magicians and works well with the different POLYHEDRAL dice as follows:
- Illusionist = d4
- Enchanter = d6
- Conjurer = d8
- Sorcerer = d10
- Necromancer/Thaumaturge = d12
For now it's sort of a "passive" mechanic. But the numbers on the DICE have to actually mean SOMETHING! I guess that's where I am at... I need to figure out what the number on the dice actually mean.
As of "right-now", I am thinking this is the Action Points (APs) available to each Magician. Not 100% certain - but this may seem to have some kind of "worthi-ness"
Another option is the "Beat-Value". Like if you have an Enchanter, you could "BEAT" (remove from the board) an Illusionist (because he is a lesser magician). However it would kind of be *dumb* if you could ALWAYS do so. So my thinking is IF you Illusionist has a value of 4, the opponent's Enchanter MUST have 5 or 6 in order to beat the other magician.
Something along those lines. Anyways these are still "scattered" thoughts and I need to do some more thinking and see IF this idea works in practice as well as it seems to work in theory (idea stage).
Cheers.
Comments
"Beat-Value"
The good thing about the "Beat-Value" idea is that it can be strategic (Odd-wise) and still have dice rolling luck.
So if my Illusionist is a four (4) and an opposing Enchanter wants to beat the piece, you roll the Enchanter (d6) and have a 1/3 odds of beating four (4) on the d6 (5 or 6).
This of course has everything to do with Magic and it's very temperamental so it's not always the strongest Magician that comes ahead.
Again still EARLY thoughts...
But I really LIKE the polyhedral dice IDEA. And it's only +2 values between two dice. (4 +2 = 6 +2 = 8 +2 = 10 +2 = 12). This mixes strategy and a little bit of LUCK obviously favoring the stronger Magicians.
And remember that the Illusionist is the only piece that can beat the "Necromancer/Thaumaturge" (#5 piece = d12). Not sure how that will work - YET...
Stay tuned.
Another option
Each Magician has a "Special Ability" he can use when moving around the board. The outstanding question was: "When can a Magician USE this ability?" Or "What is the cost of using an ability?"
Perhaps each Magician starts with a MAX "ability" (like 4 for the Illusionist) and whenever he uses his SHIFT ability, it drops by one. Making him (the Magician) weaker to an enemy/opposing attack.
And there would be some form of "upkeep" phase in which the piece can restore it's points to the maximum - with the number of turns, special cards, etc.
Equally likely dice
Another avenue worthwhile exploring is "equally likely" dice.
So let's say your Illusionist (d4) goes up against a Necromancer (d12), you have a 3x factor which means you would multiply your roll by three (3) times.
This means odds-wise you have 4 possible outcome:
-3: 75% odds that the Necromancer wins.
-6: 50% odds that the Necromancer wins.
-9: 25% odds that the Necromancer wins.
-12: 0% odds that the Necromancer wins.
And so this seems to indicate HOW an "Illusionist" can BEAT the TOP piece: roll 4 multiply by 3 = 12 unbeatable. The best than can happen is a TIE, if you are lucky enough to roll a 12!
Sounding more and more interesting!!!