I had some ideas recently that I implemented in 2 of my game design that consist is replacing dices with a less random mechanics in order to improve the level of strategy and give the players more control on the game. I have found 2 ways so far to replace dices with a semi-random mechanics, if you have any other semi-random mechanics ideas, don't mind posting them.
The first game was a siege war game, you attack a castle. So far, the combat where almost totally deterministic. There where some situation where you rolled a die in combat. But most of the dices rolled where to determine if for example the battering ram actualy destroyed the door or if the cannon finally made a breach in the wall.
Now instead of using dices, I simply I plan on using cards with number on them. You would have X cards in your hand and each time you use a card you draw one. The rolls will be contested rolls ( cards played face down), so the players will need to keep good cards for attacking and defending himself. It increase the strategy level and represent where the player want to put his efforts.
In the second game, your character walk a path with traps, monsters and hazards. Each obstacles requires a roll. I did not like the idea because the player would need to roll like 10 times each turn and the outcome would be totally random which mean the the player would have no control over the game.
The solution I found was inspired from "Fantasy Pub'. At the beginning of your turn, you roll a dozen of dices. Then you select which dices you combine together to overcome the obstacle. Basically, you need 2 dices per roll, but you could combine more than 2 dices to have a better score. So if you combine more dices together, you will overcome less obstacles in a turn and advance slower ( you take your time to do a good job). While if you take lower rolls, you can move faster but you will take more damage since your score vs hazards and monsters was low.
That what I have made so far, there is still adjustments to make in the game, but the idea is there.
( Maybe it's in my imagination, but what I hear the people say the word "Dice", they seem to pronounce the "S" )
Just to give more info about the second game, it is a nintendo sidescroller parody. You place the cards side by side to make it look like a video game level and you move from one card to another and overcome obstacle.
The game features all the usual video game stuff like power up, health, hazards, Monters, respawn point, continues, lives, bosses, passwords, etc.
Yes you have a set of cards in hand that can either be played as a special effect or as a normal power up. There are many kind of special effect that represent the vairous things than can happen in a nes video game : Bugs, secret areas, miniboses, cheats, external problems ( the cat jump on the NES ), etc. These cards can either be played on yourself or your opponent. So I think the game won't be luck oriented and it will be less borig to play that rolling in sequence against each obstacle. It also gives you some control like a real video game : Do you want to take your time or do you want to rush in the stage.
I did not want to use cards as semi-random mechanics because I already had cards. And I did not want to cards to have 3 usage ( special/power up/number ). So I decided that managing the dices like this would be better.
Note that a level cards can have from 1 to 4 obstacle, and you cannot only perform half of them because there is no way to mark which have been succeeded. You need to pass them all to get on the next card. So if you lack of dices, all rolls will be made at zero. If your are rolling against creature or hazard, it will only make you lose more health which is not a problem if you are for example invincible, else you'll have to wait for the next turn to get all your dice back. But rolling 0 vs a bottomless pit will kill you instantly even if you are invincible.
So it does gives the player more options in the game and even if the player make a very good dice roll, there is always a few special cards ( ex: Magnetic bottomless pit, Time run out, Parent Intervention ) that can kill a lucky player.