Dice Fundamentals

And I've had players snobbish of my own design because there is use of dice. Some players will NOT play your game simply because it contains dice. It's happened to me, and I've heard from other designers that it's happened to them too...

Some player just prefer deterministic games where it's all about the STATS.

Of course, I will be the first one to agree with you, that it's PURE rubbish! The reality is that very few games get by WITHOUT using dice. And if your design has a LOT of dice...

Some things to consider is "dice pooling" or "dice drafting".

"Dice pooling" means that you use a common set of dice for the players and you can have mechanics that grant you MORE or LESS dice on your given turn.

"Dice drafting" means that the dice that are available to use must be "purchased" or bought for a certain price in order to be able to roll a specific die (or several dice). Like if you want to roll the "BLUE" dice which consists of 4 dice... You have to pay 8 points (as a simple example).

Obviously you can use BOTH mechanics and have a "dice pool" with "dice drafting"... That's probably the most complicated dice system you can have based purely on game "mechanics".

So yeah, I wanted to share with you those "two" (2) well known dice mechanics and of course tell you that some game players are (dumb) because they refuse to play games with dice...

On the other hand there are also gamers that LIKE playing with larger quantities of dice... But that pool of players is smaller than your average game pool...

But don't let that discourage you... Think about those mechanics and how you can improve the design should you be interested in doing so.

Cheers!

Not sure if you’re a programmer, but starting off with some code that can run a simulation for you is probably a very good idea. Even with a firm grasp of probabilities, 30 weird dice would be tough to figure out analytically.

It's better to have your players act in response to random conditions than it is to randomize their outcome after they've made their choices.

It feels better to choose to do a more magic-based attack after I roll that I'm going to do more magic damage rather than choosing to do a magic-based attack and then maybe I'll roll high enough.

Other than that, we'd need specifics to really address your possible concerns.

You need to know your probabilities for expected mid-range play and check your extremes so it does not break at the edges but this pretty much covers the important mechanical parts for a dice game.

Custom dice could take production costs too high - keep this in mind. If different colored otherwise same dice will work, use them when you can (including same custom except for color) -- but this a thematic vs cost consideration like custom dice vs standard dice is an "ease of immersive play" vs cost consideration.

I like to take my games to what I think is ready for blind playtest stage and then let that version of the rules get looked at (the rulebook itself normally gets a rewrite after that). BUT, my rules use the layout I would find most useful in an instruction manual for that game (which varies depending on the game and the game complexity) and in no way resembles a sell sheet or standardized format.

Dice give random results. So do cards. Every game except the purely deterministic ones depend on random input. Deterministic ones depend on hidden info and/or overwhelming complexity (branchings due to play) to keep on being an actual game (see tic-tac-toe at the extreme simple breaks at an early age end of the complexity spectrum and Go near the far end of that spectrum).

Most dice games are a roll/reroll thing. Hidden info can be introduced with cups covering dice. Some form of betting could be introduced, or another direct conflict format.

Nothing else comes to mind for What should I know before making a "Dice Game".

i dont know much about dice and probabilities but neither do most people. it is good to know the probability of any given roll (there are math forums/websites that will be more than happy to work them out for you) but as far as the general public is concerned probability is not somthing easily worked out. basically humans are rubbish at doing it.

a good example of this is that most people confuse more dice with more randomness, when in reality the more dice you roll the more predictable the result is.

the game tek podcasts on the dicetower are all about the math of games, there are lots of them and they're only about 5 minutes long (so if its really confusing it will end quickly) and they often talk about dice and probabilities.