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Do you like using an app for rolling dice

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larienna
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I have a game idea I intended to make as a video game, but with some recent modification, a board game adaptation might be possible. Now one of the problem was the combat system I intended to use which worked perfectly as a video game but not as a board game.

First there is the opportunity/situation roll that use dice with special faces (think bloodbowl) but I won't talk about them here.

Then there is the combat roll which consist in:

- Rolling X d10 (ma 10 dice) against a Target Number. The TN is determined using a chart containing a list of units vs a type of units. For example a tank could have

6d 7+ vs vehicle
3d 2+ vs helicopter
3d 4+ vs infantry

all displayed on a single line.

- The number of success equal the number of damage. Each unit has 2 armor value. For example the tank might have 3/7. If you get more success than the first value you damage the unit, or destroy the unit if already damaged. If you exceed 7 success, you instantly destroy the unit.

Now as you can see the system can work well because it consider the accuracy(TN), the string(NB Dice) of the weapons and the armor of the vehicle. But as a board game, that is way too many dices to roll, way too often with complex table lookup. Players only move 3 units per turn, but still, it can be pretty annoying to resolve as both players will make their roll.

This is where I came with the idea of digital roller as an app. The idea is that before a battle start, you will select which unit are fighting, select a terrain, then click roll to get the results. Much faster and convenient to resolve.

The problem with apps and board games is the synchronisation of information between both system. Here the only info I need to transfer is which units are fighting and the terrain.

I could possibly push it more by keeping track of ammunitions for various weapons and fuel, but that would demand much more synchronization between the app and the board game.

The other thing is if people really want to use dice, it should still be possible, it's just annoying.

Do you line the idea of a digital roller?

Else I don't see how I could compress the system to make sure Accuracy, power and armor is considered in the die roll.

FrankM
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Push as much as possible onto the dice

RPGs don't seem to have an issue with rolling a fistful of dice and counting what meets or beats a target number.

If you want to avoid crunching numbers, one way to seemingly simplify the lookup problem is to push as much as possible onto the dice themselves, in much the same way that Marvel Super Heroes pushes everything onto their "Universal Table".

Given that custom d6 are oodles cheaper than custom polyhedral dice, this would require a bit of re-balancing.

As an illustration, all the pluses and minuses move the "target" up and down the steps of a color chart, then include custom d6 with

BLACK spot on 1 side
RED spot on 2 sides
YELLOW spots on 3 sides
GREEN spots on 4 sides
BLUE spots on 5 sides

(Here I'll artificially assert that nothing is automatic pass or fail, so BLUE is the easiest and BLACK is the hardest).

Simply count how many times the target color appears.

questccg
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Feasibility issue ($$$ + $$$$ more)

FrankM wrote:
... then include custom d6 with

BLACK spot on 1 side
RED spot on 2 sides
YELLOW spots on 3 sides
GREEN spots on 4 sides
BLUE spots on 5 sides

That solution is going to cost A LOT of money. Custom d6s usually have a dice color and the SAME color for the pips (or icons). To have them be painted individually is going to cost AN ARM AND TWO LEGS! To be honest, I don't even think they can do that using standard technology.

INSTEAD you can use something like this:

1 Black d6 with 1 white pip on 1 side. (1/6 odds)
1 Red d6 with 1 white pip on 2 sides (1/3 odds)
1 Purple d6 with 1 white pip on 3 sides (1/2 odds)
1 Blue d6 with 1 white pip on 4 sides (2/3 odds)
1 Green d6 with 1 white pip on 5 sides (5/6 odds)

You need to figure out what dice to roll for whatever odds you require. This is DO-ABLE. The individually colored pips are NOT FEASIBLE (price-wise). And to be real honest, I can't picture any "standard" technology allowing you to individually color each pip a different color. This would require HAND-PAINTING of each die... Which is possible in China. But will cost you A LOT more than one color for the pips...

questccg
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Dice app is probably a bit "boring"

What about a 3-tile Matching system instead? Like Bejeweled. So there is a tactical component that adds a random factor (how new tiles are added)... and a performance factor which evaluates how well you do with the matching of tiles.

I know this is more complex. But at the same time, it's more "interesting" of having a 3-tile Matching system than rolling dice.

Of course when you talk about Apps ... the possibilities of what you can do GROW. Like a random Tetris puzzle with a performance based on knowing the next piece and maximizing the number of points.

And somehow the performance gives you a "factor" of how successful you were.

You could have like 20 to 30 seconds of "game time" for either the above suggestions... I'm just pointing out there are different ways to have "performance" metrics and how they can be used in any game.

Like if you designed a Tetris App that allowed you to use a RANDOM puzzle and display the next piece to compute the best possible odds of scoring points giving you some percentage of success (from 0% to 100% and higher).

Note: If you design an App... anything is possible and probably dice rolling is the most boring of Apps you can design.

questccg
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Brain Age?!

20x Calculation test = Performance based on correct answers. Penalty for answers that are incorrect.

Time the performance of the App too... So time taken + Penalty for mistakes is calculated and is relative in terms because of timing.

Another avenue that might be SIMPLER to implement.

It's usually simple from 1 to 9 digits and operations of plus ('+'), minus ('-') and multiplication ('x').

That could be real feasible and if the calculations are random, you can make the computations equal to some random complexity factor too. Harder is less time, gives you a higher score.

X3M
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Simplify the combat mechanic?

If you always have 1 on 1 battle's. Then a 1 on 1 chart might be your way to do it anyway.

Use any dice to see the results in percentage chance. Then put these numbers in the chart.

I didn't really understand your combat mechanic just yet. But lets say that a tank has 66% chance on harming an infantry unit and 22% chance in killing an infantry unit.
If the infantry unit already was damaged, I assume that the same 66% is used for the final blow.

In the chart, you look at 66/22. All you need is to roll 2d10, one for single digits and one for the 10's. If you roll 66 or less, the target is injured/damaged. If you roll 22 or less, the target is even destroyed.

pelle
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I posted an answer very

I posted an answer very similar to X3M's on bgg before I saw the thread here: https://boardgamegeek.com/article/29929754#29929754

You do not even have to use percentages. I think they look a bit scary to many players and have not been in use much for probably 40 years other than maybe a obscure miniature games?

Unless you really need a very high level of detail in your simulation, because for some reason it is important to a player if an attack is 62 % likely to be a success or only 61 % you can just narrow it down to use 1d20 or even 1d10. Many games of course get by just fine with just 2d6 if you can round the target-numbers to fit that.

Depends on your audience. If it is a hardcore tactical war-game where players will be upset if firing a specific weapon at some range and angle is a few % too (un)likely to be a hit, then obviously you will need a more detailed system. Almost no games do that. Even Advanced Squad Leader does just fine with just rolling 2d6 to hit when firing a gun at a tank. If you are not working on a historic war-game trying to get combat resolution more realistic than that I would not worry about it and just go with what is easier for the players. I suspect that any method involving rolling a bucket of dice against some amor value is not going to simulate anything very well anyway, so switching to a table will make it better even with fewer possible outcomes to roll.

larienna
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Quote:What about a 3-tile

Quote:
What about a 3-tile Matching system instead? Like Bejeweled

I am color blind. For me, match 3 is the worst game ever.

Also if I do a different mini game app, I am dependent on that minigame and therefore require an app. With a dice roller, the game is playable with real dices.

Quote:
I didn't really understand your combat mechanic just yet.

There is the TN for the dice

There is the number of dice rolled

and there is an armor value to compare to

You need to roll more success than the armor value to damage a unit.

Health + damage = damaged
damaged + damage = destroyed

If you roll more success than the second armor value, it is destroyed no matter what.

My system could lead to impossibilities, like if an infantry only roll 2D to attack a tank but the tank has 3 armor, the infantry cannot possibly damage the tank.

-----------------------------------

One thing I could do is precalculate the odds of X dice vs TN, but in that case I cannot have rules or abilities that modifies the TN or the number of dice. Of course, percentage as D10 is fine with me.

Jay103
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On one hand, everyone has a

On one hand, everyone has a smartphone.

On the other hand, whenever I want to play a game that uses my phone*, it's always at 23% charge.

.

.

* One Night Ultimate Werewolf

X3M
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I see now. So if TN is 6.

I see now. So if TN is 6. Then the chance on one succes is 60 percent.
With 2d. The chance to reach 2 successes is only 36 percent. 2 armor has that chance to survive. 3 armor is "immortal".

Regarding modifications. You don't need to set up the unit vs unit. Perhaps you can combine all possible dices with possible TN to possible armor.

That way, unit designs keep open to modifications. But also rebalances.

larienna
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One of the problem by

One of the problem by combining everything is that I might need 2 TN for each unit since there is 2 armor level.

Again, by combining value, it prevent me from having effects that modifies those values. So I need to be sure they will be no special events, or special terrain that could modify those values. The problem is it could be interesting to have those modifiers.

On Board game geek, some people said that rolling that many dices is actually not that much. And they would prefer actually having the tactile feel of rolling dice than using and app.

Besides the resolution time of using real dice, another problem could be the cost and size. Supplying 15-20 d10 in the box might be very expansive. And they are no small d10 but there is small d6. So I might need to convert TN to d6 eventually.

Thanks again for the input.

FrankM
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Dice!

As I said above, RPG players have done this for eons without much fuss. What you described is almost exactly the skill-roll mechanics of White Wolf's World of Darkness games, where it was not unusual to heft seven of eight d10s in one's hand for a single check. The nuances came from what happened if the target number got below 2 or above 9.

Chucking 15d6 at once is more what you'd expect from a Champions RPG session, but also not considered particularly odd.

One interesting mechanic from Fortress America was having a certain target number representing defense, but the offense was represented by picking certain dice. Depending on the unit, you might be rolling d6s, d8s or d10s. Though I wouldn't recommend that exact mechanic, you could replace some of the regular dice with alternates under certain circumstances.

For example, a green die with side 3-4-4-5-5-6 and a red die with 1-1-2-2-3-4, to be used as either "head start" or "long shot." These might be more about situational factors than the units themselves.

Jay103
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larienna wrote:Besides the

larienna wrote:
Besides the resolution time of using real dice, another problem could be the cost and size. Supplying 15-20 d10 in the box might be very expansive. And they are no small d10 but there is small d6. So I might need to convert TN to d6 eventually.

Ouch.

There's definitely a big difference between manufacturing D6 and D10. Everyone has D6, and if you don't need special ones, they'd be pretty cheap. D10.. not so much. Not that you can't find them, just that it might be harder to find one manufacturer that can make the whole game without having to source the dice elsewhere.

My favorite way to check out things like that is searching on alibaba.com. I'll recommend that when you're ready for that step. For example

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/16mm-acrylic-10-sided-polyhedral-...

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