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d6 Dungeon (revised)

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JewellGames
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Quite a few months ago I had started a game project called "d6 Dungeon". I wanted to keep it simple like ZD and MD but have just a little bit different feel to it. After a lot of playtesting and brainstorming I just couldn't get the gameplay quite right without making it fiddly or too complex for its genre. However, this is what I have come up with since then...

First check out the dice distribution.

Then check out the rules.

Let me know what you think, thanks guys.

Soulfinger
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I'm missing something.

First off, I don't play a lot of dice games, so I am pretty sure that I am missing something or just flat-out don't understand how the game is played. That said, how is this fun? It looks like fantasy-themed Bunco, which was a punishment my grandmother inflicted on me for coming to visit her. It seems totally random with the only strategic element being whether or not to keep rolling. I understand the calculated risk there, but is that fun?

As I understand it, Player A rolls the dice. Woops, the results equal the doom score, so he passes the cup to Player B with no opportunity to engage in the game whatsoever. Player B rolls, doesn't meet the doom score and tallies up points. Back to Player A whose results equal the doom score. Player B rolls and tallies up the results. Player A's results again equal the doom score. She throws the cup of dice at Player B's face. I don't like that bad luck can potentially ruin the game completely for someone. It's statistically unlikely, but so is a Yahtzee, and I score that all the time.

It feels like it is missing something, like a banking mechanic. You roll your three dice and then choose whether to bank half the points and retain them even if you hit the doom score or venture losing/scoring all of your points on the next roll. Maybe even chits that players can expend once per game, like an exorcism scroll that either doubles a ghost's value or negates its doom score -- something that enhances the fantasy theme. Maybe the dice themselves could reflect an increasing risk, instead of sum 7 values. You pick if you want low risk/reward, moderate, or high perhaps with the doom die rolled at the end of the turn. The doom value maybe should just increase each turn to give the players a level playing field. As it is, that one die roll seems to determine the winner, if I keep rolling 12 and 13, while you keep rolling 8 and 9 -- particularly with the all or nothing scoring.

JewellGames
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I guess you haven't played

I guess you haven't played many lite push-your-luck dice games. Most are like that, look at Zombie Dice. You could technically roll 3 shotguns on your first roll everytime its your turn but it doesn't happen THAT often. These games are made for the non-gamer who likes to play 5 minute games on the go or before the "beefier" games come to the table.

The doom die is only rolled once per round, at the beginning. That threshold applies to ALL players' turns.

I have playtested this quite a bit and haven't personally seen someone roll all red monsters that reached the doom level on their first roll. You may be underestimating how difficult it really is to roll all red monsters. In fact, the game was too EASY until I added the 50% red dice.

In your scenario, why did player B stop after one roll? Did he not want to ever push his luck or do you think you only get one roll per turn? You can roll as many times as you want per turn until you want to stop or hit the doom level. The average number or rolls has been 3 per turn.

I have thought about adding abilities but now we are moving out of the quick and lite dice game genre (teach in 30 seconds, play in 5 minutes) and into something a little heftier. It starts extending the turns as more analysis is required and more reference is needed for new players. That doesn't mean I won't add a little more flavor with some of the dice or monsters but this is the baseline I am starting at right now. I will probably differentiate the color of the 50% red dice and 33% red dice so the player is better informed on what ones have already been rolled and what is still in the cup.

It just sounds like this maybe isn't your type of game.

Soulfinger
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Yeah, I was kind of figuring

Yeah, I was kind of figuring that it was mostly me. Never played Zombie Dice. The same doom die result applying to all players makes more sense than what I'd thought. One thing I've seen with most games these days is a basic and advanced rule set in the instructions. You could add a few twists for people experienced with the game to increase replay value.

One interesting thing about any game involving dice is that you'll never get perfectly random results. A d6 should have a 16.66% chance of coming up any specific result, but because of the die's uneven edges or inconsistencies in the faces, that percentage is going to vary to some degree. I've always been curious how custom faces effects that. Lou Zocchi has long made a point of this in advertising his dice, and I noted a marked difference after switching over to Gamescience dice for my RPG sessions. If you had several sets of dice for your game then you might find that a particular set is more likely to roll red results -- probably by a small margin, but it's interesting to note when planning for randomness. I'm a little surprised that you've never had someone hit a doom threshold in their initial roll.

JewellGames
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Yeah this was the original

Yeah this was the original version of d6 dungeon. It had quite a bit of thematic abilities and gameplay. It might someday become another game but I couldn't quite get the balance and ease of play right. People said it was too fiddly and turns went on too long for the genre it was supposed to fit in to.

d6 dungeon

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