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Unnamed development game using cards and dice! Advice/Suggestions needed!

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Dictum Mortuum
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Joined: 11/12/2012

Three sets of colored dice (red, blue, yellow).
One deck of cards.

This is influenced by games such as Elder Sign and other deckbuilding (or development) games.

Each card has a number of open spaces where a die can fit it. Depending on the number on the die (or the combination), a card can be activated. The die slots are also color-coded, so a yellow die can only be inserted in a yellow slot.

During the game setup, a number of dice (probably one for each color) is rolled and placed in the middle. A number of cards are also layed-out.

The order of play will be rather simple. Each player will be able to do two things in a round:

1) Pick a card from a number of layed-out open cards and place it in front of you (assuming that you are qualified to pick it). Now pick a number of dice equal to the open slots that your card has (colors must match), roll them and place them in the middle.
2) Pick a die from those rolled and place it on an open slot on one of your cards, without re-rolling it.

The main abilities that the cards will feature are three:

Score (gain X VP)
Top (draw X cards, lay one down, put the rest at the bottom)
Produce (generate X colored 'energy' in order to pay for cards)

Other ideas for abilities are:

Decrease a die.
Increase a die.
Place a die (from the central pile).
Reroll a die.

Tips? Suggestions?

silasmolino
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Joined: 02/01/2013
Number of dice

How many dice are involved? When does the game end. How many cards could I end up with in front of me and with how many dice inhabiting them? What's the theme? How many players? I don't know anything about the game except for a mechanic.

Orangebeard
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Joined: 10/13/2011
Insights?

Hello -

A couple of thoughts come to mind

Is it correct to assume there is always 1 die per card slot on the table (ie there is never a situation in which no die is available, only situations in which the only dice available are the wrong color?) If so, maybe another ability would be "swap dice" to change the color mix on the table?

Do players start with a basic card or are all cards drawn from the lay out?

Is the game played in rounds? If so, is there a winner each round that scores points? If not, is the player that goes first going to have an advantage over the others by picking the best cards or dice?

It seems like picking a card with lots of slots could potentially add many dice to the pool on which other players could capitalize; I think this could add a good layer of strategy to the game.

Any theme ideas yet?

Good luck!

Dictum Mortuum
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Joined: 11/12/2012
How many dice - Unknown. When

How many dice - Unknown.
When does the game end - Card stack empties or dice pool empties or a person reaches a certain amount of VP.
How many cards/dice - Unknown, I'd say ~10 cards per person and ~1.5 dice/card.
Theme - Unknown. Could be chemistry, basic colors, machinery or even alien technology.
Players - Two to Four.

Dictum Mortuum
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Orangebeard wrote:Hello - A

Orangebeard wrote:
Hello -

A couple of thoughts come to mind

Is it correct to assume there is always 1 die per card slot on the table (ie there is never a situation in which no die is available, only situations in which the only dice available are the wrong color?) If so, maybe another ability would be "swap dice" to change the color mix on the table?

Do players start with a basic card or are all cards drawn from the lay out?

Is the game played in rounds? If so, is there a winner each round that scores points? If not, is the player that goes first going to have an advantage over the others by picking the best cards or dice?

It seems like picking a card with lots of slots could potentially add many dice to the pool on which other players could capitalize; I think this could add a good layer of strategy to the game.

Any theme ideas yet?

Good luck!

Swap dice would be a pretty good mechanic, thanks for the idea :D
And yes, your assumption is correct - there are always available dice, but they might be the wrong color.

I'm thinking of giving each player a card with one slot, that each generates one of the basic colors - blue, red, yellow, without any dice placed. Three dice (one of each color) will be rolled for the middle pile.

The game is played in turns I guess - each player picks a card, places a die and then activates his abilities on activated cards; one of the most basic mechanics is that that generates victory points.

Getting a card with many slots has another danger: without any abilities to grant you extra dice, you'll have to spend a lot of turns in order to activate them.

As I said in the previous post, most ideas are pretty basic, such as chemistry, alien technology and stuff like that.

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