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Reducing Randomness and adding Player Choice and Influence

Long time no post! Things have been incredibly busy around here with prepping for Kickstarter, dealing with reviewers and play test groups, updating artwork, rulebook layout and design .. and every day life getting in the way!

Now that we've FINALLY got back in depth feedback from our final blind test group (the rest were .. shall we say .. skimpy on feedback) we have some solid changes being made to the rules for Into the Black: A Game of Space Piracy!

I'm interested to know what others think of these rules? Specifically geared towards reducing the random factor and adding player choice and influence to the game.

Each of these is currently being tested and balanced and MAY make it into the final version of the rules (if only as an optional rule for advanced play).

1) Looting a Room

Currently when you enter a room there are X events and Y loot available. Place a loot indicator cube to show there is loot available. You resolve events (if any), and you can use an action to search the room for loot. If successful you pick up Y loot cards into your hand and remove the loot indicator cube to show no loot is left.

Updated (not yet finalized) - Place Y loot cubes to indicate the amount of loot available. On a successful search, pick up Y loot cards, choose one to keep and return the rest to the bottom of the deck. Remove 1 loot cube. When no loot cubes remain, no loot is available.

2) Stealing the Initiative

Currently the character with the highest leadership goes first, all the time.

Updated (not yet finalized) - Players may attempt to steal first turn from the leader. Roll 2D6. If the result is lower than or equal to your characters leadership score, you steal the initiative. If the result is higher than your leadership score you do not steal the initiative and you take one damage ("How dare you disobey your superior? 20 Lashes!").
Any number of players may attempt to steal the initiative (once per turn per player), in order of leadership score.

3) Expending Reputation

Each pirate character has a limited number of reputation points (cubes/tokens) available to them. This reputation may be expended (used) to influence the outcome of an event/die roll/etc. Reputation may be regained through various conditions (such as winning a combat) up to the maximum.

If a pirate runs out of reputation, he has a penalty. While the pirate maintains full reputation he has a bonus.

Comments

About stealing leadership

You might consider using a D12 dice - rather than 2D6s.

Why? Because each value is equally likely. And in your case, you don't want probabilities getting in the way of dice roll results.

Because players with Leadership higher or equal to "7" result in many more possibilities than someone with a Leadership of "6". And it's not evenly distributed either...

If you used one D12 dice, then the probabilities are ALL equal (1-12). It makes for a more natural and "predictable" result.

Otherwise with 2D6s, you run into some probability issues which are not necessarily good for your dice roll "goal".

I personally...

Have chosen to include 1D10 with my Game Sets (for "Tradewars - Homeworld").

I had a similar dilemma, I needed to use dice rolling for Enemy AI. Joe propose using 2D6... And I found that because of odds, 7's more likely, etc. it threw the AI a little for a whack.

So I decided to use 1D10 with my game. There are several, five (5), Enemy AI actions, and each one has it's own probabilities. That's why I wanted a D10, otherwise the probabilities would not have been fair...

Considering that is the only

Considering that is the only instance in the game where a roll of 2d6 is used and that it is highly situational and rarely used i cant justify throwing a d12 into the mix.

Not to mention the number of opportunities players have to modify the result or reroll.

That's strange

If it's the only time you use 2D6, well IF you only ADD ONE dice to the mix, why make it another D6, when it could be a D12 with equal probabilities (8.3%)? You can still employ methods of re-rolling the D12... All things equal, the only thing is that you don't have an UNEQUAL probability when you HIT "7" on 2D6.

Probability of having a "6" or less is 15/36 (41.67%).
Probability of having a "7" or less is 21/36 (58.34%).
Probability of having a "8" or less is 26/36 (72.22%).

See how this is uneven... If you had a D12, probability would increase by 8.33% (uniformly). So scoring a "6" or less = 50% (half of 12). Compared to something like 41.67%.

Anyways IF you're just ADDING one DICE to the mix... For better probabilities I would choose to ADD 1D12 instead of adding +1D6 to the mix.

Just my take on the probabilities.

Update: Odds of rolling LESS than 12 = 35/36 = 97.2%. With 1D12 rolling = 11/12 = 91.67%. Still high - but not almost guaranteed.

Update #2: If you are like me, you'd maybe consider using a 1D10. With 10% odds for each value. Therefore 3-5 = 30% odds. Even simpler calculations... Odds of LESS than 10 = 9/10 = 90%. That's why I chose to use 1D10... The probabilities are equal (10% each) and the values are much easier to grasp...

I get the whole concept of

I get the whole concept of odds and probability.

I am not adding dice. The game already will come with 5 D6's to allow for multiple rolls at a given time.

It's also not an issue of cost. It's about reasonable expectation and simplicity. Having a D12 sitting there with little to no use makes no sense. Like I said, Stealing the Initiative is the only instance in which you will roll 2 dice and use the cumulative. There are many instances where multiple dice can be rolled but in each of those cases the result of every die is used individually.

It's your game!

You know what works best for your game. I was just speaking as to the merits of why you "might" consider using another dice.

But it's your game - and only you alone can decide what you feel is most appropriate.

Like in my case, I wanted easy probabilities, so I chose a 1D10 to allow odds to be computed rather fast. You know if it's Action #2 and it occurs on 3-5, then this is 30% odds.

Things like that.

For now this dice is only used by the SOLO scenario (in my game). With the dice available - it could be used for other purposes in the future...

Again no worries - I just was offering you an "option" for easier odds computation.

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blog | by Dr. Radut