dice combinations for "consolation prizes"

I agree with your opinion about not wanting dice rolls to be a waste. When you're talking about a tactical, high-randomness situation, needing to feel like you still accomplished something with crappy rolls (for example) should stay a high priority. For example: provide for either high excitement, or being able to choose concrete options for at least -some- measure of progress, even when inching forward.

Your consolation prizes, however, may need to be balanced against the conventional rewards in the rest of the game. Personally I don't think I'd be able to help come up with an assessment of, "yeah, that's a good reward," simply because I don't have a feel for how this "losing situation" puts me behind. In other words: how much is the win worth? How long is the game? How much time will I have to make up this difference?

All that being said... I've tried my hand at a big-ass dice-throwing game in the past. It also had "hands" or specific sets of numbers that the player would strive for, and could claim before other players. This game allowed something like ten 6-sided dice per player: lots of options for placing dice, and a high variability on the board.

In that prototype, there were two sections of the board where "wasted dice" could be placed. The two spots provided rewards, but lesser in comparison to the main objectives.

The first spot provided a reward to the player with the most matching dice. For example, players could dump all their 1's in that spot if they weren't useful for other sets, so eventually by the end of the round they might have four or more 1's, now in the running for the prize. This is a set that might have won elsewhere, but instead of it coming all at once, they added to it a little at a time.

The second spot provided a reward to the player for the highest sum of their dice values. In this case, higher numbers became more valuable. In some cases, players would even consider adding a 6 to this area, if they were in competition for the consolation prize and needed a breakaway bid. Again, this is a "set" the player added to one die at a time.

As you might suspect, turn order became useful to compete for in a game like this (provided events are not resolved in simultaneous turns). In the close of a round, for example, players acting late in the round have more information and less competition than those acting earlier.

Those three examples of things to compete for may not provide specifics, but I hope they illustrate the general concepts I was working with. Hopefully, this is useful.

(I had a lot of fun with that game design... I wonder if I should revisit it? :) )

I have a prototype where players roll 5 dice Yactzee style to determine actions. It lets players purchase a "pair of dice" via a card. If they can't get a triple, they can essentially save a double for a later turn.