Skip to Content
 

A different twist on an old mechanic.

13 replies [Last post]
Ecarots
Offline
Joined: 08/23/2013

My next game and first real board game involves the old track around the board (like many games we are familiar with without going into names) The twist I want to add is how the dice are rolled. In the old method the player rolls 2 D6 and then moves. As we all know people can get on a hot streak and whip around the board with doubles time after repeating time. My twist is the player whose turn it is rolls 1 of the D6 and the player following them rolls the 2nd, hopefully breaking up the hot dice hands syndrome.

Opinions anyone?

Squinshee
Squinshee's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/17/2012
So another player is rolling

So another player is rolling one of the dice for the 'active' player? That doesn't fix anything...

StagCutlery
StagCutlery's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/02/2013
Didn't want to be the first one to say something.

Statistically, that doesn't change anything. Not allowing a player to go again because they rolled doubles would be a better fix for your 'syndrome'.

questccg
questccg's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/16/2011
Hmm...

Maybe you could use something else like "Rolling 5d6 and choosing the two lowest rolls." You could use this to *slow* all players down... On the FLIP SIDE, "Rolling 5d6 and choosing the two highest rolls" would probably speed things up a bit and favour FASTER game play.

Maybe a mechanic such as these might lend more to your desire to either *Slow down* or *Speed up* a player's game play. You could have a SPECIAL card in your game that "Speeds up" the game for a turn... That could add some variety to your game (Slow and Fast)...

You could also vary the AMOUNT of dice, like using 3 or 4 instead of 5d6...

Just some ideas off the top of my head!

RentonB
RentonB's picture
Offline
Joined: 08/05/2013
What is the theme? Maybe a

What is the theme? Maybe a mechanic can be found in they type of experience you want to create.

questccg
questccg's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/16/2011
Improving dice odds

questccg wrote:
You could also vary the AMOUNT of dice, like using 3 or 4 instead of 5d6...

Notice that if you are using the "choose the lowest 2 dice out of 5d6", using 4 dice improves the odds for higher rolls, even more so with 3 dice.

Squinshee
Squinshee's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/17/2012
I feel like if you're using

I feel like if you're using dice to move around the board, but you don't like how the dice lead to such variance, then maybe you shouldn't use dice to move. Rolling more to offset the purpose of the randomness seems counterintuitive and ill-fitting.

Maybe you roll a few dice, and each die face give you different options for that turn. Maybe a high move roll gives you fewer resources, vice versa, and everything in-between.

Ecarots
Offline
Joined: 08/23/2013
You're correct I do use the

You're correct I do use the dice to move around the board. Thank you for your feedback it helps me realize the idea was a poor one. I had thought of using a D10 or D12 instead of 2 D6 but the cost of 2 d6 is less than a higher numbered die so I thought I could lower the overhead cost. Maybe I am nickling and diming it to death. I have done product development for a number of companies and I know one of the main goals is to educe the costs to make the sale price more palatable or in some cases with existing products to maximize products.
That is why I am growing to like this forum, the free give and take along with the wide variety of experience everyone brings.

Ecarots
Offline
Joined: 08/23/2013
The game concept is

The game concept (in broad strokes) is to collect one of a each thing. The board track tells you when and how much you can buy, modifies die roll, or to select an event card which can aid or hinder you. Trading of things between players is encouraged. In other words it is based on the idea that he who has the most toys...wins.

radioactivemouse
radioactivemouse's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/08/2013
I'll be honest. With all of

I'll be honest. With all of the new board/card games that are prevalent today, I think the standard "roll-and-move around a board" game concept is archaic and too simplistic. You may get an audience, but you'll never tap the new generation of board gamers.

It's one track...going around a board. The player has no real choice other than what the dice gives them.

I had a discussion with my old co-worker at Victory Point Games recently about this. The conclusion we came up with was a track that was more like a grid, then rolling 3 dice instead of 2, with the player choosing which two dice they want to use to move. It gives the player more options instead of a restricted 2 dice move on one track.

You'd need to give incentive to the player on why moving, say a lower amount, may be more beneficial than just choosing the two highest numbers.

But I suppose you can figure that out ;)

KrisW
KrisW's picture
Offline
Joined: 01/15/2013
Adjusting die rolls

I suppose having another player roll a die for the active player would work IF each player has some sort of special ability to modify die rolls, and each player can only modify the roll they made.

The ability might take the form of artifacts, spells, or character talents that need to be gathered through game play. Players might have one ability out of many available, such as adding to or subtracting from the roll, turn the die over, or possibly roll only 1s or only 6's, etc.

I'd make the special ability one use or limited-use so that players had to strategically use up limited resources to change or thwart the other player's goals. This might mean that precision rolls became an important part of the game. Players would often be going after specific results, not merely higher than or lower than a set number.

Best of luck on this!

Gizensha
Offline
Joined: 07/26/2008
Appologies if the following

Appologies if the following is too far away from the problem you're having, but:

Ecarots wrote:
The game concept (in broad strokes) is to collect one of a each thing. The board track tells you when and how much you can buy, modifies die roll, or to select an event card which can aid or hinder you. Trading of things between players is encouraged. In other words it is based on the idea that he who has the most toys...wins.

From that description... Why have a board at all? From the way you describe the game, the fun - and the social aspect of the game - is the wheeling and dealing, trading, aspect, and you seem to be using the board entirely to determine how to move along the board, and how much you can buy from the bank for a game where the entire point of it is buying things from the bank and trading with other players to create sets.

Without knowing the range of things for buying things from the board, you may be able to replace rolling 2d6 to move around the track with rolling 1d3 (Simply a d6 marked with two 1s, two 2s and two 3s), or come up with a different way of seeding cards into the players hands for them to trade with other players.

Or, in short, why do you seem to be taking inspiration from Monopoly... and the 80s paradigm... for a game where the primary form of play, as you describe it [Trading with others to get combinations that you're after] seems closer to Pit?

Alternatively - If you want to keep a race aspect (since a problem of people getting far ahead of others in a game with dice movement only really makes sense if moving further on the track is an actual advantage, rather than where you are on the track is purely there to tell you what you can do, but the victory is unconnected to your position on the track), maybe trade resources between players to create collections of different things, which can then be traded for movement (e.g. one object allows movement of 1 space on the track, two different objects 3 spaces, three different objects 6 spaces, and so on)? Combining that with a track which gives various boons and penalties could potentially make for interesting decisions in how many spaces to move, and if you want to trade your second truck for your opponant's banana to allow you to consume three items for movement instead of two. You'd still need a way, which could potentially be done by the track as in the current design.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not entirely opposed to rolling dice and moving appropriately - I'm a fan of backgammon, for example - I'm just not getting what rolling dice and moving that many spaces adds to the specific game you describe.

sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008
I don't think too often about

I don't think too often about Roll and Move mechanisms, but if you are trying to find one that works well, perhaps roll 1d6 per player, and then have players draft them...

If the spaces on the board are specific and interesting, then it won't always be best to take the highest number, and because players' pieces will be on different spaces, not everyone will want to move the same number of spaces.

So a draft - or auction - could be an interesting dynamic.

Ecarots
Offline
Joined: 08/23/2013
other alternative

I know an alternative i came up with is a liars dice type. all players roll a die covered with a cup. then the player has to chose which 2 players dice they would have to use.

The custom dice idea is also an option each side represents an option in the game. Purchase, event, auction, getting paid etc.

Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut