How many dice are too many dice?

It sounds like the game has a lot of dice merely for the sake of having a lot of dice. Is there any benefit to having them form a string of dice like that, or could points be accumulated on some kind of score tracker?

And I thought my game with 35D6 was pushing it a bit.

Your game is what they call unpublishable because the shear cost of the dice alone would make the game retail for $70+ then you have all the other production expenses so it would be even more.

Once the dice are placed do the values ever change?

Retail pricing is usually 4 or 5 times production costs, that's something to keep in mind, and if making custom dice you'll need a lot to make them cost effective. At 100 dice per unit I suppose that isn't too many units before you have a pretty large dice order, but still.

I think having the dice grant you chits could work fairly well.

Afterthought: depending on material 100 dice in a box could impact shipping costs too.

I think as long as the rules are simple, and the Dice are all the same kind i.e. D6, you should be just fine with 100-200 dice. Anything over 150+ you need to review the rules to ensure that it is not too complex or too tedious.

Your game sounds a lot like Qwerkle Cubes, but with numbers. I think you can probably manage with less dice than 100+

That looks like a pretty cool game too, I love the premise! Here is the kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/293287047/dungeon-dice-relaunch-coll... I wonder if the creator knows about the 1977 game sharing the name.

I would recommend as many dice easily fit in one hand.

I like rolling a handful of dice in an attack process. It was like... shake shake shake... take that! I almost don't feel sad when the result was not too good (or sometimes all flop), maybe I love the dice gods who doesn't love me back.

But, a 100+ dice? At certain point the players going to forget that they are playing your game because all they do is roll a handful after a handful of dice (unless you shake them with a trash can or something), and then they have to sort out which dice value took effect, one by one! (An image of people working in a dice factory doing quality control pops in my head).

Well, this is only my opinion...
A hundred is too much man.

I don't know - but 24 dice still seems like a lot. You said "Roll 6 dice." Why can't you share the 6 dice (and only have 6 dice)? Then continue with selecting and purchasing 3 tiles associated with your 3 dice. I don't see why you wouldn't want to take TURNS. If you are building tracks, shouldn't the process be sequential not parallel?

Okay I managed to read your game rules and follow the two rounds of play. I agree having 6 dice and selecting 3 is good for your game.

BUT you say the game plays faster if everybody has their own dice. Here is thing, it does not give players a chance to REACT to an opponent ON THAT TURN. What I mean by this is IF a player chooses a *bandit*, an opponent could react by hiring a *Sheriff* ON THE SAME TURN rather than having to wait until the NEXT TURN (or ROUND in your terms). I think there is game play which you neglect by having all players roll at the same time.

First of all, IF I WAS PLAYING... I would wait until everyone else rolled and choose their tiles. Because being the LAST player to choose GIVES A STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE. This is something you are not considering. If things are happening PARALLEL, I would simply always be the LAST PLAYER so I can see what dice I would select (to match with the right tiles)...

Therefore I think it is WRONG assumption that you are making by saying "the game plays faster". There is strategy in playing *a turn* and WATCHING what your opponent chooses to do!

Moreover I think your game would need a PRE #1 (Roll Phase): Determine the ORDER OF PLAY. And what I mean is something like this: "Each player rolls 2d6. The player with the LOWEST score starts. Play continues clockwise..."

Why? Because as I said earlier, being the LAST player to play his turn has a DEEPER STRATEGY in figuring out which dice he wants to select. Like I said, your *concurrent* dice rolling is losing so much strategy your game could have. Players will WANT to *watch* the opponent, because they can see what would be the BEST dice to keep!

Think about it... It's your game. But if it was me, I would go with the *watching* because it could affect/alter your game play!

Okay so if you want PARALLEL play, I would add things that encourage parallel play.

For example: If you roll a *Bandit* on your turn, you can steal one of the opposing player's tiles and play it as your OWN. The action is IRREVERSIBLE!

Another point: Bandit tiles MUST BE IN THE PLAYER'S COLOR (background). If you want to know which bandit is stealing points for which player, you need to color code bandits. So for example if I am the Blue player, when I play a *Bandit*, it should be a BLUE BACKGROUND. Otherwise you don't know what bandit is stealing points for which player! This was a little bit confusing in the rulebook... (because you don't color code tiles).

The *Sheriff* should have some *alternate* power. For example, in my idea of a Bandit stealing a tile, if you (ANY PLAYER) have a *Sheriff* you can CAPTURE a player's (COLOR CODED) Bandit and score like 2 Points. Two things happen here:
1-You encourage players to help other players by rewarding them with additional points!
2-Limit the AMOUNT of Bandit and Sheriff tiles. Let's say since you can build 4 towns, you get 4 of each...

The Pony Express: This is an *abstract* idea.... What I was thinking is you could use like 3 Bandits to steal money from a TRAIN... And earn EXTRA points... Maybe when you are building your tracks/cities there is a TRAIN (1 tile - simple to implement) that goes from city to city and gathers money. The player with a captured TRAIN at the end of the game earns like +5 points (or some other point value reward).

To FREE the TRAIN from the 3 Bandits, you need 2 Sheriffs. The player who frees the train, get's it to travel along it's railroad track. At the end of the game a FREE train earns that player +2 points...

Note: To determine which player the TRAIN will go on FIRST is easy: the first player to build a minimum of 3 tracks and 1 town to cap a railroad gets the train first...

To *rob* the train you need 3 bandits. To *free* it you need 2 sheriffs! SIMPLE and adds something to the game! :)

Note 2: I REALLY LIKE the idea of having a TRAIN... You should *explore* that as something to add to your game... It could like *ENFORCE* building rules (like minimum 3 tracks to each town - if you want the train to be able to travel along your tracks...)

Instead of a static value (+5 Victory points) if would be cool if the train could be a JACKPOT. You ROB it when you feel it has enough MONEY (Points). Maybe each city it rolls into gives +1 Points. A Blown up track STOPs the train from continuing along the tracks. When you ROB it (with 3 Bandits) you EARN the Points it has accumulated so far... (Again just *abstract* ideas) When you free it (with 2 Sheriffs) you gain the right to the train on your tracks (again so it can gather more points...)