Duane here from team Inquisibot!
We are currently working on refining our game Mecha Mettle and I'm looking for some thoughts from designers on dice.
Quick Summary: Mecha Mettle is a 2 player card and dice game where players engage in space combat as pilots of their customized spaceship. Players play cards, roll dice, and use special abilities to protect their ship and damage their opponent. The game ends when a player destroys 5 of his opponents ports.
In our prototypes, we have been using basic 6 sided dice with players rolling 3 dice for every test. A successful roll varied based on the card, as they had different thresholds. Some cards required rolls of 5 or higher to be successful, some cards required 3 or higher and so on.
We are currently trying to translate this dice system into one that uses symbols instead of numbers, and allows for more than 3 dice to be rolled at a time. A symbol system is quick to compare and easy to teach.
We are trying to find a good balance in the amount of dice being rolled and the number of symbols on each die. It's a lot of spreadsheet work right now, but solidifying this system will allow us to balance out the relative power of individual cards, making for a fair and competitive game.
So the question I am asking of you all is how many dice are you comfortable rolling? We currently have a maximum of 6 dice being rolled at a time. Would you prefer something higher (8-10 dice) or lower (2-4 dice)?
I suppose I need to help clarify on the system. The game is around medium complexity, so I'll try to keep this as light as possible.
When dice are rolled, they are used for combat. Similar to RISK in that both players are rolling dice to resolve an encounter.
In our previous system, both players rolled 3 dice each. The attacker rolls 3 dice, with each individual dice result trying to match or exceed the threshold of his cards listed attack. The defender is rolling 3 dice in the same way trying to match or exceed his cards listed defense. Any single die result that match or exceed the listed numbers on a cards attack or defense count as a success.
As an example, the attacker uses his turret, which has a listed attack value of (4). He rolls 3 dice, and gets 1-4-4, which gives him a total of 2 successes. The defender then rolls 3 dice of the space he is defending. It has a listed defense value of (5), and he receives 3-6-4, which gives them a total of 1 success. The attackers successes have overpowered the defenders successes (2-1), which means he wins combat, destroying target. In the case of a tie or the defender having more successes, the defender negates the attack.
A card would tell the player which dice to roll, and from what category. Different dice have higher or lower probability than others.
We are using 4 coloured dice.
Blue dice: Normal attacks (4+)
Red dice: Special attacks (3+)
Black dice: Evade (5+)
Green dice: Shield (3+)
The reason I have said that I believed a symbol system on the dice would be easier to learn and understand, is because its purpose is to cut out the middle step of our previous system.
We want to use a symbol system on our dice to remove the need to check values on what is a success or not. Instead, players would just roll the corresponding coloured dice, and if they land on a symbol, its a success. All they need to know is that to win an attack, you need more symbols than your opponent. To defend, you must exceed or match your opponents symbols. To answer your question let-off studios, we have been testing this system with dice and stickers, with up to a maximum of 6 dice at the moment, but on average only 4 dice are rolled.
I agree in trying to cut down the number of dice, so I'll be looking at the minimum amount of dice I need to roll to make the game work. Manufacturing costs have been looked at, and it's a bit daunting to mass produce something with lots of components.
We are not quite ready for print and play just yet, but we are play testing at every local designer event and board game event where people will kindly offer their time and thoughts.
Thanks for the feedback so far though!