A great way to start up a new game is to think about the physical objects you could use in a game. If you haven't already been able to tell, I really like dice. All kinds of dice, honestly, but absolutely d6s (six-sided dice) more than the others. Why? It's a cube, with six possible outcomes. Cubes are easy to stack and they don't take a long time from rolling to outcome. But how else can you play with a die?
You can flick the die, like a marble, or fling it with a little catapult. You can even build up walls. Well, this is starting to sound a little bit fun, doesn't it?
Let's start with the first one: flicking the dice like marbles. What can you do with that? You can try to aim the dice. At what? Maybe at little meeple that your opponent has set up. Why? Maybe, you're at war. Maybe, they're just really mean and you don't like them. Maybe you're jealous of all the cool adventures they get to go on. Who knows?
Let's start with the first one: flicking the dice like marbles. What can you do with that? You can try to aim the dice. At what? Maybe at little meeple that your opponent has set up. Why? Maybe, you're at war. Maybe, they're just really mean and you don't like them. Maybe you're jealous of all the cool adventures they get to go on. Who knows?
Well, if we move away from attacking poor, defenseless little evil meeples, but keep the targeting mechanic, then what about trying to flick your die into a specific target zone? Something akin to a bowling game, like bocce or curling? Why use dice, I hear you ask? Well, you can have it that not only do you score points for having the closest dice to the centre, but also the highest face value on those dice. What if you had multiple scoring centres? That encourages people to play to different styles to try and score in different ways to one another.
When I started flicking dice around, I found that they bounced around a lot and many times they flew straight past where they started and off the table. What about a dice game where you bounce the dice off multiple different targets, or at least try to? Maybe it could be an assassination type game, where every target you knock out is a kill, while the targets you miss manage to escape and make taking out your next set of targets harder? What does the value of the die have at the end? Maybe a multiplier to multiply your score, or it has another effect, such as letting you draw "x" number of cards you can use to help yourself or hinder your opponents.
When I started flicking dice around, I found that they bounced around a lot and many times they flew straight past where they started and off the table. What about a dice game where you bounce the dice off multiple different targets, or at least try to? Maybe it could be an assassination type game, where every target you knock out is a kill, while the targets you miss manage to escape and make taking out your next set of targets harder? What does the value of the die have at the end? Maybe a multiplier to multiply your score, or it has another effect, such as letting you draw "x" number of cards you can use to help yourself or hinder your opponents.
What about that catapult idea? Well, how about a game where you need to protect a king and the dice can be used in one of two ways, either to build walls to protect your king or as ammunition in a catapult against an opponent's king. You would need specially made dice for this, so that they can clip in together. Looking at a d6, if the pips for 1, 2 and 4 were inverted, so that they came out, instead of going in, then they could slot into any of the pips for a 3, 5 or 6. I tried placing a whole bunch of normal dice together using these rules and found that you can put together a wall.
How would you choose whether the dice were wall or ammunition? Perhaps by rolling them. Special care would need to be taken to ensure that the dice could still roll all possible numbers and that the outward pips didn't prevent you from rolling inward pips. If you roll a 1, 2 or 4, then they can be made into walls. If you roll a 3, 5 or 6, then they are ammunition. We could also use a separate set of dice to determine how many or a set of cards that you draw. Playing different cards gets you different amounts of different resources, or lets you do different things with the dice.
What other things can you think of using a d6 for? If you find a way of using any of these mechanics, then comment below or make a game and send me a link!
How would you choose whether the dice were wall or ammunition? Perhaps by rolling them. Special care would need to be taken to ensure that the dice could still roll all possible numbers and that the outward pips didn't prevent you from rolling inward pips. If you roll a 1, 2 or 4, then they can be made into walls. If you roll a 3, 5 or 6, then they are ammunition. We could also use a separate set of dice to determine how many or a set of cards that you draw. Playing different cards gets you different amounts of different resources, or lets you do different things with the dice.
What other things can you think of using a d6 for? If you find a way of using any of these mechanics, then comment below or make a game and send me a link!
I hope you enjoyed this post. It is a bit different from the others, in that I just sat in front a keyboard and threw my mind onto the page as it followed its own train of thought. If you liked it, then I might do some more like this in the future.