I have also heard of designers relying too much on numbers, and not enough on how the game feels ('the distributions are perfect, it is the players who are flawed'). I'm no Markov, but with enough effort I can usually evaluate probabilities enough to make decent claims. I can happily claim to be trained in mathematics with a specialization in statistics. I've sinced dropped the concern, but it's provided something to chew on, I think.Ĥ. After reaching out, many other systems have done some pretty cool stuff with casino-inspired mechanics without co-opting Wild West imagery. I noticed the two appeared together a few times, and presumed a pattern emerged out of some complementary aspects between the two that would leave any attempts to separate them with distracting near-misses. Number crunching I can do, I'm more concerned with GMs having to whip out a whiteboard to set difficulties and make NPCs.ģ. Players would be allowed to increase the number of dice, re-roll dice, and fiddle (increase/decrease face) with dice.

Yeah, it probably comes across as inflicting serious decision fatigue. I think those sorts of benefits should come with an increase in skill and aptitude, but it's by no means a universal truth.Ģ. You know I get referred to Dogs in the Vineyard quite a bit, though you're the first I've heard actually describe their feelings on the system. You need to know the effect adding dice and tweaking stuff really will have on the system (and design accordingly) or it will break easy.ġ. I mean, you could technically use it for anything, but something like My Little Pony: 7 Card Stud is going to lack a certain verisimilitude.Ĥ) Get really, really good at math. You could swing a criminal underworld thing, possibly based around illegal gambling. I think you're going to find yourself doing a lot of number crunching or finding a lot of surprises.ģ) Not necessarily. I couldn't even begin to guess that the probabilities for different adjustments. Based on your mechanic, it sounds like 3 card poker is your base with a bunch of directions it can go from there. Meanwhile, I get seven and my hand is the best of three of those.Ģ) I have not played Gunslingers and Gamblers.

Imagine if we're playing poker and you only get three cards. You may have a similar effect if players are rolling a variable number of dice. You can just count the number of 'dice sides' that each side has and confidently bet on the stronger contender. General thoughts, advice, intuitions? Things worth considering when using such a dice mechanic?ġ) Dogs in the Vineyard does a watered down version of this.Am I doomed to have my system feel Wild West themed with poker-esque mechanics? How fatally linked are these two things?.Has anyone played or GM'd Gunslingers & Gamblers (or any others that use poker dice)? How was your experience? Were Difficulties and modifiers easy to formulate and justify to inquisitive players?.Are there any other games you can think of that use this dice mechanic well, or exceptionally poorly?.I understand you may not feel like you have much context to comment on the matter. Most reviews I've read convey a problem arises for people whom haven't played poker, and are unfamiliar with the hands. It's Western Themed, but I'm making a more genre-agnostic dice system at the moment. I did a little research, and found Gunslingers & Gamblers (Jonathan Clarke, FJGaming) which has used something much like this to good reviews.

It's essentially Yahtzee, for those familiar. All rolls are contested, and for one player to win over another, they must roll a better 'hand,' if that makes sense. The alternative I'm considering is still 3d6, but uses poker hands as inspiration. Players spend their bets to increase number of dice, re-roll their dice, improve the effectiveness of an action, and so forth. Their bets are removed from the stats, and the stats recover. The idea for the system is Narrative Poker, where the player's stats are combined into stacks of chips, and they bet to improve their results. I'm currently using a 3d6 sum dice system for a prototype I'm working on, but I don't think it contributes to the overall design of the game system.

Poker dice