Lethal Dice 50

phlip45 2022-04-04 22:07

Quite like this one. It is interesting as a press your luck style game, since in most of those kinds of games your choice is binary, Keep rolling/drawing cards whatever it is, or bust. In this one you can be as safe as you want to be up to a point, and so deciding whether or not to add more dice becomes a difficult choice.

I think that if the cards had unique abilities, besides reserving a dice, it would make the game a bit more interesting. It would also keep things interesting at the end of the round when you pick which of the abilities you would keep going forward. Do you get the score multiplier? or do you get the one that lets you ignore a dice every roll? or maybe the one that lets you reroll up to 5 dice a round? It could get pretty interesting.

Anyways, those are just some ideas if you would want to continue working on the game. As it is, I had a fun time with my playthrough. I only got up to 350pts.

bauke-regnerus 2022-04-05 18:50

I'd love to see more physical tabletop games in LD, so thanks you. The game in its current state leaves a lot of room for more deep mechanics to be added, but I appreciate how you stuck to the core base game. There's a risk/reward choice every turn that keep things interesting and invites you to play multiple times to see what works best. The manual has a pleasant layout and typography that matches those of commercially released tabletop games. You inspire me to make a tabletop games as well next time.

xeke-death 2022-04-06 13:05

Finally a game where my crappy dice roll luck in TTS isn't as much of a hindrance! The rules were well written enough for me to understand the flow of the game, except for that "discard the rest" part you forgot (I heard you mention that on Elysia's stream)

Well done, I like the take on the theme.

matt-e 2022-04-06 16:13

I played in TTS and it was fun. The probability graph was helpful. First game I actually lost early on because I rolled 12 die and not a single 4 😭. It would be nice if the pdf was in the TTS mod. Thanks for the game.

zc74560 2022-04-06 16:22

I love to see more tabletop games in LD too. I play it in the TTS and I love it.(Maybe you can add your rule into the TTS mod)

I only got 150pt in my first gameplay. Luck is very important in the game. And also I think this game does not fit real Print Play well. Because add up to ten rolls many times is not interesting. But TTS will do that for me :)

frib 2022-04-06 17:20

Interesting game! I just played the pdf version and I managed to get 250 points on my playthrough when I understood the rules.

I do have one question on the rules. I had 16 boxes to cover, and the rules state that I must roll at least 16 dice then, even though I have some dice in reserve. Is that correct? It probably feels better if you can roll as many as you want as long as the amount + your reserve can potentially cover all boxes.

adam-gould 2022-04-06 17:21

This was a pleasant surprise! I wasn't expecting to see a dice-and-paper game in LD but this certainly was a fantastic one! By the time I got to the end of the game, I had completely forgotten that this was a compo entry, which absolutely blows my mind. The level of depth and elegance in the design is an incredible feat for one person to achieve in 48 hours.

I had an absolute blast playing this.

dob 2022-04-06 20:03

Fun idea, and an interesting and easy-to-understand mechanic. I like the LD50 nod there.

niterich 2022-04-06 21:27

It's always interesting to see tabletop games submitted to LD... but it's also a bit hard to tell if you're playing the game 100% correctly. For reference, I just used a pen, paper, and a random number generator to draw my cards and roll my dice. I thought the game was very imaginative and offered a high risk-reward structure that reminds me a bit of Liar's Dice or a classic Chicken Game.

I definitely misread the line "...place *all* **such** cards face-down..." as "...place *all* cards **!** face down..." and discarded my entire hand when I needed a 5 but didn't get one. I think that line might be better rewritten as "If you covered every box on every card, choose one card and place it face-up in the score area. Otherwise, place each card with at least one unfilled box face-down in the score area."

Also, the inner pedantic scientist in me is screaming at you to label the axes on the graph.

marcmagus 2022-04-07 03:59

@zc74560 yeah, I'll try to get the rules sheet into the TTS mod sometime soon post-Jam. It's not something I've done yet and it fell to the time/priority thing along with a how-to-play video. Good suggestion.

@frib the intent is that you're only required to roll enough that you can cover the boxes using everything in reserve (that's a lot of what makes reserve worth taking risks to build up). I'll add an FAQ and take a look into whether I can word it better for 1.2, thanks.

@niterich Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take a look and consider a revision to clarify that point. The axis labels are intuitively obvious. ;) (Fair point, I really should have taken the time to get that in)

phil-c 2022-04-07 06:52

Just popping in here saying this looks like a fun game and I think its unique that you did a physical game, I can't play it (or rate it as a result) as I only have 8 dice but you bet I went looking through my house trying to see if I had 20, was a good break activity looking around lol.

bunner 2022-04-07 21:08

As a side note, I misread the rules and played the game exponentially (all scored cards get added, not just one) but still had a fun time doing so! (And besides, like all tabletop games house rules can shake things up anyway. Exponential play makes it shorter and more risky, which I personally prefer.)

I enjoyed the concept of the game, pushing your luck so that you can still score but keeping the total under 50. I played the tabletop simulator version while reading the rules pdf, and had a good time with it! I also like the novelty of a dice and paper game in the game jam, and might try out some house rules in the future to play with other people too.

yusovv 2022-04-07 21:24

Thank, you pleasantly surprised me with a board game! The rules are well written, but is such a minimalist design of the cards planned? or are you in the process of graphics?

jorgeplk 2022-04-07 21:38

An interesting game with a lot more to it than it initially seems! Good Work!

bucketh3ad 2022-04-07 21:49

I didn't print the game out since I don't have enough physical dice to play, but I did simulate some dice rolls and card draws with code so I could get an idea how the game plays out. I quite like the game loop overall, and I'm sure it's a lot more satisfying and streamlined rolling a handful of real dice and lining them up on the cards. The one page rules were thoughtfully laid out, and I appreciate the inclusion of a graph to help players better intuit the risk of rolling greater numbers of dice. I did find use of the word "upright" to be initially unclear with regards to the face down cards in the scoring area, but once I realized the square next to the name was for the reserve die and that it was obscured when the card was upside down, it made a lot more sense. Good work.

dirkinz 2022-04-07 23:44

As someone who also made a tabletop game, mad respect.

senso 2022-04-08 05:11

Nice balance you beteren luck and skill ( Logic). Feels so good when everything played out you wanted.

ratstail91 2022-04-08 13:43

I'm sorry, but I didn't enjoy this. Part of the reason was that the instructions were hard to parse - writing very clear rules is key to making a game like this work, but you referenced elements of the game that hadn't been introduced yet:

> Turn over face-up into the play area one card from the draw pile and an additional card for each card (upright or reversed) in the score area.

You haven't mentioned the score area at all by this point. Add to that, the fact that it feels like English might not be your first language, just from reading the rules.

If you want to rewrite this, I'd begin by explaining the different areas where you can place cards, the anatomy of a card, etc. Maybe include some diagrams or illustrations as well. Also, having "LD50" scattered through the rules was confusing, though I just realized what you were going for there - clever.

Another reason I didn't enjoy it was simply the push-your-luck nature of the game, something which I generally don't like. Not your fault there.

alight 2022-04-08 14:21

Good Work and Good Game :thumbsup:

marcmagus 2022-04-08 14:46

@bunner interesting! That would get you past the slow ramp-up and into the critical section faster; my only concern is that the jump from 6 to 10 skips over the most interesting segment (around 7-9). Thanks for sharing.

@yusovv it was intentional. The theme I designed around is a little too dark especially in the current cultural moment for me to be comfortable leaning into it explicitly, so I didn't want to do card titles/artwork. In a jam timeline I knew I couldn't figure out a way to be appropriately sensitive to it. I had been considering putting special rules text into that area but I decided to scale it back to the most basic version of the game.

@bucketh3ad @ratstail91 Agreed: there are some places where the structure and wording of the rules could be a lot clearer. Maybe I'll get another update out. The presence of a diagram showing the layout on the table also doesn't seem to help as much as I'd expected it to.

marcmagus 2022-04-08 16:54

@dirkinz I'll have to find a chance to check your game out too.

jimbly 2022-04-08 19:42

I love seeing physical games. I checked out the TTS mod, thanks for providing that =). My score was, unfortunately, only 150. Unless I missed something, having played, I think, optimally up until that point (scored each turn, always scored the card with the most dice slots), drawing 3 cards to add to my existing 3 on the 4th round suddenly put me in very high chance of rolling over 50 range, and so I did ^_^.

The rules were a little confusing when first mentioning "upright cards in the score pile", having no idea what "upright" or "score pile" were. Actually took a couple readings to realize that "upright" meant "not upside down", for some reason I was thinking it meant 90 degrees rotated/tapped and didn't see any way they would get that way when reading the rest of the rules ^_^.

phoenix-fireflower 2022-04-08 19:54

Interesting to see a tabletop game in Ludum Dare. Although the wording of the rules was unclear at times, I had a good time playing your game. There is a good balance between the luck of the dice rolls and logical thinking skills.

voidsay 2022-04-08 20:44

If that ain't my favourite tabletop aficionado! 20 dice? Are you mad? I don't even have 3.

Oh well nothing that an excel spreadsheet (I should really make an excel spreadsheet game) and a few online number generators can't solve. Only got 200 points, cause I didn't notice the dice saving mechanic.

You are very space efficient with your instructions. Maybe a bit too dense for my tabletop noob brain.

jitspoe 2022-04-09 03:31

Had a lot of fun playing this on stream. It was a bit of a commitment to cut out the cards and such, but the balance of the game made it feel challenging but fair. Always pushing my luck.

elysiagriffin 2022-04-09 10:30

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my stream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1450167991?t=08h25m36s

Good luck on your ratings! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

marcmagus 2022-04-09 14:21

@jimbly you missed the rule I forgot to write into 1.0 of the rules release (sorry): that once you've scored/failed to score cards for a round all the remaining cards are discarded before a new set of cards is drawn. Normally you will have 1 card in round 1, 2 cards in round 2, etc (unless penalties accelerate that). This could still be worded more clearly. Sorry for the error. (Fortunately you still get a sense of the game experience when played as you did, just highly accelerated)

@voidsay Thanks. Two pages and more explanation probably would have been a better choice for this one than the rules I ended up with, but, well, jam time happened.

@jitspoe @elysiagriffin Thank you both for taking the time to play my game on your streams. I know it's more of a time commitment than your usual content and I appreciated the opportunity to watch people interact with it. It was very valuable feedback.

jimbly 2022-04-09 15:34

@marcmagus Ah, yep, I did miss that rule! I was even reading the v1.1 rules, I just must have skimmed over it =).

rickylee 2022-04-09 16:18

such a great idea! Watched HonestDan stream it, I'll play this on tabletop sim a few times see if I can get over 400 :)

maychant 2022-04-09 17:30

Not bad. There's a bit strategic element in picking which dice to preserve. But not much can be done when this was my first roll. Time to flip the table first round.PNG

almost 2022-04-09 21:47

250 points for me.

I didn't fail any objectives, but I went bust on round 6, where I rolled 11 dice totaling 52 (6 of the dice were 6s).

Tabletop Simulator's feature of showing the sum for a selected group of dice is really convenient here.

The push your luck aspect is nice. The rules are fairly simple which is good for learning the game. I was a bit confused about the scoring area, but the image and example on the right side of the rules made it clear what it should look like. I assume that reserved dice stay in the reserved area until they are used.

The 1 1 1 card seems much harder than the other cards, but I think it's fine for there to be some variance in card difficulty so that you have to think about how many dice to roll each time.

It's not really necessary, but it would be cool if there was art or background on the cards, sort of like the cards in Splendor or Century Spice Road.

bluishgreenpro 2022-04-10 00:19

Really novel to play a TTS game in the midst of all the other jam games! I liked the idea of banking dice for each successful turn, but I do see that the score converges very quickly unless you get a lot of cards which only require 1/2 dice in later rounds. *Sorry for forgetting to shuffle :P

honest-dan 2022-04-10 08:59

I enjoyed this Marc! As always, great to see representation of physical games in LD. I think this had some great qualities to it. I made some suggestions during stream, I'll try and summarise:

1) the LD50 rule felt a bit too much of a coin toss. I would be interested in seeing how a more iterative "push your luck" mechanic worked, where you can pay extra to roll extra dice. For example: You roll 8 die. But realise you are short on what is required. So you can roll an extra N dice, but for each new dice you have to add another 1 to your total. So I may choose two more dice to roll. Say my 8 dice totalled 30, then to roll 2 more I add 2, so 32. Then the dice land 4 and 2, so takes me to 38. Maybe I am still short, and I can choose N dice to roll, but this time it costs 2 per dice. I roll 2 more dice, so 38 goes to 40. The dice land 4 and 5, leaving me on 49.

2) I would like adding more strategy elements to it, such as getting to keep 1 of the face up cards per rounds, allowing you to have more control over the dice criteria you need to satisfy.

jackaljk 2022-04-10 10:46

Saw this played in a twitch stream, I like the core mechanic and it's fun to play. It seems to be based on luck a little bit much, maybe you could work on some more strategic elements. What's there is fun as it though, nice job!

guoboism 2022-04-11 01:17

I aggree with some comments that the rules are bit hard to read. But the game is good design:

you face more and more cards on deck you try to use dice to fill the demand of cards you can use any dice without rolling at all (use them as it is) but as demands(box) are growing, you have to roll dices to change them into possible needed numbers yet once all the rolled dices add up to 50 the game instantly end

The part I like is the mechanism of how card demands dices, with range/evenodd/certain number Also the potential of perplan early in the game (prepare a balance group dice early) And the best part, every strategy is masked with randomness The distribution of dices is puzzle(certian) combined with random(uncertainty)

Good work!

wendel-scardua 2022-04-11 02:24

@almost: I think you misunderstood one of the cards, there's no "1 1 1" card, the "\* \* \*" card is supposed to be "3 dice of any value".

@marcmagus: finally got to play some games on TTS (my high score was 350). I like how "strategic" it can be - there was a moment where I knew that I lost not because of the randomness, but because I made a bad decision when choosing a card for scoring. The only thing that could take a bit of the fun is having to check if the dice added up to 50 when playing IRL.

Also, I think one thing that could help with the instructions would be to first present that picture with the example and labels for each type of thing ("upright score cards", "upside down penalty cards", etc), so then the instructions could refer to them more easily.

almost 2022-04-11 16:37

Ah, whoops, that makes much more sense. I must have mistaken the star for a single dot and so it looked like a die with a value of 1.

raphiell 2022-04-15 17:56

twice I got within one die, and even one pip (one value away on my last die) from getting 400. Alas, maybe it's not meant to be. This was a lot of fun! There's definitely some impending doom, and I like that fact that it's not infinite! Plays well with the theme and makes sense after a game or two. Well done!

jitspoe 2022-04-18 09:10

Oh, no, I just reviewed the VOD and realized I miscounted. I pulled a 1 out of reserve and didn't actually hit the 50 points! I was at 49, so I *did* actually get the "bonus" 50 points I kept joking about + could have played more rounds! I'm tempted to try to play again from where I left off, because that's some shenanigans right there! (Granted, that's what I get for not counting first before trying to place the dice, but still...). Why didn't anybody say anything! 😆 Proof: https://clips.twitch.tv/KawaiiWildScallionHotPokket-Fh5v5u9fBLQIrlTb

oadt 2022-04-18 11:28

In case you wonder how your game looks like without a printer or dices :sweat_smile: Bildschirmfoto 2022-04-18 um 13.03.09.png

Also in case someone needs a short JS function to roll some dices: (e.g. `roll(3)` to roll 3 dices) ```javascript const rollDice = () => 1 + Math.random() * 6 | 0 const roll = (n) => { const rolls = new Array(n).fill(0).map(rollDice); console.table({ sum: rolls.reduce((a, b) => a + b), ...Object.fromEntries([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].map(v => [v, rolls.filter(e => e == v).length])) }) } ```

My Highscore was 300. It is a super fun game which I think isn't easy to come up with in such a short time! Also pretty good idea to include the LD_50 graph in the instructions, this lets the player really consider how much risk to take.

While playing I wondered if there could be some more depth to the reserve mechanic (maybe something like you can sacrifice one reserve dice to increase the maximum sum) but I also really liked the simplicity of the game, so I don't know about that (also the game seems balanced in its current form)

Had a lot of fun with this game, great work! Cool to see a tabletop game in ludum dare!

pomo 2022-04-19 22:32

One day the elusive 450 shall appear