Design Tip of the Week #24 (Why Have Custom Dice in Your Game, and When to Introduce Them)

Another Series?

Looks like it.  Last week I talked about a simple way to make custom dice for your prototype (or any time you need them).  Here is a link to the post if you missed it:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-23-how-to-make.html

You may also want to see the discussion over at BGG (BoardGame Geek) for some other cool tips:

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/17518053#17518053

So this week you are going to tell us why to make Custom Dice?  Isn't it obvious?  Because they are cool.

That is certainly a factor in why to have custom dice in your game.  But there are some fundamental things that custom dice allow you to do that you can't do with a traditional die. 

Firstly, they allow you to have more information on a die face than just a number.  Look at Quarriors, Dice Masters, or Mice and Mystics for some examples of this.

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2010754/marvel-dice-masters-avengers-vs-x-men

People often talk about cards having multiple uses, but you can achieve this with dice as well.  In Salvation Road we use the dice for Threat Rolls, Fighting, and Healing.  You don't need to look up what to do with the dice for all these situations, you just count up the hits.

Custom Dice allow you to convey information without having to look up every result on a custom table.  While Dice Masters has a lot of information on their dice, they try to add more depth by introducing rules on the cards too.  I view this as a small failing because not only do you have lots of information you need on the dice, you also have to refer back to the cards.  They developed a cool system, but all the information isn't in one place.  It could be worse, you could have to keep looking back at the rules, but this could lead to bloat as more cards are introduced to the set.

Lesson Learned: Custom Dice are a way to add multiple uses for a single component without a lot of extra looking things up in the rules.

What are some other cool things you can do with Custom Dice?

You can also mess with the odds a bit.  For example, if you want to remove an enemy and take one wound for your hero you could easily put that in the rules.  Or you could roll a die that has 4 hits, 1 miss and 1 double hit.  Now you are still taking 1 Wound on average, but it will be a little swingier. This leads to more tension than just taking 1 Wound.  If you want it more swingy you could move the hits around even more.  You could have a die with 3 hits, 2 hits, 1 hit and 3 sides with misses.  You would still average out to taking that 1 hit, but it will be a lot more swingy.  Half the time nothing will happen to you, but every once in a while you will take a tremendous amount of wounds.

Dead of Winter did this with their Exposure Die.  Your results could be anywhere from no damage, to dying and taking someone else out with you.  Some people love this and some people hate it.  It certainly creates more tension in your game, but it could also create huge swings in luck that drive people away.

Be careful with having too large a swing in your luck.  There is a lot of middle ground between gaining Victory Points and Dying.  Both results probably shouldn't be possible on the same roll.  But it all depends on your game.  The longer your game is the less one roll should matter.  If you are rolling the dice 100 times in your game the luck should probably all balance out.  In a 5 hour game the final result probably shouldn't be determined on one die roll.  Of course there are always exceptions.

Lesson Learned: You can vary the odds in more ways than one.  The average result doesn't always tell the whole story.  If you want more luck in your game, have more variety between the results on the different sides of your dice.

What do they add to your game?

There are two main things I think Custom Dice can add to any game.  The first we have discussed above, but don't think it can be repeated enough is simplicity.  You can simplify your rules by making Custom Dice.  You don't have to have lots of tables or reference sheets to tell you what happens on each die result.

The second main reason to have Custom Dice is theme.  Custom dice are an easy way to add theme to your game.  I would much rather roll a hit symbol and know I did damage than have to look at a table to see that I hit on a 1-4.  Even Dungeon Dice, which wouldn't be any fun at all with normal dice, gets a big buzz because of it's custom dice.  Just looking at the cool symbols is enough for some people to get totally emerged in your game.

Lesson Learned: Custom Dice should simplify your game while emerging people into the theme.

When should I bring them into my prototype?

You should make sure your prototype is a game first.  Your first few playtests will probably be either solo, or with people very close to you.  You don't need your dice to be custom at this point.  You could just have regular dice and look up tables.

Even if your dice are turning out to be very intricate it is better to test them before committing to making dice.  You may find out that you don't even need them at all.  Maybe a more streamlined approach is better for your game.  Maybe you find out you don't like your initial distribution and want something different.  It is much easier to change your table then to remake the dice.

With that being said, once you have a good working prototype and are ready to show it to the world, you should probably put the effort in to make your dice.  If it makes things easier for your playtest group, and speeds the game up then it is the right call.  If you make them and need to change them at this point, it is ok.  Sometimes you will need to change them several times.  That is why it is good to hold off as long as you can, but it is better to put the extra work in before you show it to people than to start getting feedback like:

• The game is too long
• There is too much to remember
• There is too much to look up
• I couldn't get into the theme

Then you are wondering is it the mechanics, or the components.  That is the toughest part of early playtesting.  Even later prototypes can suffer if your components or graphic design is confusing to playtesters. 

Lesson Learned: Make your Custom Dice when you are convinced your design is solid and are ready to introduce it to people outside your inner circle.

What's next?
 That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about why not to use Custom Dice in your game.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #23 (How to Make Custom Dice)

Lets get right into it.  What will you need?

For a 16mm D6 (probably the most common die I make) you will need:

• 16mm Blank Dice (you could use ones with pips too, but I buy blank ones)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D166220011&field-keywords=blank+dice&rh=n%3A165793011%2Cn%3A166220011%2Ck%3Ablank+dice

• 1/2 inch Hole Punch 

http://www.amazon.com/EK-Tools-Circle-Punch-0-50-Inch/dp/B0090JVDNA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416284062&sr=8-1&keywords=1%2F2+inch+hole+punch&pebp=1416284209536

• Sticker Paper

http://www.staples.com/Staples-Sticker-Paper/product_490429

• Paper Cutter, or Scissors

The links are only suggestions, you can google these items, or find your own source for them.

Step 1:

Lay out your symbols in a word document (any program will work).  First may a test print on regular printer paper as it is much cheaper if you make a mistake.  You want to look at spacing, quality of the symbols, and size.  Make sure you punch a few out to make sure you aren't overlapping, and that the symbol fills the punched out piece.  You can resize and test again until you get the size and quality you are looking for.  I will often print on the same piece of paper to save cost.

Layout - You want to have several rows on your paper, each with enough symbols for 1-2 dice.  Even if you end up printing more than you need it is ok, you will want to have more later for sending out prototypes.  Here is an example below:

Step 2:

Print on the sticker paper and use your paper cutter or scissors to cut between your rows.  you should now have strips that are ready to punch.

Step 3:

Have your blank dice ready and peel the backing off one strip of your sticker paper.  You will then punch one symbol at a time, placing each symbol on one of the die faces.  While I apply the sticker to the Die, I leave the rest of the strip inside the punch.  It will stick to the punch a little, but should be easy to take off.  I have included a picture below as an example:

Final Results:

As you can see, I left the blank sides blank.  If you want, it would be easy enough to add a blank sticker to them if you are really worried about them being weighted.  Personally I am not that worried for a prototype, but it is easy enough to do.

Anything else?

Nope, it's as easy as that.  I have made custom D8s too.  For those I bought a bag of 100 D8 like those listed above for D6.  The punch I use for D8 is a bit smaller too.  It doesn't have an exact measurement on it, but it is about 8-9 mm.

What's next?

 That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about the benefits of having custom dice in your game.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

More Content...

There is some information about the components I use to make d8s below in the comments.  But here is a picture of what they look like.

 

Design Tip of the Week #22 (FUN to Time Ratio Part 3)

What is this about and where do I find the first 2 Parts?

This series is covering something I call the Fun to Time Ratio.  You know your game is done when you get this ratio correct. 

In the first installment of this series, we talked about ways to make longer games feel shorter:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/09/design-tip-of-week-20-fun-to-time-ratio.html

In the second part of the series, we talked about ways to shorten your game, without losing the flow:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-21-fun-to-time-ratio.html

Now the hard part, how do we add fun?

What is fun?  That seems general.

Fun is a very general term.  What is fun to some people will not be fun to others.  This week we will focus on some general tips to increase fun that should span most gamers.  Even though we have different tastes, there are certainly some things to consider regardless of your audience.

Lets start out with Decisions.  How do you make them fun?

Lets start with the basics.  People want to feel smart.  Anything you can do to make the player feel smarter without making their opponents feel dumb is probably a good thing to add to your game.  Think about the games you like.  Why do you like them?  Probably because you are pretty good at them.  You feel good playing them because you make good decisions.  You feel smart.  Even if you don't win your favorite game a lot, you are probably either getting better the more you play, or see your decisions making positive impact on the game.  I have heard people talking about building their farm in Agricola, even if they didn't win, and pointing to the progress they made.

What people don't like about Agricola is the pressure feeding you people puts on you.  This isn't universal, but seems to be the key complaint.  That is because when you don't succeed you lose something.  In this case points.  In The Year of the Dragon puts pressure on you too.  You probably won't finish that game with all of your things in tact.  This is a chief complaint about the game.  Some people love this mechanic, so I am not trying to push you away from it altogether, but realize that if you put negative feedback in your game that it will turn some people off.

An example from our designs was in The Last Bastion.  We originally had a mechanic where people would lose if the town burned and they hadn't helped enough.  It was a good mechanic and lead to some cool tension at the end.  Even if one player seemed way ahead they could lose because they didn't do enough to save the town.  We flipped it on it's ear, instead incentivizing people to try and save the town.  Instead of giving people a negative experience of the auto-loss, we gave everyone a bonus for doing what we wanted them to do.  At the end of the day everyone felt better because they were pushed to do what the theme told them they should be doing.

Lesson Learned: Try to make decisions lead to a positive reward, not a negative punishment if possible.  People want to feel smart, reward them for good choices.

Oh Great Game Maker (insert sarcasm here) what else do people want?

People also like to feel special.  Look at all the top games on BGG (boardgamegeek.com).  In almost all of them people have a way to feel different from everyone else.  Do what no one else can do.  The top game, Twilight Struggle, both sides feel, and play completely different because of the events.  In Terra Mystica every race has a unique power.  In Through the Ages, civilizations don't start differently, but they acquire things that make them unique throughout the game.  If I get Napoleon, you can't get Napoleon so I am unique.  Keep going with Agricola.  You have unique cards that only you can have, and upgrades that only one person can build.  Puerto Rico the same thing.  Buildings are limited so only one or two people can have the same one.

It is very hard to design games that make people feel unique, but I think this is a key to success.  If you play 2 games in a row and do the exact same thing regardless of special powers, or starting position, then there may be a problem.  That is why I don't necessarily like games that have an open tech tree.  If you can build anything whenever you want, than what prevents you from doing the same thing every game. 

Lesson Learned: Give people a chance to feel unique, either through setup, or introducing limited powers throughout the game that only one person can attain.

Summary

While the concept of fun is unique to each person, we do have things in common.  People want to feel smart, and people love having something no one else does.  It is in our nature.  Observe any child for 20 minutes and you will see this.  They always want what the other person has (special powers).  And they always want to show you something (feel smart).

Series Summary

I always get asked the question, how do you know when your game is done.  Or how do you know when to start trying to break your game?  I come back to this rule, if your game is fun to play, in the timeframe you are playing it, you are probably there.  If it was fun for the first hour, then got boring, find a way to cut the end without making if feel rushed.  If the game is playing quickly, but it feels like something is missing, try to add some fun through the techniques discussed here and in the first part of the series.

What's next?
 That's it for this week, next week I am going to get back to prototyping and discuss how to make your own custom dice.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #21 (Fun to TIME Ratio Part 2)

So this week you are going to talk about the Time part of the Fun to Time Ratio.  Where do I find part 1?

Sorry for the delay.  We have been spending lots of time lately working on this issue for both of our games, so hopefully I have some more (fresh) insight this week.  But here is a link to part 1:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/09/design-tip-of-week-20-fun-to-time-ratio.html

So isn't it easy, just cut out a couple of rounds and voila shorter?

Yes, it does sound easy.  What you find when you cut rounds though is that sometimes your game doesn't feel complete.  If you have a buildup to your game, people could feel cheated if they didn't get to build up as much, or equally bad they could spend all this time building and not get to the payoff.

Lets take this one step at a time, how do you solve the buildup issue?

This is a great question, and one I have worked on several times.  Not only in our own designs, but also with other designers at Unpub events.  If the first couple of rounds of your game feel superfluous cut them.  If everyone does the same things every time you don't need those rounds.  The key is to cut the rounds without cutting the progress. 

For this we have introduced character cards in some of our games.  In Bastion for example, during the first few rounds you were setting a course for yourself.  Later in the game you would either try to maximize those strengths you had developed, or balance your character out, to handle more diverse situations.  By introducing characters we were able to start setting the course for you.  The keys to making successful character were:

1. They had to be unique: Their powers had to match their persona.
2. They had to train you up equal to about a turn of training.
3. They couldn't railroad you into one specific strategy.
4. Don't constrain yourself to powers that you would normally find in the game.  These "Character Powers" didn't have to be balanced with the rest of the game.  If they were better, the character could start with less of something else, if they were weaker they could get more of something else.
5. They have to be easy to learn.  The game is designed to be easy to learn and play, with rich decision.  The characters should not muddy those decisions, they should build to them.

We had now cut an entire round out of the game without detracting from people's experience.  It doesn't have to be special characters though, lots of games have variable setup cards, or abilities.  Even if it is just for first time players so they can get into the game quickly (see Catan's first game setup) it is worth looking into.  If first time players are making decisions they don't understand it will not only take longer, but could ruin the rest of the game for them.  If they don't like your game the first time they probably won't try it again.

Lesson Learned: Try cutting a round at the beginning of your game by having special setup cards.  They could be variable power cards (like characters) or quick setup instructions (like Catan).  Either way could cut a round off the beginning of your game.

What about chopping off a round at the end of the game?

The hard part here is having players do a lot of buildup just to be left cold in the end.  The end of your game should be the most exciting part, as that is going to be the lasting impression the gamer leaves the table with.  You don't want to overstay your welcome, but you don't want people building up all this cool stuff and never getting to use it.

What we did with Bastion was to make the last round something you had to earn.  We didn't cut it completely, but made it so the town could burn before you reached it.  If it didn't burn, then the last round was another chance to use your cool stuff.  The town is no longer in danger of falling, you just get to wipe up the scrubs while they try to run away.  It gives you a cool benefit for getting better at the game and surviving until the last round.  There is no player elimination, so if the town falls you just add up your scores when it fell, but your are rewarded with extra VP for trying to save the town.  This way the first time you play the game will probably be 1-2 rounds shorter.  As you get better though you will make it to the final rounds.  As you get better the game also becomes faster so you will probably finish in the same amount of time.

Another solution for cutting rounds at the end of the game, is making the ramp up quicker.  You may have to make the end game costs of things lower as people won't have as many resources, or you may have to make the resources you gain from an action higher, but this way you get to the endgame faster.  In Salvation Road, we decided how many rounds we wanted the game to be (approximately) and back filled the costs for things to work out.  At some points the game was going longer than we wanted, so we cut down the cost of each end game card.  Now the game could end earlier.  So we had to up the pressure throughout the game to make it hard to reach those goals.

Lesson Learned: Consider having a variable endgame, that is more likely to go longer the better you get at the game.  Another option is to find out the correct length for your game, and tinker with the costs of things to have a natural build to that point.

Is that is for Time?

Yup.  That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about the Fun aspect of the Fun to Time Ratio.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.