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.