Roll To Save - Dice Rolling Mechanics

 Dicey Propositions

Moving away from exploring specific mechanics and some of the games that I've enjoyed with the various mechanics, I thought that I'd do something a bit different today and look over some of the most interesting dice rolling/dice that I've encounter with my various plays over the years. Obviously dice rolling as a mechanic can be implemented in a significant number of ways and I thought that I would take the time today to look through some interesting implementations of dice and how they are used in games.

A few points of note for those that don't play too many tabletop RPGs and begin wondering what the shorthand that I'm using is below; I'll refer to the dice by the number of sides for shorthand, e.g. D6 for a six-sided dice, or D8 for an 8-sided dice. It makes discussing the various dice much quicker than typing out "six sided dice". Additionally "pips" refers to the number of dots on the dice themselves if they don't have a number printed on them or a symbol. I'm attempting to not assume that terminology is universal and want to make sure that everyone can enjoy this post!

These aren't going to be any specific games that I would or would not recommend, just ones that I think have some of the most clever implementations of dice rolling mechanics in the game as well as some of the coolest dice styles that I've had the opportunity to play with. This is more of a fun post today so enjoy my thoughts on the following games. I'll try to keep it shorter so don't expect too much depth on these games:

Interesting Dice #1 - Mystical Mice

Game Name: Mice and Mystics
Dice type: D6 with various symbology and numbers on them.
How It's Played: The dice in Mice and Mystics are really cleverly implemented as they are custom dice that are created for the game that allow players to perform attacks and actions for both their own characters and enemy characters. The iconography is well designed and well implemented to allow for an easy understanding of what is accomplished and the game utilizes the dice extremely well to the point where it feels as if it's a Dungeons and Dragons campaign without a Dungeon Master because the dice take care of everything with a simple roll. Obviously there's much more going on in the rulebook, but the dice do quite a bit of the heavy lifting for the game.

Interesting Implementation #1 - Landing With Confidence

Game Name: Sky Team
Dice type: 8 two colored D6's in orange and blue (4 of each) with normal pips.
How It's Played: Sky Team prominently uses dice and has players assign dice to the game board representing the various flaps, landing gear, pitch/yaw, and speed of the plane (among other things) in order to land the plane that they are cooperatively working together to control. The caveat comes with the hiccup that players cannot talk about their dice rolls with the other person, making this a tense and enjoyable experience with dice.

Interesting Dice #2 - Legends of the Hidden Temple

Game Name: Escape: The Curse of the Temple
Dice type: Custom D6 with iconography on each face.
How It's Played: Dice are your movement, curse breaking, and life in this game. Each face has a specific action associated with it that allows your adventurer to perform actions and move between rooms, all while attempting to get rid of your gems and find the exit to this temple while the walls close in around you. It's a tense, cooperative game that comes with many fanmade tracks to keep time during this tense 10 or so minute game. The dice are well designed and with each player getting five identical dice, it's more about how the dice are used versus having different abilities on the dice.

Interesting Implementation #2 - Role Playing

Game Name: Roll Player
Dice type: 73 7 colored D6 dice
How It's Played: Players roll, draft and assign dice to their character sheet throughout the game using various colored dice to earn gold or meet specific goals as stated on their backstory. Locations where dice are assigned also allow players to reroll, flip or alter locations of dice during the game. While clever, Roll Player feels a bit hollow, but the expansion Roll Player: Monsters & Minions adds a bit more of an end-game goal and helps round out the game. Additionally, characters rolled up in Roll Player can be reimplemented in Roll Player Adventures for a campaign using the rolled characters.

Interesting Dice #3 - World of Dinos

Game Name: Dinosaur World
Dice type: Custom made D6 dice for danger, DNA dice, and excitement/algae (in expansions)
How It's Played: Players roll DNA dice at the beginning of each round and can draft the dice to add extra DNA to their resource pool for building dinos. When players visit the paddocks during the tour portion of the round, they also have to roll danger dice to see if there are any deaths that occur from careless guests (or lack of security, take your pick). Additional dice are added with the expansions to offer additional effects and some tiles even allow players to reroll DNA dice for more resources during their tour. Each dice is really nicely designed and has a color assigned based on what they're rolled for.

Interesting Implementation #3 - Stained Glass Sculptors

Game Name: Sagrada
Dice type: 90 5 colored D6s
How It's Played: Players roll and draft dice onto their own player board using both pip number and dice color to complete both personal and public objectives. Throughout the game, players can utilize powers to alter locations that the dice sit on their personal board. When the game ends, players are left with a beautiful tableau of dice that sit on their board, mimicking the stained glass that the game takes inspiration for.

Interesting Dice #4 - Forging Your Own Path

Game Name: Dice Forge
Dice type: Eight D6 with replaceable faces
How It's Played: This one could fall under both "Interesting Dice" and "Interesting Implementation" as the dice in Dice Forge have replaceable faces that can be "forged" by players, giving them more powerful effects. It's a really cool concept that I'm surprised hasn't been implemented too often, and Dice Forge uses the mechanic masterfully. I love being able to build my own dice and while the game sometimes feels too short, I'm glad that I added it to my collection.

Interesting Implementation #4 - The Road Thunders

Game Name: Thunder Road Vendetta
Dice type: 4 small 4 colored D6 for players; 5 "FX Dice" for use during the game
How It's Played: Another game that could fall into both categories, but I'll focus on the clever implementation of the dice for this entry. Each player rolls their 4 dice at the beginning of the round, taking turns to assign a dice to a car (for movement) and/or to their command board (for attacks/extra abilities). Players can choose to assign them in any way and it can result it wildly varying effects, which are then resolved by the FX Dice included in the game. The FX Dice are used to determine number of times something happens or how far something goes, the direction of a result, provide bonuses for staying on the road, denote which car moves in a slam, and provide information on who gets shot. It's a really simple but easy implementation to understand and almost all of the game is done via dice roll for extra chaos!

Interesting Dice #5 - Island Adventures

Game Name: Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
Dice type: 12 D6 with iconography, color coded based on task or event
How It's Played: Throughout the game the dice are rolled by players to determine successes or failures and other factors while attempting to complete a task. They may denote that a player completes the task but there might be detrimental effects while completing the task and that is all determined by dice roll. Additionally, weather effects and wild animal attacks are also determined by dice rolls which may further hinder players attempts to survive on the island. Each roll is a game of chance and may or may not result in a horrible thing happening to the players.

Interesting Implementation #5 - Doc! We've Gotta Go Back!

Game Name: Back to the Future: Dice Through Time
Dice type: 12 custom D6, 4 for each player color
How it's played: Dice are at the heart of the game and players use dice to perform actions to prevent the past, present and future from being destroyed by paradoxes. The dice allow players to move through the timeline, in the current year, punch Biff, and even reroll dice. There's a cool mechanic in the game that allows players to place dice in the past and other players can pick up the dice in the future in the same location to use themselves. And plus the game just oozes the Back to the Future theme, so that's a huge plus.

Final Thoughts

Dice rolling mechanics are often implemented in games, but I thought I'd bring up several that have some cool dice contained within that and some that have cool implementations of basic D6s. Overall, there's a lot to choose from with games and I thought that I'd point out several that I found interesting.

My thoughts with these Monday posts is to now explore some implementations of mechanics and maybe even look into some clever ways that games take them and make them their own. As I'm running out of games that I've previously played, I may dive into some games that haven't been played, but I am aware of to help fill out these lists.

Give me your thoughts:What are your favorite custom dice in a game that you've played? What are some of the most clever implementations of dice rolling that you've found in games? In regards to dice, do you like playing games with dice that are different than the normal D6s (i.e.
a D8 or D12)? Do you have any preferred style of dice when you play, such as metal dice or custom made dice?

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*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek on 6/5/2024*