Dice in CCGs

[Malagar]

Yes i know, we had this discussion earlier. But still i would like to hear your oppinion about using dice in a CCG.

My current project is a wargame, played using trading cards. as it stands now, a attack roll would make the game
much richer. right now i am stuck with comparing numbers - the perfect system for any traditional ccg - but my game
is completely focused on army-vs-army combat, maybe a bit of randomness could help?

imagine a strength 2 archer attacking a armor 3 knight (with 3 lifepoints). the knights armor always soaks up the
archers damage, except if i have a special card in hand to turn things around.

this (and many other examples) is the main point for using dice -> focused on my war-game/ccg concept.

any thoughts?

[Trevor]

Frequent dice rolls, especially part of a core game mechanic, is too much randomness in my opinion. It can also get tedious rolling dice all the time.

[Cyrus]

I'm a fan but I know there are lots of haters. I love me some board games though so die rolling is in my blood. Honestly, I can't believe there isn't a ccg more based around rolling huge piles of dice, me and my friends would be in heaven (I'm kinda half designing this right now but I'm horrible at finishing things so bleh).

An elegant, more ccg-related thing to do is to print a value on the cards, and then flip cards from the top of the deck for determining things. Star Wars CCG did it and a lot of games have used some variation on it, including my own home brew games (because I love the damn mechanic so much). What I like is that it gives players control over the randomness. Do you use worse cards with better values, or better cards with worse values? Always a fun deck building decision

[Malagar]

i also like dice rolling a lot, being an (ex) wargamer i dont mind at all - in fact it adds to the fun.

but i understand that people dislike dice in a ccg, because its against the spirit of these games. in
addition we found out that adding one more luck factor besides cards is just one luck factor too
much. also, when playing on a small table - its difficult to roll dice - and dice force you to carry
one more component with you.

what i dont understand is when you say its too random: all wargames use dice, all boardgames,
in all RPG (computer and offline rpgs) they use dice everywhere. why would it be too random in a CCG?

PS: already found a way for my newest project to work without dice, just have to flesh it out...

[Kevashim]

If you have an xbox (and internet connection) check out the game Panzer General: Allied Assault. It has a surprisingly good mix of turn based strategy on a game grid with TCG style deck construction. There is probably a free demo that will give you enough of an idea of how it works.

The part you may be most interested in is the combat however, each time there is a conflict between enemies, both players roll a die to get a bonus/penalty to their combat strength. From memory I think the die has values of -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2. It provides a maximum change of 3 overall (if 1 player rolls -1 and the other rolls a 2) so you can still plan and execute overwhelming attacks relatively easily (basic infantry vs tanks is not going to go well regardless of die rolls). It certainly adds a spot of tension having an unknown factor to your attacks.

[Malagar]

@Kevashim thanks i will check it out (dont have an xbox, but maybe i can lookup some stuff on the net). the system you described sounds interesting.

regarding my current project: i have found a diceless solution (explained in the projects main thread).

[Link006]

Check out the Star Wars TCG by Wizards.  It is no longer in circulation thanks to Wizards essentially abandoning it and never giving it the full support or promotion that Magic has.  You can head here for all the cards/rules/rulings that you can handle.  http://www.skywlkr.net/  I am on steam as Link006 and would definitely be up for games.

[yudencow]

COLLECTIBLE DICE REVOLUCION EFFES!