Homebrew Dice

[griffinppatterson]

I'm totally cool with any dice I come up with being playtested by any person here. Part of this topic will be to simply throw around names. Some might have abilities already thought up and even fewer will have rough designs. For example, some of my dice have been attached to here.

Cthulu Monster - Very difficult boss that has the ability to turn some of your dice upside down. This means that a 6 can become a 1, a 5 can become a 2 and a 4 can become a 3. I have no idea if Cthulu is overpowered, but I think it's a good monster mashup of an already great die design.
Lightning strike is a die that is not incorporated into the PnP and I look forward to playtesting it.

Now that some of the classes have been released, I had the immediate thought that a Barbarian class would be cool where one ability is that the Barbarian can wield an extra weapon during the combat. The other might have something to do with being Berserk. Maybe he doesn't take a wound for losing.

[Sam Coates]

Keep in mind that passive abilities would be a new concept in the game. We would need a mechanic to incorporate it. Such as dice that may be rotated at will, but only one face may be used epr combat.  Now that I look at it, the Barbarian ideas would not need to be passive.  But it would still fit into a passive mechanic.

 

The only reason we didn't give Cthulhu treasure or abilities is so he may be used with other games.  With a 1-6 and no treasure, it means Cthulhu's influence it unpredictable and never good.

I do like the chaos idea of flipping dice over.

 

 

[griffinppatterson]

I don't understand what you mean by passive? Since the player cannot simply activate the ability, he cannot utilize the ability passively. During combat, all dice are rolled. In the event that the barbarian dice rolls an additional weapon ability, he may then roll another weapon that he has in reserves. What situation do you have in mind that could help explain passive abilities and the problems with that?

[Sam Coates]

Yes, your idea works fine.  I wasn't very clear.  Suppose class dice were set in front of you and displayed a passive ability, such as the ability to equip a second piece of armor, or permission to swap dice during combat. 

 

Your ideas for Barbarian would still work.  It was partly in response to another idea someone just posted, so I'm sorry for the confusion.

[griffinppatterson]

Quick drawing of a possible Barbarian class. Only problem with the idea that he has a strength potion in check is that you would have to sift through the treasure bag to get a strength potion before rolling it.

[binarysunrise]

Still waiting for my blank dice to come in the mail, so I have yet to play it.  

But looking over the monsters, my son's favorite monster - the Hydra - is missing.  Any thoughts to adding more monsters to the mix?  

I made this quick demo:



I added the "infinity" sign to show that you have to defeat the monster a number of times (because their heads keep growing back....).  One infinity means you have to kill it again, two means that you have to kill it a third time.  As I have yet to play it, I feel I might have made it a tad too hard to kill (4....three times). So it probably needs to be tweaked :)

- Jared (binarysunrise)

[Lignum]

Further on the hydra idea (it seems I'm good at thinking of the same things other people are i.e. my knight's "Shield Bash" ability I posted about 30 seconds after somebody else got theirs in XD ).
I thought of the hydra, but I thought of the number/level representing the number of heads and therefore the number of dice it gets for its attack. However, because it is a hydra, once you defeat it once it loses a head and you have to defeat it again with it having one less die. It obviously gets easier and easier but there's always that chance of failure after you think you've got it in the bag :)

[griffinppatterson]

I like the concept, but it seems similar to the idea of Gust. Since defeating it means rerolling all the dice. Unless my memory serves me incorrectly. When you use a spell to kill a monster and the monster uses gust, does the spell get rerolled as well? If yes, then it would make infinity a good challenge. Additionally, how about an infinity always pairing up with a skull? You take out a head, you get an experience. Two heads, two experience (aka 1 infinity, 1 skull), three heads, three experience (two infinity, two skulls). I don't think it should be much harder than that though.

[Lignum]

More on the hydra:
Hmm. The more I think of it it's more like a mini-boss monster and a full boss depending on (un)luck. lol. I was trying to think of a way to make it hydra-like. My first thought was on the occasion that you roll a tie to defeat the hydra, the hydra would recover by sprouting two heads where there had been one. To represent this the hydra would gain a die for it's next round of combat. There would clearly have to be a cap on this (or perhaps not? If you're that unlucky perhaps a long arduous battle destined for doom is just what you deserve!) and rewards would have to be great. I suppose the gaining of heads would be its level so rotating the die up a level for each tie would suffice and if it is at max level to cap its difficulty the hydra would gain no more die on subsequent ties but you would have to fight it again. The top level would definitely have to give extra xp or something special.

The issue with this is ties leave the heroes involved wounded. There would either have to be negated when fighting a hydra, or at least just capped at one wound no matter how many ties given that you will get a reward for your troubles, but said troubles do come with a cost.

If'n y'all don't pick this as an idea I think I'm definitely going to make one for my own collection at some point :) However, I might have to borrow and edit binarysunrise's design as I am garbage at design (I always fail at putting my ideas into something that someone can sense, in this case art.

This group discussion is turning out to be more exciting than I thought :D

[binarysunrise]

Re: Hydra

I was trying to keep the dynamics simple, and in line with the other monsters, so I felt I could only add one new symbol (roll & fight again) without it being too complicated. I don't like the idea of removing a dice, as that makes the Hydra weaker on each turn. The point of the Hydra is that it gets *worse* the more you fight him. Adding a dice makes sense conceptually, but I thought that'd be too complicated to indicate on the monster dice. 

Coates indicated to me that the Hydra might be an epic monster - in which case, I suppose it could have a different set of rules than the regular monsters. As a boss-level creature, involving a cooperative kill attempt from many players, a combination of fighting it 2-3x, and each time adding another dice to the Hydra, might be do-able, and a very fun challenge.

[Lignum]

On Thursday, January 24, 2013 7:16:34 PM UTC-5, binarysunrise wrote:

Re: Hydra

Adding a dice makes sense conceptually, but I thought that'd be too complicated to indicate on the monster dice. 

Coates indicated to me that the Hydra might be an epic monster - in which case, I suppose it could have a different set of rules than the regular monsters. As a boss-level creature, involving a cooperative kill attempt from many players, a combination of fighting it 2-3x, and each time adding another dice to the Hydra, might be do-able, and a very fun challenge.

Yeah I completely understand your concern. I was going to say this in my post but I took a break from typing and forgot what else I was thinking :P What I was going to say is the only way I could think of indicating that on the die would be to included an algebraic formula and that's just wacky :P But yeah. I kind of like thinking of how that could turn out. Having to go to more players as the fight got tougher. I couldn't think of why they'd want to risk their biscuits though. So yeah, it's looking more like this would be an epic with extra rules. House rules are always fine if I make this a custom die for my own collection, but it'd be nice knowing our ideas are being spread to others ^_^ But of course there's always the promise of the expansions. I'm also drooling over the thought of a free game >_> but then again I really don't mind paying for it at all. I just want the official game so that's my only concern. In fact, when a spot opened I went for the "Design a Die" $129 backer reward. I was actually paying for the privilege that I might have a chance of getting for free. Getting a game too just feels like I'm stealing! (If Mr. Coates is reading this don't think I'm not against stealing in this case! ;-) ) I'm dropping money on this project no matter what.

I'm about to go out. Gonna try and think of more monsters. Just thought of another one. Hmm. I'm likin' it. I'll post when I get back (better write this down :P )

[peter]

Maybe to beat the hydra you need to beat it's combat number by a certain amount? Maybe it has a number (instead of that infinity symbol) which represents how much you need to beat it by. So a level 2 hydra has a 4 in the corner and so if it rolled a 12 you'd have to roll a 16 or better to beat it.

Alternatively you have to beat it by it's level. So a level 2 hydra that rolled a 12 would require you to roll a 14 or better.

[Sam Coates]

Accidentally sent this as a personal message. 

 

The epic monsters are larger dice with more detailed images that all players gang up on.  The exact mechanic has not been determined.  But as long as we're brainstorming the hydra, let's assume 3-4 characters are fighting it at once.

[seb.borchert]

I think it would make sense to some more spell dice, which are like the potions curse, strength... wo we can develop abilities containing these spell dice as ability dice... f.e. if we add a babarian class with "strenght" as one possible result on the die, you don´t have to search the potion bag, you even roll the strength spell. This spell could be a little bit weaker than the potion... This would give the fights a nadditional tactical component...

By the way, what about a "Counterspell", which counters an even casted Spell?!

[griffinppatterson]

I like the idea of a counterspell. Would be good to nullify a monster (or douchebag player's) spell and monsters can have it as well. I initially created the shock spell because I wanted to see more han 3 spells on the table.

[seb.borchert]

Yes, and more spells mean you can "upgrade" lots of monsters by giving them just one spell, which make them much more flexible. And on the other hand monsters like the witch, become more dangerous... besides more spells make classes like a wizard more attractive ;-)

[griffinppatterson]

An important thing with spells is the degree of playtesting required. You must play the base game with a single added spell a few times to determine how well it fits. If you add too many variables to the game, you won't ever get an accurate idea of how well it fits. That said, I am totally down for any additional spells. You draw them up, I'll give them a few twirls. Now I just need to find as committed a gaming group as me.

[Sam Coates]

The class expansion will include new spells. 

 

Spells must have a unique use or they tend to simply be stronger or weaker than existing spells.  So Counterspell could work, but it would need to be better than just responding with Fire, for example. 

[griffinppatterson]

My only problem with counterspell is it's simplicity. I take it that it would essentially be a 4/2 of counter/fizzle. Is that too basic?

[matias.korman]

A 4/2 counter fizzle doesn't seem good, mostly because I could gt a fireball spell which seems to be better. How about a die that has 3 chances of fizzling, 2 of counterspelling, and 1 of bouncing back (i.e., you get the spell and apply the effects to you)?

It is high risk, but  chances of getting a high gain for it!

[griffinppatterson]

Don't think I fully understand bounce back? You mean like mirroring the spell? I don't think that fits with the theme too much? But I guess you're right that it would be pretty rare that people would pick up a counterspell instead of grabbing a spell to counteract the spell. Though I guess if a monster rolls max damage on their spell, you'd rather take it out of the action rather than try to match it. Maybe it could be 3/2/1 Counter/Fizzle/Counter+Scroll allowing you a 1/6 chance to counter it and keep your scroll.

[binarysunrise]

Another monster - The Banshee

Her scream acts like a Gust that knocks over the dice of the attacker. It's in an early stage. I'm not enamored with my drawing, nor do I think it's that unique. But it might add some variety for basic monsters. I also don't want to change the Gust symbol use beyond what was normal. But perhaps the Banshee's scream could knock over the strongest dice. Just wanted to toss this out there.

[binarysunrise]

Haven't got a graphic for this one....

One-use dice - Possession/Re-Animation 

Having this one-use die, you can use it to empower a monster to fight for you. Not sure if you'd use one of your killed trophy monsters (Re-Animation), or a random one out of the black bag (Possession), but it could be a fun alternative for fighting a tough beast than the usual 2-player teamup. Having a wolf help you take down a demon? Pretty cool.

Personally, though, I'd actually rather use the Golem symbol for this than have the Golem be a standard monster. You could then turn any monster into your personal Golem for combat assistance. But since that term/icon was taken.....

[Lignum]

When talking in another post I thought of Bard as a possible class. Perhaps it's abilities could be around inspirations or debuffing.
For instance the two abilities might be:

Jig: Allow a reroll of one die for each hero participating in the battle. Or to ensure a positive effect you could add a certain number to each heroes roll.
Dirge: The opposite of Jig. Make the monster reroll a die (presumably the highest one, or maybe one with a nasty effect?). Or subtract a certain number from the monsters roll.

[Lignum]

Better than I could do :P I stink at putting my ideas from my head into a visual medium. Any tips welcome!

The wacky hair almost makes it look like a gorgon though. heh. And we definitely don't want a petrify effect. Not if it works like ye olde Final Fantasy games. There's no ribbon equipment :P

[binarysunrise]

"And we definitely don't want a petrify effect"

Or do we? After facing a gorgon (see above image), your dice are frozen at the current combat level. When facing the next monster, you have to use the same total you had previously. :)

[Lignum]

touché

[griffinppatterson]

Maybe a petrify effect could be to freeze one of your dice permanently until you find a ribbon (one use item). We all know how annoying it is that if you die petrified in some RPGs and get resurrected, you're still petrified.

[kc2dpt]

I like this petrify idea of freezing dice. Reminds me of Robo Rally freezing registers. Annoying but not crippling.

[Lignum]

or maybe a freeze could freeze one die and petrify could be all dice. Petrify always sucked worse. Ho hum. Status effects should be another topic altogether it seems.