Nostalgia Thursday - Early Dice

Polyhedral dice have been used in roleplaying games since the beginning and one of the stalwart suppliers of those dice has been Lou Zocchi of Gamescience Dice here.  Their precision dice are the envy of many lesser dice manufacturers and they take it seriously.

In 1983, the Dragonbone Electronic Dice wand hit the wider market but at $25 it wasn't embraced by everyone and, of course, trying to get gamers to trust an electronic dice or replace their actual dice wasn't going to happen.

In the early 1990s, Mayfair Games started selling a standalone Gemstone dice game using polyhedral dice sets for their Gemstone dice game that included one d20, one d12, one d10, one d8, and one d4, but no d6.  The rules for the game came right on the back of the blister pack.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Dice Boxes

Over on awesomedice.com, have a look at the "Pewter Dice Box" here.

Also, on elderwoodacademy.com, check out the "Hex Chest" here.

Finally, on the Pub Meeple YouTube channel they share "DIY Gaming - How to Make a Dice Box" though it is more of a tray, really.  Enjoy!

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Liar's Dice (1987)

Once more unto the breach . . . with a game of Liar's Dice (1987).  This one tends to be at the ready for times when we have more people than games to play and need to squeeze folks in.  However, last Tuesday, when I found myself at Taco Bell around lunchtime, it became the game of choice for Tom, Brian, and I.  Allow me to say up front that what talent I may possess for fibbing falls far short of what these venerable prevaricators can muster.  When the crowd is larger, I can sometimes slip through the web of their deceit but when just the three of us are in attendance, I am the last honest man in Bluffsville.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Liar's Dice is a dice game where each player is given five dice and cup to roll and hide them with. Players make successively higher declarations regarding the results of all the dice remaining in the game, e.g. "there are ten sixes". However, someone can always contest the bid. When that happens, all the dice are revealed and either the bidder or the caller loses dice, depending on who was correct. The last player with dice is the winner.

Okay.  I lied.  I won on this day and did so in grand fashion.  I even crudely Photoshopped the guy out behind Tom's right shoulder in the first picture but left him lurking in the third pic.  Serves you right for reading my blog.  I am a bad man.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Etsy Items

Over on the DragonFishTreasures Etsy store, have a look at the "Tabletop RPG Dice Box" here.

Also, on the LadyHelenSoaps Etsy store, check out the "Star Trek Insignia novelty soap" here.

Finally, on the ElephantCraftsShop Etsy store, there's a fine "Splendor board game wooden organizer" here.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Cookies, Dice, & Foam

Over on geeksaresexy.net, check out the "Critical Hit Cookie Cutters" here.

Also, on thinkgeek.com, have a look at the "Squishy 7pc Polyhedral Dice Set" here.

Finally, on thefoamcave.com, you can get all sorts of ideas and help making foam costume pieces here.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Easy Roller Dice

A recently got hold of a few items from the Easy Roller Dice Company and I am very impressed with their wares.  With Father's Day right around the corner, I have to say that any of their offerings would make fine gifts for the Gamer-Dads you might happen to know.  The first of the three items I am featuring in this blog post is the "Wyvern Reversible Microfiber Self-Standing Large Dice Bag" which can be purchased here.  It's a thick, reversible dice bag that should hold up well to all sorts of gamer usage.  I love the wyvern logo which comes on both the interior and exterior of the bag so that it appears no matter which side I choose to have outward.  I'm also fond of the fact that it is self-standing, something I haven't had in past dice bags, and allows me to sift through my dice without having to dump them all over the table.  This bag is definitely a winner.

Also, I got to check out the "Blue Ice 7 Piece Dice Set With Carrying Bag."  This is one of a wide array of poly dice sets they have available and they are beautiful  I've seen some patterned dice in the past where the coloration made the numbers difficult to read or, perhaps, numbers might be too small on some other dice, but this is not the case with these.  They are easy to read, seem well-balanced, and look wonderful.  And the price is right on these, plus they throw in that nifty dice bag, here.

Finally, check out the "Legendary Copper Metal Dice Set" here.  These are some weighty, fine-looking dice and come in a very cool (gift?) box.  I knew as soon as I picked these up I had something in my hand that I would love to be able to chuck into my dice tray.  Well done on all three of these offerings, Easy Roller team!

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Liar's Dice (1987)

I think the last time we played Liar's Dice (1987) was late last year, and I posted about it here, but it gets sees the top of a game table around here a handful of times per year.  How it is that John hadn't played this game before is a mystery but Jim, Tom, and I introduced him to the wonderful world of Doubter's Dice (which Jim informed us was the original name!).

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Liar's Dice is a dice game where each player is given five dice and cup to roll and hide them with. Players make successively higher declarations regarding the results of all the dice remaining in the game, e.g. "there are ten sixes". However, someone can always contest the bid. When that happens, all the dice are revealed and either the bidder or the caller loses dice, depending on who was correct. The last player with dice is the winner.

We played too quick games and I was out of each in record time.  I could claim that I was just showing John the ropes, but the truth of the matter is that Jim Ward is a colossal liar and a first class, blue ribbon, magnificent bastard.  I love Jim Ward with a burning hatred forged in the fires of dozens of lost games.  Should I one day meet him in a Valhalla for gamers, I will raise a mug of Mountain Dew to him, but this is not that day!  And he might have been lying about the original name, now that I think about it. That sunova . . .

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Tiny Epic Galaxies (2015)

In the past year I may have played and taught Tiny Epic Galaxies (2015) more than any other.  Even though I don't personally own the game, so many of the local gamers got in on the Kickstarter for it and it is so easy to bring along that there is almost always a copy at any gameday or event.  I still have yet to play it with the expansion and still have fun with it simply as is.  At a recent Burlington Gameday, I was asked to teach two new players who picked it up quickly as an experienced player and I joined in as well.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

A thirty-minute game of galactic conquest, Tiny Epic Galaxies is driven by an exciting dice-rolling mechanism that rewards thoughtful programming of the results. Players control a home galaxy and a fleet of space ships. As players upgrade their galaxies, they gain access to more ships and more dice.

Each turn, a player rolls a set of dice; how many dice are rolled is determined by the level of that player's galaxy. Each side of the six-sided die represents a different type of action: Movement, Colony Action, Harvest from Culture Planets, Harvest from Energy Planets, Improve an Economic Influence, and Improve a Diplomatic Influence.

After the roll, the player sorts the results of the roll (one selective re-roll is allowed) and organizes the dice in a desired activation order. Each die, in order, is then resolved and the results are immediate, which allows the player to pull-off unseen combos and surprise other players. Other players have the option to copy other player's actions...at a cost!

As players expand their galaxy by colonizing other planets through economic and diplomatic influence, they gain victory points AND the special powers brought in by those planets! In addition to galaxy upgrades, effective resource management provides luck-mitigating options that can sway the game in a calculated player's favor.

Whoever achieves the most points from acquiring planets and upgrading their personal galaxy wins!

Another close game though one player fell behind a bit early in the empire building.  Those three points and not getting a mission complete can make a huge difference in the end unless your strategy compensates for it by gathering lots of planets quickly and using colony actions when others can't or don't have any worth using.  Culture and Following are still points to stress while teaching and even when a player doesn't take it immediately to heart, it quickly becomes apparent during gameplay and that reinforces the concept.

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Systems Saturday - Roll for the Galaxy (2014)

Last Second Sunday at Lake Geneva Games, a few of us got to play Roll for the Galaxy (2014), and we played it four times in a row.  Not everyone loves playing a game even twice in a row but I personally love when I get the chance to play something multiple time.  While I have blogged about this a couple of times last year, I guess it's been a few months since I played it.  But this is one of those games that comes right back to you.  In fact, several of the games wound up with some of the highest scores, all around, that I have seen in games I have played of it.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Roll for the Galaxy is a dice game of building space empires for 2–5 players. Your dice represent your populace, whom you direct to develop new technologies, settle worlds, and ship goods. The player who best manages his workers and builds the most prosperous empire wins!

This dice version of Race for the Galaxy takes players on a new journey through the Galaxy, but with the feel of the original game.

I think, in the past, we did a lot less producing and shipping thus not getting as high of scores.  Also, games in the past tended to end with someone completing their 12 tiles galaxy.  This still happened but not before most of the victory point chips were claimed.  Plus, rather than producing and shipping being an after thought, galaxies were built to facilitate the producing and and shipping more readily.  I will definitely be trying to build on these new strategies in future games.

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Nostalgia Thursday - Can't Stop (1980)

There is an old game called Can't Stop by Sid Sackson that sees a lot of play around these parts.  It's simple and has a compelling press your luck component that is fun and addictive.  I've blogged about it previously here.  Though designed for two to four players, with some added components from extra copies of the game, we often play it with as many as seven or eight players and just require two rows be captured for a win instead of three.  It plays about the same length of time that way as a game with fewer players.

The Board Game Geek description runs as follows:

In this Sid Sackson classic, players must press their luck with dice and choose combinations tactically to close out three columns. The board has one column for each possible total of two six-sided dice, but the number of spaces in each column varies: the more probable a total, the more spaces in that column and the more rolls it takes to complete. 

On their turn, a player rolls four dice and arranges them in duos: 1 4 5 6 can become 1+4 and 5+6 for 5 & 11, 1+5 and 4+6 for 6 & 10, or 1+6 and 4+5 for 7 & 9. The player places or advances progress markers in the open column(s) associated with their chosen totals, then chooses whether to roll again or end their turn and replace the progress markers with markers of their color.

A player can only advance three different columns in a turn and cannot advance a column which any player has closed out by reaching the end space; if a roll doesn't result in any legal plays, the turn ends with that turn’s progress lost.

This game never ceases to be fun for our group.  A lot of the same trash talk and jokes get repeated but they never feel old or stale.  A lot of other table talk can transpire during this game because it requires little focus when not your own turn and we're often coming up with ideas for house rules and modifications, so there is some game design undercurrents every time we play.  Great fun!

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Cardboard Trees, Dice Tower, & Tea-Dyed Paper

Over on creativeboom.com, they feature "Enchanted forests sculpted entirely from cardboard" here.

Also, on thingiverse.com, check out the "Dice Tower with Fold-Up Trays" here.

Finally, on the StampinStuff01 YouTube channel, they share a video on "How to Tea Dye Paper."  Enjoy!

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Tiny Epic Galaxies (2015)

I squeezed a couple more games into 2015 in the middle of December that I haven't had the chance to write up until now.  So, let's clear the decks for 2016 by discussing the game I probably played most in 2015, Tiny Epic Galaxies (2015).  Although my opponents have both been gaming for less than a couple of years, they are thoughtful, skilled players who aren't shy about employing subtle and/or aggressive strategies, as suits their purpose.  I do not underestimate Al or Laura when gaming with them.  We played a couple of games of TEG at the December Lake Geneva Games Gameday and they were fast and furious.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

A thirty-minute game of galactic conquest, Tiny Epic Galaxies is driven by an exciting dice-rolling mechanism that rewards thoughtful programming of the results. Players control a home galaxy and a fleet of space ships. As players upgrade their galaxies, they gain access to more ships and more dice.

Each turn, a player rolls a set of dice; how many dice are rolled is determined by the level of that player's galaxy. Each side of the six-sided die represents a different type of action: Movement, Colony Action, Harvest from Culture Planets, Harvest from Energy Planets, Improve an Economic Influence, and Improve a Diplomatic Influence.

After the roll, the player sorts the results of the roll (one selective re-roll is allowed) and organizes the dice in a desired activation order. Each die, in order, is then resolved and the results are immediate, which allows the player to pull-off unseen combos and surprise other players. Other players have the option to copy other player's actions...at a cost!

As players expand their galaxy by colonizing other planets through economic and diplomatic influence, they gain victory points AND the special powers brought in by those planets! In addition to galaxy upgrades, effective resource management provides luck-mitigating options that can sway the game in a calculated player's favor.

Whoever achieves the most points from acquiring planets and upgrading their personal galaxy wins! 

Al had not played before, so we taught him the game even as we brushed up on a couple of the rules for ourselves.  When you play as many games as we do, and often with similar mechanics and themes, sometimes there can be a bit of rules confusion.  We keep that to a minimum with a few minutes of back and forth with the rules in hand for reference.  This time with TEG was every bit as fun as previous times and still felt fresh because of the variety of planets.  It's strange how the combination of planet powers can produce a different game so many times but that's the superpower of this game: replayability.  Even with a new player and a rusty one, the two games went swiftly and came down to a difference in points no greater than the secret mission VPs.  I continue to be enamored by this game and have yet to try it with the expansion.

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Nostalgia Thursday - Liar's Dice (1987)

A game that gets to the table fairly often round these parts is Liar's Dice (1987).  Its simplicity and quick play, combined with fun interaction, makes this a party game with a little something more to it.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Liar's Dice is a dice game where each player is given five dice and cup to roll and hide them with. Players make successively higher declarations regarding the results of all the dice remaining in the game, e.g. "there are ten sixes". However, someone can always contest the bid. When that happens, all the dice are revealed and either the bidder or the caller loses dice, depending on who was correct. The last player with dice is the winner.

Despite all of the dice rolling, this bluffing game is largely about reading the room.  And the more players involved, the less important the dice rolling becomes.  It should be noted that a lot of folks don't take full advantage of their turn by revealing some of their dice and re-rolling the remainder.  This is especially effective if you have at least four dice and are revealing two of them, I have found.  Our buddy Ernie has two sets of this game which are combined so that a massive game of Liar's Dice can be run with a dozen players.  Great fun!

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with an eye toward the last century and before.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Mars Attacks: The Dice Game (2014)

As the last First Sunday event was winding down, Nancy busted out her copy of Mars Attacks: The Dice Game (2014) for us to play.  We had six players and played two quick games.  Steve Jackson Games has quite a few dice games and a number of card games that are largely about the luck of the roll or the luck of the draw, so I don't play many but I like to try them out from time to time.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

In Mars Attacks: The Dice Game, the Martian players compete to see who can subjugate which U.S. cities first.

At the start of the game, four stacks of cards are dealt out randomly, with each stack having as many cards as players. On a turn, the player first declares which city he wants to attack, then rolls all ten dice. Any dice showing the "nuke" symbol are locked and cannot be rerolled. Laser guns are similarly locked, allowing the player to reroll only the alien heads. If he rerolls and ever has as many nuke symbols showing as the number on the face-up cards and the supplementary token, his turn ends; otherwise he can stop at any time, and if he doesn't have enough guns or alien heads to claim his target, he marks his total with one of his tokens, allowing him to add on to this number on a future turn — assuming that someone else doesn't claim the card first.

Some city cards have special powers, such as Seattle's, which allows you to place one die on the symbol of your choice prior to rolling. Las Vegas, true to its nature, wants you to go bust multiple times in order to claim the card. Whoever ends up decimating the largest portion of the earth wins. Ak ak ak ak ak!

It's definitely a game where rolling well is going to be more helpful than any planning or strategy.  Nevertheless, there are some ways to enhance your chances.It seems prudent to snag any easy points if they come up just prior to your turn.  Chances are they won't be around for long.  In six player games, getting in on the bigger cards can be a waste of a turn, again, unless you get lucky.  So, don't allow that to be your whole game.  I've only played twice, so that's about all I can fathom thus far.  I'm not big on dice games that mostly involve luck so I'm not sure when I will get to play this again but I won't rulle it out.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Tiny Epic Galaxies (2015)

I've now played Tiny Epic Galaxies (2015) a few times since early October and still haven't tried it with the Tiny Epic Galaxies: Satellites & Super Weapons Mini Expansion (2015).  I am interested but it plays very well without it and hasn't yet lost it's shine.  This time we played with four players and the final scores tend to be fairly close or at 30 points.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

A thirty-minute game of galactic conquest, Tiny Epic Galaxies is driven by an exciting dice-rolling mechanism that rewards thoughtful programming of the results. Players control a home galaxy and a fleet of space ships. As players upgrade their galaxies, they gain access to more ships and more dice.

Each turn, a player rolls a set of dice; how many dice are rolled is determined by the level of that player's galaxy. Each side of the six-sided die represents a different type of action: Movement, Colony Action, Harvest from Culture Planets, Harvest from Energy Planets, Improve an Economic Influence, and Improve a Diplomatic Influence.

After the roll, the player sorts the results of the roll (one selective re-roll is allowed) and organizes the dice in a desired activation order. Each die, in order, is then resolved and the results are immediate, which allows the player to pull-off unseen combos and surprise other players. Other players have the option to copy other player's actions...at a cost!

As players expand their galaxy by colonizing other planets through economic and diplomatic influence, they gain victory points AND the special powers brought in by those planets! In addition to galaxy upgrades, effective resource management provides luck-mitigating options that can sway the game in a calculated player's favor.

Whoever achieves the most points from acquiring planets and upgrading their personal galaxy wins!

This is definitely a very fast game that folks can slip into an hour here and there.  This game is very good at keeping everyone constantly involved in the game by allowing players to follow actions by paying for and repeating those actions.  But because this is happening on everyone's turn and some planets can cause further cascade effects, there is a real danger for some players to be overwhelmed.  However, after playing a few times, there needs to be fairly strict adherence to the rule about players getting only a brief moment to decide if they wish to follow another player's action.  We've only seen slight trouble with this but we all know some players for whom analysis paralysis is a struggle.  It helps if the player whose turn is currently going directs the other players to respond or, possibly, if there is a house rule that the current player need only pause and allow the others to chime in if they are definitely following.  It's a tricky business balancing the incentive for fast play with allowing slower players time to catch up.  But half-hour long games that take two hours can get old very quickly.  Fortunately, we can knock this one off in less than an hour and if we play two, the second always goes much more quickly.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Meteorite Skull, Nerdy Purses, & Cherry Dice Box

Over on hyperallergic.com, "A Skull Carved from a Meteorite Lands on the Auction Block" here.

Also, on dailydot.com, check out "12 fabulously nerdy purses and bags we can't live without" here.

Finally, on etsy.com, have a look at this solid cherry Dungeons and Dragons dice box here.

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Tabletopper Friday - Roll for the Galaxy (2014)

Due to my buddy Tom becoming enamored with it when he saw it at the Gaming Hoopla, I've recently been introduced to Roll for the Galaxy (2014).  I knew this was an offshoot of Race for the Galaxy (2007) though I had never played that, so I didn't know just what to expect.  I had been told that it had some similar dice mechanics to Tiny Epic Galaxies (2015), so I figured I would enjoy it.  I was not disappointed in the least.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Roll for the Galaxy is a dice game of building space empires for 2–5 players. Your dice represent your populace, whom you direct to develop new technologies, settle worlds, and ship goods. The player who best manages his workers and builds the most prosperous empire wins!

This dice version of Race for the Galaxy takes players on a new journey through the Galaxy, but with the feel of the original game.

I took to this game very quickly and played it multiple times right out of the gate.  It's a game that requires regular adjustments to strategy during the game but is not often a matter of luck, despite both dice rolling and card drawing mechanics.  The production values are high and the components are more than solid.  There is an element of trust in this game, in that you roll dice behind a player screen and assign them to a small turn mat, so be sure you're playing with friends.  It's a two to five player game and I've have had a game with two players, one with five, and several with three, so I think I can say with some confidence that it plays well at all levels (though BGG suggest it is best with three players).  I will definitely be playing this one again and again.

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