I like the mechanic of saving dice but wonder if there isn't a cleaner solution that reduced tokens and avoided the 'bad feel' turn of rolling a bunch of skulls, even after using up your saved resources.
I'm sure the designers put a lot of thought and intent into their system, and this is idea is just a quick riff...
What if instead of saving dice, Skulls had a positive but different effect? A faction ability that helped a bad roll result in the player's forces regrouping, giving a one-time effect or other faction-unique result? Some factions might spend a skull to reroll another Action die (so the odds improve while the dice pool is reduced). Other factions might have stranger effects like for each skull you can sacrifice a unit/hit point to cast a spell.
I think you are right. The skulls still count as a miss, and although rolling all skulls is extremely unlikely (see footnote), it's entirely possible to roll mostly skulls. That would feel pretty bad, especially if it happens a few times in a row... and if your opponent is getting the rolls they need.
Perhaps skulls could be banked into future actions or future rerolls. So they don't help now, but you'll know that each skull is powering you up for a future turn. Still a penalty now, but doesn't feel as bad.
your math is correct :) and a great article :D being able to save resources for later is an interesting mechanic, even for cases where it's not that you're afraid of not having enough of them due to random reasons later; i could imagine cases where it's more that it's not as useful as it could be, to use some ability/move etc in some kind of turn-based game, but it boardgame or rpg ^^
I like the mechanic of saving dice but wonder if there isn't a cleaner solution that reduced tokens and avoided the 'bad feel' turn of rolling a bunch of skulls, even after using up your saved resources.
I'm sure the designers put a lot of thought and intent into their system, and this is idea is just a quick riff...
What if instead of saving dice, Skulls had a positive but different effect? A faction ability that helped a bad roll result in the player's forces regrouping, giving a one-time effect or other faction-unique result? Some factions might spend a skull to reroll another Action die (so the odds improve while the dice pool is reduced). Other factions might have stranger effects like for each skull you can sacrifice a unit/hit point to cast a spell.
Anyways, thanks for the article. Fun read.
I think you are right. The skulls still count as a miss, and although rolling all skulls is extremely unlikely (see footnote), it's entirely possible to roll mostly skulls. That would feel pretty bad, especially if it happens a few times in a row... and if your opponent is getting the rolls they need.
Perhaps skulls could be banked into future actions or future rerolls. So they don't help now, but you'll know that each skull is powering you up for a future turn. Still a penalty now, but doesn't feel as bad.
I appreciate your thoughts! Thank you!
your math is correct :) and a great article :D being able to save resources for later is an interesting mechanic, even for cases where it's not that you're afraid of not having enough of them due to random reasons later; i could imagine cases where it's more that it's not as useful as it could be, to use some ability/move etc in some kind of turn-based game, but it boardgame or rpg ^^