[UA] [OT] Non-UA Rules Wankery

[stuartanderson at uswest.net]

Gregory Paul Stolze wrote:

> Okay, this has NOTHING to do with UA, but since you're all a self-selected
> group of gamers and the level of conversation here is generally so very
> high, I thought I'd tap the talent and bounce a rules mechanic idea in its
> formative stages off you.
>
> Basically, what I'm toying with is a variation on the standard pool of
> d10s, just like WW and AEG.  Only instead of aiming for a target number,
> you hope that your dice match.  So if you roll 5d10 and get 1, 3, 3, 3, 9,
> that's a success because you got three dice the same.  If you got 1, 2, 5,
> 6, 10, that's a fail because none of them match.
>

    Yahtzi is fun, but it's difficult to play while you're loaded. I've always
preferred use dice of widely varying size. It's a self-adjusting system. If
you're straight when the game starts, you can read all the dice, and can
remember the rules, and do some math--whatever. Rules is rules.
    As you get a few under your belt, you can no longer focus on the smaller
dice, so disregard them. You'll soon no longer care about whatever rules they
apply to. By the time you discard the medium size dice, you're barely
competent to compare single digits.
    Eventually, there're only very large dice on the table and you resolve
actions by throwing them or daring each other to swallow them. Now that's
gamin'.
    When a rules system fails--especially a "mathless" mechanic--it's
generally because too little thought has been given to what the actual
probabilities are. There are all kinds of great ways to randomize numbers, but
it all comes down to straight or bell curve and how often you want rolled
actions to succeed. But I'm a math teacher. And I play too many games to
actually remember the rules of any of them.
    I think it all boils down to what you call the rolls. I bought UA for
BOHICA. So find a cool name. You can't call it _Match Game_ that's already
taken. If you allow the dice to be rerolled, you could call it "Poker and Roll
Over." But you might offend someone. It's all about presentation, man. Keep us
posted. By the time we're done with it, it'll be as sweet and smooth as that
sugared lard they put in Hydrox.
--Stu.


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