Lil' Dice - Roll 'em! Or not...

So much of life we simply take for granted. I always thought: "Well yeah, those are dice. We use them for gaming, so?" 

You might wonder why there's a negro (anyone who knows me, knows I use the word in THE MOST BENIGN possible way. A term of affection; I love black culture. It all started with my "back-then" best friend, E) wielding a gun on your screen. His nickname is Lil' Dice, and Cidade De Deus (2002) was one of my Top Ten Favourite Films. He features rather prominently in it. I suppose the little tyke was just what immediately came to mind when I thought of "Dice. Good idea? Bad idea?"

ANYWAY, before I digress like I do it for a livin'...I had the opportunity to finally spare dice a thought after a gaming session involving my good friends A, L (/"waits for gasps": a LADY friend(!) who's damn cool and plays games with the boys as if she grew up with them), R and P. Now that I've offended any females who might be tuning in (I actually LOVE you!) - Luck played a, let's just say, significant role, in our games. 

What game were we playing? Settlers of Catan. Was it fun? Oh, most certainly. We had a great time. Did the game design go over as well as I anticipated? Not really. And it got me thinking - When one has great luck in a game, maybe there's some visceral joy. Lasting joy? Hell no! When we have bad luck...Oh boy! "Someone hand me my Glock! I'm a dangerous motherfucker right now!"

Shouldn't luck be entirely eliminated, then? Nope, that's no answer. Why? Well, luck plays a very important part in game design. It's a little difficult to explain, but it boils down to the joy of the unexpected. You have to make a choice. Choices are the life-blood of game design. And maybe once the luck has actually been resolved, it doesn't feel that great either way, but before, it most certainly gives an air of "What if? It would be amazing!" It's a lot like playing the lottery.

And here, I digress once again, but this is too salient a point not to mention it. Wynand and I used to play the lottery. "Huh?" I hear you say. But we were winning poker players! Even a moderately intelligent person should know for a fact that it's negative expected value, or, "In the long run, you'll lose it all". So then, "Why'd you guys do it?" Simple. It added POSITIVE value to our lives, in the form of "Damn, it would be so sweet! So much moolah!" For that mere R5 (or whatever it was), we were entertained for the whole week. We would discuss what we'd do with the $$$ and so on. Not saying it's good way for a hobo to get off the streets, mind you.

But what's the alternative? You have to have SOME method of determining random chance. Some people tend to have an amount of animosity towards those little cubed fella's with six sides. However, they are as good as any other, really. I suppose you could present a randomized deck with the mix of probabilities (i.e. more "six-roll" events etc.) for your players to draw from. But perhaps the answer is just to counterpoise the probabilities in THE DESIGN ITSELF. 

I am going to attempt to prototype and "play-out" the current version of my idea, very soon. I just happen to be overwhelmed with stuff to think about right now. I'm not saying this isn't important, but it's not an immediate priority. Until next time, here's hoping you'll think: "Konrad, what an awesome guy!" every time you roll a die. :-) j/k!