Daring to go Dice-less?

In play-testing Gaol28 version 2, I noticed the game was playable via text. We had a chessboard and so could easily communicate movement and attacks, and so a game could be played over several messages. A player could even play the game with a chess set, you only need to know which of the three classes each of your pieces are.

One of the issues of playing this way however, was that should you be up against an unscrupulous character, or someone you perceive to be unscrupulous, you could begin to doubt their die rolls. Especially if they were to have a good run. I was particularly lucky in the game I played via text, thankfully my friend and I trust each other enough that it wasn’t an issue.

For this reason I started thinking about dice-less systems, also just because it’s a fun problem to try and solve.

Initially I wondered if it would be possible to pre-generate all die roll values, I suppose the game then is manipulating the order in which those values are used so you get the high ones and your opponent the lower. Say a game of Gaol28 requires around 30 die rolls and so before the game you generated a list of numbers, or took a sequence of digits from Pi. It’s an interesting idea, but I think would probably be too difficult to implement and probably isn’t all that fun.

I’ve started considering cards instead. So you have one full suit, Ace through to King and one Joker. One a card is used it is spent. The game only lasts 5 turns, and assuming in each turn you’ll be attacking once, defending once, and having one guy wander, you should be able to get by. If though poor positioning more of your guys go wandering and you burn through cards however, each time you need a card but don’t have one you automatically fail whatever it is you try to do.

Before I get into an example here’s a basic recap:

Brawlers are your up close and personal types, they can only attack adjacent enemies but get the most bonuses in combat.

Skirmishers can hit enemies up to 2 spaces away and get a single bonus when attacking.

Hunters are your ranged types, they can hit enemies up to 6 spaces away but get no combat bonuses.

So for a basic example, I go first, activate my Brawler Hero, they move and then attack an enemy. I play a card for the attack and applying any of the following:

Hero +1

Brawler +1

Brawler Charging (Move then Attack) +1

Skirmisher Feint (Attack and then Move) +1

+1 per ally adjacent to the target.

I’m also considering facing, so:

Attacking enemy in side +1

Attacking enemy in rear +2

The defender then can play a card applying any of the following:

Hero +1

Brawler +1

+1 per adjacent ally

Aces = 14, Kings = 13, Queens = 12, Jacks = 11, the Joker is your ‘Hail Mary’, regardless of modifiers the Joker wins unless equalled by another joker.

If the attacker scores higher then the defender is killed, if the defender scores equal or higher then the attack fails.

Initially I imagined a game of trading cards and nothing happening, but in play-testing even against myself I’ve found decisive results. Careful positioning is key and flank attacks are deadly.

I look forward to developing this idea more.