I Make Games Followup (with Rules!)

Number 1 is Done!

To take off from my previous post on rolling dice to affect gameplay, a few more play-tests were made.  With that, I feel confident in laying my results down and moving on.

To save space, suffice to say that more games were played.  The votes are in: using dice to randomly kill-off pieces gives a different form of fun from the regular board game.  But before a final rule-set is written, here is a summary of the last few games:

The Chess mod should keep the random chance to destroy any piece on the board.  The player whose turn it is nor the opponent can tell what any given turn will bring.  Even the most carefully constructed strategy can be torn to ribbons in the space of a roll.  In effect, this simulates an actual battle, where 2 sides can't always count on either the enemy opposing their every move or that their own units will be in the key locations at the right times.

On thing suggested to change for the mod is to make it an option for each player to roll.  This is a strong suggestion, as the number of units on the board would come into deciding when to roll; if a player has more pieces on the board than the other, the first player is more likely to lose a piece.  Such probability and gambling to take a gamble on a pair of dice raises great curiosity in my mind -

- But despite what curiosity I have, a game designer needs to know when to call it quits and move on.  Therefore, with what I've learned from repeated play-tests and iterations through my Chess mod, here are the rules and suggestions for play as they stand now:

Chess Mod - Bomb Drop
This mod is played with the regular rules and pieces of Chess, with the following additions.  First, 2 dice are needed for play where 1 corresponds to the row, the other die to the column, of the Chess board.  Secondly, the 2 dice are rolled at the start of each player's turn.

When the dice are rolled, a 'coordinate' of row and column is made.  If there is a piece of any color on that 'coordinate', that piece is removed from the board as if it were taken in regular play.  If the piece happens to be a Queen, that Queen may not move on the player's turn it was rolled on.  If the piece happens to be a King, the dice are rerolled.  If there isn't a piece on the 'coordinate', it is a miss, and the player's turn resumes as normal.

Following that, here are some suggested edits that you can try out for yourself:

• Allow each player to decide for themselves if they wish to roll or not.
• A player doesn't remove their own piece if said piece's coordinate is rolled.
• The Queen has 'hit points' and can be hit a certain number of times before being removed.

Lastly, here are some questions that I didn't get answered in my play-tests, but were present when I first created the design:

• If the game is timed, does rolling the dice apply to the time?
• If a piece is taken, do its points still apply to the score of the game?

(Not incredibly important for casual play, but these questions are a must if any sort of standard tournament were to be held.)

Well ,that is my first game on this new adventure of mine.  Creating games is what I want to do, so I aim to do it.  For all of those that were swell enough to play my mod, thank you.  My next adventure aims to be a RISK mod (it has zombies!), but it may take a bit to get the board; play-testing will also be a trial, so I may make a separate game in the meantime.  So, until my next report, or when I conscript you into play my games, take care.