Game Mechani(sm) of the Week #31: Lego Dice

http://games.lego.com/en-GB/kids/default.aspx

So much potential, so little time.

I was introduced to these through a thread on Story Games.

It was interesting that the concept appeared not long after my Brisbane iGod comrade, Andrew Smith was telling me about playing rudimentary wargaming with lego and dice (I think it was with his nephew). It's the kind of concept that Lego is really doing well lately, tapping into the zeitgeist and giving us the toys we want.

But I'm really interested in the potential that comes from dice where you can adjust the faces modularly, mid-game.

The first thing that came to mind was the dice used in the Alkemy miniatures game. That game uses a variety of coloured dice each with different facing scores depending on their colour, and different dice are used depending on the degrees of damage suffered by the warriors.

But modular lego dice offer even more potential, faces can be modified on the fly based on temporary bonuses. Effects can be applied for different colours (maybe if you roll a green, you get a bonus if you're using a nature spell...if you roll a colour applying to some specific ability of your opponent, you might apply a penalty to them). Once you apply modular colours and variable numbers to a single die, the potential is phenomenal.

I can't wait to get my hands on some of these to test some theories and play out some concepts.

But this gives me some ideas for another mechanism (for tomorrow's post...)

Comments

Andrew Smith said…
Even though the Lego wargaming with my nephew is just "both roll a d6, lowest roll loses a minifig" I should point out a slightly (only slightly) more detailed Lego wargame called Brick Battles, from Blank Shield Press. The basic rule is no different, but it has modifiers for all the nice extras that you can add with Lego. Find it here: http://www.blankshieldpress.com/brick.html
Friday, 07 August, 2009
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