Tag: Dice Rolling

Dice Rolling is a common mechanic in games where players roll one or more die to decide an outcome.

Merchants & Marauders

| T3d-1978
Merchants & Marauders

Merchants & Marauders

Merchants & Marauders lets you live the life of an influential merchant or a dreaded pirate in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. Seek your fortune through trade, rumor hunting, missions, and of course, plundering. Modify your ship, buy impressive vessels, load deadly special ammunition, and hire specialist crew members. Will your captain gain eternal glory and immense wealth – or find his wet grave under the stormy surface of the Caribbean Sea?

In Merchants and Marauders, players take on the role of a captain of a small vessel in the Caribbean. The goal is to be the first to achieve 10 “glory” points through performing daring deeds (through the completion of missions or rumors), crushing your enemies (through defeating opponents and NPCs in combat), amassing gold, performing an epic plunder or pulling off the trade of a lifetime, and buying a grand ship. While some points earned from performing various tasks are permanent, players earn points for amassing gold, which can be stolen or lost (or at least diminished) if their captain is killed. Points due to gold are hidden so there’s some uncertainty about when the game will end.

A big component of the game is whether (or when) to turn “pirate” or remain as a trader or neutral party. Both careers are fraught with danger: pirates are hunted by NPCs (and other players) for their bounty and blocked to certain ports while traders are hunted by non-player pirates as well as their opponents and generally have to sacrifice combat capability for cargo capacity. Although players can kill each other, there is no player elimination as players may draw a new captain (with a penalty) so it’s possible to come back from defeat.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Area Movement
  • Dice Rolling
  • Pick-Up and Deliver
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.24

Massive Darkness 2

| T3d-1978
Massive Darkness 2

Massive Darkness 2

Ten years have passed since the Lightbringers drove back the hordes of the Darkness and sealed the Portal from whence they came. The heroes thought their job done, but the newfound peace was never meant to last. Dangerous new Portals have suddenly opened up all across the land. The Darkness and its hordes are flooding through, stronger than ever. It will not be enough to simply close the Portals this time. The Lightbringers must travel through them into the unknown to destroy the Darkness once and for all. Either Light will triumph, or the Darkness will consume every being in the world. This is where players find themselves in Massive Darkness 2, a new edition of the hit dungeon-crawler game.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 6 Players
  • ~60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.64

Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan

| T3d-1978
Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan

Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan

The journeys of Marco Polo continue in Marco Polo II: In the Service of the Khan, an epic follow-up to The Voyages of Marco Polo. After traveling to Beijing, your travels now take you back to the West in the service of the Khan, sending you to the farthest reaches of his empire in search of wealth and fame.

Marco Polo II is a standalone game based on The Voyages of Marco Polo, and you don’t need the original game to play this one. This new journey will present unique challenges, with new and different actions, new scoring rules, and a new good: rare and valuable Chinese jade.

Retread old paths with renewed purpose, or find new ones as you explore farther west, continuing to build the immortal legacy of Marco Polo!

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.37

Mansions of Madness

| T3d-1978
Mansions of Madness

Mansions of Madness

In the skies above the Atlantic, a dirigible’s peaceful journey is interrupted by a bloody act of revenge and an oncoming storm. On the sea far below, a treacherous saboteur plants the explosives that will sink a ship. In the New England countryside, a train billows black smoke, desperately fleeing an unimaginable threat.

Horrific Journeys is a deluxe expansion for Mansions of Madness which unlocks three thrilling scenarios that take four new investigators far from Arkham, solving mysteries aboard a bustling transatlantic airship, a luxury ocean liner, and a scenic countryside train. With new map tiles, puzzles, monsters, and mythos events, these brave men and women must contend with hideous amphibian monstrocities and interdimensional creatures tearing holes in the fabric of reality all with the knowledge that one wrong move can destroy the very vessels they are trying to protect! In order to arrive at their destinations, the investigator of Arkham must first survive their journey!

Game Mechanics:

  • Area Movement
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Hand Management
  • Puzzle
  • Role Playing
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 5 Players
  • 120 – 180 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.66

The Magnificent

| T3d-1978
The Magnificent

The Magnificent

The Magnificent is a tightly designed Eurogame from the creators of Santa Maria set in a mystical world beautifully illustrated by French artist Martin Mottet.

In the game, players are competing to attract the largest audiences to their shows, featuring magnificent performers. In the process, you must expand your camp by placing Tetris-style tiles on your player board, gather elements needed for the shows, and set up performances in your tents.

On your turn, you take one die from the supply. The value of the chosen die is your strength. Add to this the value of all dice of the same color that you have already collected, then use this strength to carry out one of three main actions: build, travel or perform. The more strength you have, the better the action will be, but at the end of the round, you must pay — in coins — the total of your highest-valued dice color. Thus, taking dice of the same color makes for better actions, but will cost more coins.

After each player has taken four turns, the round ends. Each player must discard one of their ringmaster cards and score points according to its requirements. After three rounds, the game ends, and the player who has collected the most points wins.

In more detail, players start the game with four ringmaster cards and a unique trainer tile. Each ringmaster card provides a special ability (which is triggered when you place a die on it) and a unique end-of-round scoring opportunity. When you choose a ringmaster card to discard and score at the end of the round, you must therefore also take into consideration which special abilities you want to keep.

In addition to your main action, you may use trainers on your personal unique trainer tiles or on common trainer spaces on the game board for various benefits.

At the end of each round, in order of the players’ highest-ranked performances, players choose a new ringmaster card and a trainer tile, providing new abilities and scoring opportunities for the next round.

Game Mechanics:

  • Action Points
  • Dice Drafting
  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Grid Coverage
  • Open Drafting
  • Set Collection
  • Tile Placement
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.14

Lorenzo iI Magnifico

| T3d-1978
Lorenzo iI Magnifico

Lorenzo iI Magnifico

Lorenzo de’ Medici, also known as “Lorenzo il Magnifico” (Lorenzo the Magnificent), was one of the most powerful and enthusiastic patrons of the Italian Renaissance.

In Lorenzo il Magnifico, each player takes the role of the head of a noble family in a city during the Italian Renaissance to gain more prestige and fame — that is, victory points (VP) — than anyone else. To do so, you send your family members to different areas of town, where they can obtain many achievements. In one location, they get useful resources; in another development cards that represent newly conquered territories, sponsored buildings, influenced characters, or encouraged ventures; and somewhere else they activate the effects of their cards.

Family members are not identical. At the beginning of each round, you roll three dice to determine their value. You must choose carefully where to send your most valuable family members…

You can gain VP in several ways, and you must also pay attention to your relations with the Church. The game is divided into three periods, each formed by two rounds; at the end of each period, players must show their faith, and whoever hasn’t prayed enough will suffer hard penalties. After six rounds, you calculate your final score, and the player with the most VP wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Dice Rolling
  • Open Drafting
  • Tableau Building
  • Worker Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.30

League of Infamy

| T3d-1978
League of Infamy

League of Infamy

League of Infamy is an occasionally co-operative dungeon crawler for 2-5 players in which it pays to commit dastardly deeds and partake in foul thievery — often against your own party.

Join a rogue’s gallery of misfits, ne’er-do-wells, and miscreants on a disgraceful mission to kidnap cute little baby drakons, steal their eggs, and viciously wipe out any irritating, goody-goody elves who try to stop your nefarious schemes.

But it’s not just the elves you need to keep a wary eye on. Your fellow (mis)adventurers are just as likely to betray you and steal your loot, shove you into harm’s way, or just leave you in a dungeon full of unbeatable foes. As they like to say in the League of Infamy, “keep your enemies close, but keep your friends at knifepoint”.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Take That

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 5 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.00

Khora

| T3d-1978
Khora

Khora

In Khôra: Rise of an Empire, each player is the head of a blossoming city-state in Ancient Greece.

On your turn, you must take 2 of the following 7 Actions: Philosophy, Legislation, Culture, Trade, Military, Politics, or Development. Choose Actions that align with your strategy, but which also work with your dice roll.

You will need to adapt your strategy constantly and strengthen your Actions by moving your markers up on your Economy, Culture, and Military Tracks.

Move up on the Taxes Track to collect highly sought-after Drachmas, the Troop Track to Explore and gather Knowledge tokens, and the Glory Track to capitalize on your Knowledge.

Unlock Achievements and, above all, make sure you have the most points at the end of the 9th Round to be crowned with the laurels of victory!

Game Mechanics:

  • City Building
  • Dice Rolling
  • Economic
  • Open Drafting
  • Racing

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~75 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.79

Intrepid

| T3d-1978
Intrepid

Intrepid

Intrepid is a game about surviving 220 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station. Players take the role of astronauts from a variety of nations, bringing their unique technologies to bear. Players must work together to generate enough life-sustaining resources each round, all while working to resolve the disaster they are facing.

Intrepid is a strategic and highly asymmetric cooperative game for 1-4 players that takes between 60-90 minutes to play. With a variety of nations and disaster scenarios, each which play completely differently, every game of Intrepid will be completely unique.

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling
  • Tile Placement

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 60 – 90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 3.37

Hour of Need

| T3d-1978
Hour of Need

Hour of Need

The pages of Modern-day Saga Comics are filled with heroes and villains doing battle across both reality and the shared inter-dimensional space of the Astrallacy. While nefarious villains seek power and material wealth, valiant heroes fight to defend those that are caught in the middle of these epic conflicts—it is these everyday people that make reality worth fighting for, and now is their hour of need!

Hour of Need is a cooperative game of comic book action for 1–4 players (or up to 6 players with available expansions). Designed by Adam and Brady Sadler, Hour of Need is the latest installment in their line of Modular Deck System (MDS) games. Set in an original world inspired by modern comic books, Hour of Need puts players in the roles of diverse heroes attempting to thwart dangerous villains from carrying out nefarious deeds!

In each game of Hour of Need, players will need to use their chosen hero decks to tactically solve problems and thwart their chosen villain’s schemes, as presented by the chosen issue deck and board. Utilizing simultaneous turns that provides the framework for collaborative strategy, players have to work together to reveal the villain and prepare for the final showdown!

Featuring fast gameplay, highly-detailed miniatures, and a variety of modular fixed decks for heroes, villains, and issues, Hour of Need lets players create their own comic book stories in the MDS Comics world!

Game Mechanics:

  • Campaign
  • Cooperative
  • Dice Rolling

Game Specifications:

  • 1 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 120 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.80