Board game content has been kind of rare in the last few days, hasn't it? So I'm sure you'll be delighter to hear that today, we're gonna delve into the world of board game strangeness once more. Today we're gonna focus on dice. The strange reasons we roll them. Or the strange things that happen because we roll them. Perhaps a bit of both. Today's topic is...
Top Five Thursday: Strangest things to roll for (or against) in board games
It probably happens more often in the world of RPGs, where sentences like "Okay, roll for picking the lock with a half eaten carrot while on fire" aren't rarities. Well, at least not when I'm playing. But there's quite a few instances of that in the world of board gaming as well, where the roll of a die (or multiple ones) is used to determine the success of a strange action and/or the result of an uncertain event. I mean, that's what dice are for, aren't they? But sometimes, it's worth it to just take a step back and ask yourself "What am I actually rolling for here?". I'm not talking about instances of this in games where dice are used in an even more abstracted way (like The Voyages of Marco Polo for example... what exactly do the dice stand for in that game?), but games where the use and purpose of the dice is pretty clear-cut. And still a bit strange in some instances, governing the results of things that really shouldn't be that hard or in some instances even altering the reality of the game itself. So without further ado, here'S the five weirdest things we regularly roll for in board games.
#5: Rolling to scream in Psycho Raiders
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Psycho Raiders is a pretty neat game with some pretty nifty mechanisms. It's basically a hex-and-counter-wargame simulating an eighties slasher film with a bunch of flamethrower-wielding psychos hunting down a couple of hapless campers. One pretty interesting part of the game is the presence of NPCs on the map that may or may not be alerted to the campers' plight and can join their side (or turn out to be secretly sinister folks who want to help the psychos accomplish their murderous goal). The campers do this (alerting the NPCs, I mean) by screaming for help. Here's how that works: You measure the distance, take weather-effects into account, then roll a die and check the so-called "Scream table". Rolling high means that the character in question heard you and will join the game during their next activation, rolling low means that your scream goes unheard (except for maybe by the psychos, because screaming alerts them to your location). It's a neat system and makes a lot of sense, but I still always get a chuckle out of exchanges like "I scream." - "Okay, roll for it.".
#4: Rolling for personal acquaintance in Cave Evil
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From one Emperors Of Eternal Evil-game to the next... Yes, I know, I already featured the Sewer Ogre from Cave Evil on a Top Five list (this one, just in case you were wondering), but his abilitiy is just so endearingly strange... If the Oger fights a monster, he can roll a die and there's a one in four chance that he knows that monster and will "persuade" it to join your forces without combat. This is one of those instances, where the result of the die somehow retroactively changes the game-world, because it may very well suddenly turn that other Ogre over there, who has been causing you trouble all game long, into the Sewer Ogre's long lost brother. Isn't that heartwarming?
#3: Rolling to answer the phone (and survive it) in Betrayal at House on the Hill
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Quite a few tests in Betrayal at House on the Hill can lead to very odd conversations around the gaming table. That's the fate of pretty much every "flip up a card, roll some dice, find out what happens"-game out there. Especially in one where there's so few attributes like in this one. The "Phone call"-encounter however sticks out even between those. Your character picks up the phone, you roll two dice and your result dictates what the caller is actually saying (and what those words do to your character). It's one of those things that can lead to very confused stares from people at different gaming tables when it happens on game night. I mean, what would you do, when at another table, people would be saying things like "I answer the phone." - "Okay, roll." - "Zero. Crap, I'm dead.". It has happened...
#2: Rolling to win the Olympic Games in Twilight Struggle
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Onward to more pleasant things (even though I don't necessarily like all the die-rolling in Twilight Struggle, because bad luck can really mess you over in this otherwise highly strategic game). If one player plays the Olympic Games, the other one can decide to either boycott or take part in them. If the latter is chosen, there is a roll-off (with the player who played the card getting a +2 on their roll) and whoever rolls higher gets 2VP which probably suggests a better performance at those Olympic Games. Kind of makes sense. It still feels kind of strange to boil an event like this down to a single die-roll, though. To me as a complete sports-layman at the very least. Your mileage may varry.
And #1: Rolling to heat up your (or perhaps everybody's) stove(s) in A la carte
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A la carte is strange. I mean, it's a great game and everybody who says otherwise has no soul, it's also pretty thematic if you asked me, but the heating die has always confused me. I mean, it makes a lot of sense gameplay-wise, but why the heck is it so stonkin' hard to just turn your stove up a notch? Why is it possible that me trying to turn up my stove proceeds to ruin your meal? Why do I have to take a coffee break if my... err... attempt to increase the temperature of my stove tells me to? I mean, it's great fun and all, but that doesn't make any bloody sense in my book.
And that's that. These were the (in my estimation) five strangest things to roll for in board games. Do you agree? Do you disagree? What game has you rolling dice for something utterly mundane and/or actually pretty easy and confronts you with strange consequences just by pure chance? Feel free to share your picks in the comments. As always, thanks for reading and see you soon.
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It probably happens more often in the world of RPGs, where sentences like "Okay, roll for picking the lock with a half eaten carrot while on fire" aren't rarities. Well, at least not when I'm playing. But there's quite a few instances of that in the world of board gaming as well, where the roll of a die (or multiple ones) is used to determine the success of a strange action and/or the result of an uncertain event. I mean, that's what dice are for, aren't they? But sometimes, it's worth it to just take a step back and ask yourself "What am I actually rolling for here?". I'm not talking about instances of this in games where dice are used in an even more abstracted way (like The Voyages of Marco Polo for example... what exactly do the dice stand for in that game?), but games where the use and purpose of the dice is pretty clear-cut. And still a bit strange in some instances, governing the results of things that really shouldn't be that hard or in some instances even altering the reality of the game itself. So without further ado, here'S the five weirdest things we regularly roll for in board games.
Psycho Raiders is a pretty neat game with some pretty nifty mechanisms. It's basically a hex-and-counter-wargame simulating an eighties slasher film with a bunch of flamethrower-wielding psychos hunting down a couple of hapless campers. One pretty interesting part of the game is the presence of NPCs on the map that may or may not be alerted to the campers' plight and can join their side (or turn out to be secretly sinister folks who want to help the psychos accomplish their murderous goal). The campers do this (alerting the NPCs, I mean) by screaming for help. Here's how that works: You measure the distance, take weather-effects into account, then roll a die and check the so-called "Scream table". Rolling high means that the character in question heard you and will join the game during their next activation, rolling low means that your scream goes unheard (except for maybe by the psychos, because screaming alerts them to your location). It's a neat system and makes a lot of sense, but I still always get a chuckle out of exchanges like "I scream." - "Okay, roll for it.".
From one Emperors Of Eternal Evil-game to the next... Yes, I know, I already featured the Sewer Ogre from Cave Evil on a Top Five list (this one, just in case you were wondering), but his abilitiy is just so endearingly strange... If the Oger fights a monster, he can roll a die and there's a one in four chance that he knows that monster and will "persuade" it to join your forces without combat. This is one of those instances, where the result of the die somehow retroactively changes the game-world, because it may very well suddenly turn that other Ogre over there, who has been causing you trouble all game long, into the Sewer Ogre's long lost brother. Isn't that heartwarming?
Quite a few tests in Betrayal at House on the Hill can lead to very odd conversations around the gaming table. That's the fate of pretty much every "flip up a card, roll some dice, find out what happens"-game out there. Especially in one where there's so few attributes like in this one. The "Phone call"-encounter however sticks out even between those. Your character picks up the phone, you roll two dice and your result dictates what the caller is actually saying (and what those words do to your character). It's one of those things that can lead to very confused stares from people at different gaming tables when it happens on game night. I mean, what would you do, when at another table, people would be saying things like "I answer the phone." - "Okay, roll." - "Zero. Crap, I'm dead.". It has happened...
Onward to more pleasant things (even though I don't necessarily like all the die-rolling in Twilight Struggle, because bad luck can really mess you over in this otherwise highly strategic game). If one player plays the Olympic Games, the other one can decide to either boycott or take part in them. If the latter is chosen, there is a roll-off (with the player who played the card getting a +2 on their roll) and whoever rolls higher gets 2VP which probably suggests a better performance at those Olympic Games. Kind of makes sense. It still feels kind of strange to boil an event like this down to a single die-roll, though. To me as a complete sports-layman at the very least. Your mileage may varry.
A la carte is strange. I mean, it's a great game and everybody who says otherwise has no soul, it's also pretty thematic if you asked me, but the heating die has always confused me. I mean, it makes a lot of sense gameplay-wise, but why the heck is it so stonkin' hard to just turn your stove up a notch? Why is it possible that me trying to turn up my stove proceeds to ruin your meal? Why do I have to take a coffee break if my... err... attempt to increase the temperature of my stove tells me to? I mean, it's great fun and all, but that doesn't make any bloody sense in my book.
And that's that. These were the (in my estimation) five strangest things to roll for in board games. Do you agree? Do you disagree? What game has you rolling dice for something utterly mundane and/or actually pretty easy and confronts you with strange consequences just by pure chance? Feel free to share your picks in the comments. As always, thanks for reading and see you soon.
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