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Here are the updates for everyone, if anyone is interested. No longer 40k themed, but easily ported back to 40k. The rules are clarified and simplified, and I've included a rulebook, blessings, printable dice, and a score board.

Let me know what you think now!!

Rules:
http://drop.io/stormywaters/asset/great-empires-pamphlet-v1-2-pdf

Blessings:
http://drop.io/stormywaters/asset/blessings-v1-2-pdf

Printable Dice:
http://drop.io/stormywaters/asset/printable-dice-pdf

Score Board:
http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss122/rogaldorn/?action=view¤t=ScoreBoard-1.jpg

Wow.

That's all? Wow?

Not even a "Wow that's stupid" or something?

Wow like holy gak wow, i'm going to try to play this later when my cousin arrives. How long does a game take?

Well, I live in the middle of nowhere, so I have nobody to play against (my gf utterly refuses). I would guess 20-30 minutes or so, but it could be way off.

I would recommend making some dice though. Masking tape with symbols on the sides works, and makes the game much easier to play and lots more fun. Of course if it was produced, the dice would have fancy little engraved images and whatnot.

I made the game in about 2 hours, so it's rough. I have NO idea how balanced the Blessings are, or anything of that nature.

In any case, tweaking and refining is completely open to discussion, so get more people interested!!

I bet we could rock this on vassal later, if you have the time?

Sure, though my connection is slow, so you would have to be patient with me. I would love a chance to actually play against someone.

Yeah I'll message you later today if that's okay, and see how we can set it up in Vassal. I'm pretty sure there's a module or something we can use. Connection shouldn't be an issue as it's mostly simple stuff.

NO I will not read...

Ok. Never used vassal, downloading it now.

SlaveToDorkness wrote:NO I will not read...

SlaveToDorkness wrote:NO I will not read...

Any reason why not? I personally think it's rather fun.

I don't really know what to make of this....

10 POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!

I had to read it again and again and again, but I finally got it, and I like it. Seems fun. I wouldn't make it 40k though. I reckon you have for fun making your own factions and you could even eventually publish it with worrying about GW.

Grimm touched on the one thing I thought as well - this is a great concept, and I think you've really nailed what could be a fun dice game, but you may want to theme it as something other than 40k. One day, you may actually be able to publish and sell it!

That said, this is excellent. I definitely want to give this a try... one suggestion though. Since "one" and "six" are on opposite sides of the d6, maybe make "one" and "six" "Death," whereas 2-5 are blank? Statistically it's the same, but if you get some uneven dice, having them on opposite sides makes it more fair.

Same goes for the Blessing die.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, regarding your desire to balance the factions using different numbers of dice, etc. you're better off just making them all the same number of dice - doing anything else would unbalance it too much. Stick with 11 dice with the same number of sides/effects regardless of whether you're playing Space Marines or Tyranids, horde or elite, etc.

Question: Can you put aside blanks? I am playing this against myself (sad), and I've just rolled three blanks on my 'Death' Dice. I don't want to re-roll them, but I do want to re-roll others. Can I just ignore them?

Edit

My own answer:
I'm think no, otherwise you could just put aside one failed death dice and keep re-rolling until you get something decent.

It's not explicitly stated (it should be, there's one edit OP needs to make) but the intent seems to be no you cannot put aside blanks for exactly the reason you just stated. So blanks must be rerolled, unless you decide to end your turn.

Wow, thanks guys!

I had thought about not making it 40k, but some thoughts:

1. What theme would you use, assuming the "Blessing" dice still exist?
2. I didn't think it was good enough to be published, so I thought it might fill a niche for 40k fans.

Also, you are right, you must reroll blanks unless you choose to end your turn. I will update the rules to reflect this.

As for 1 and 6 being opposites, you are correct, and if the dice ever get made, that's how they would be. On my chart, it was done that was specifically with the following thought: If you roll low, that's bad, and if you roll high, that's good.

More questions, comments, ideas?

Make it a science fantasy theme totally unrelated to 40k or any other science fantasy IP (e.g. Stargate, Star Wars, Dune).

But if you're not interested in publishing the game, then 40k is just fine.

Personally, I really want to try this game out. When I get home, I think I'll play through a couple of games with someone to see how well it flows and give you some more critical feedback.

I just finished playing my game againts myself, and I think the game really works. I managed to wipe out one of the two players with a massive -23 roll, which I believe is the highest it is possible to get.

I would definatly recomend publishing this online somewhere, after a lot of playtesting to get it just right of course. If you could get some specailly made dice, it would be awsome. I may make my own 'Gaming Box Kit' just to spped up play.

Thanks for inventing such a cool game,
Grimm.

(Just realised that I've been playing it wrong, and counting 'Deaths' as 5 points on the attack as well as the defence. Still fun though.)

Thanks again!! I'm glad you guys like it.

40k is my life, and I wanted something compact and easy to teach friends, where I can still smite His foes without needed miniatures and lots of spare time.

This belongs in the Proposed Rules forum.

However, I must congratulate you for managing to achieve the Holy Grail of math-hammer by taking miniatures, boards, background, friends, and other extraneous crap out of 40k.

How does the refrain go? Oh, yeah...

MOAR DICE!!!!!111!! lol!

Nurglitch wrote:This belongs in the Proposed Rules forum.

However, I must congratulate you for managing to achieve the Holy Grail of math-hammer by taking miniatures, boards, background, friends, and other extraneous crap out of 40k.

How does the refrain go? Oh, yeah...

MOAR DICE!!!!!111!! lol!

Er, no it doesn't? Since we're not proposing any rules for 40k? And this is a totally separate game that happens to have a 40k theme?

...did you actually read the thread before you decided to post nonsense? Selective reading is a recurring problem with you.

This is an excellent idea... basically a fun little dice game that keeps you busy if you've got half an hour to waste and a few dice laying around.

Moving to 40K proposed as I am not sure where this should go

I still don't even begin to see how this thread belongs in a forum for proposing rules for a game that this isn't.

It looks like an interesting game. I think you need to make the rules easier to understand.

By "declare an opponent to assault" do you mean you have to choose if you're assaulting Troops, Veterans, or Commander? Or is this a game designed for more than 2 players?

Also, if I'm following you correctly, it seems that reinforce will typically net you more points than an assault. I think this could turn the game into a really long game if both players play defensively.

I'm not sure I'm sold on the Veteran mechanic. It looks really interesting, but it probobly requires some balance. I think it could either make the game be either 100% focused on getting 6's, or to not bother trying to get them as they're only worth 2 bonus points. This would require quite a bit of play-testing to sort out.

Also, I vote with the others. Don't make this 40k themed if you want to actually go to market.

SaintHazard wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:This belongs in the Proposed Rules forum.

However, I must congratulate you for managing to achieve the Holy Grail of math-hammer by taking miniatures, boards, background, friends, and other extraneous crap out of 40k.

How does the refrain go? Oh, yeah...

MOAR DICE!!!!!111!! lol!

Er, no it doesn't? Since we're not proposing any rules for 40k? And this is a totally separate game that happens to have a 40k theme?

...did you actually read the thread before you decided to post nonsense? Selective reading is a recurring problem with you.

This is an excellent idea... basically a fun little dice game that keeps you busy if you've got half an hour to waste and a few dice laying around.

Whoa, slow down there. He is just making a joke about the current state of 40k (one which I agree with heartily).

@OP: Interesting game. Now find a way to bet money in it.

Grakmar wrote:It looks like an interesting game. I think you need to make the rules easier to understand.

By "declare an opponent to assault" do you mean you have to choose if you're assaulting Troops, Veterans, or Commander? Or is this a game designed for more than 2 players?

Also, if I'm following you correctly, it seems that reinforce will typically net you more points than an assault. I think this could turn the game into a really long game if both players play defensively.

I'm not sure I'm sold on the Veteran mechanic. It looks really interesting, but it probobly requires some balance. I think it could either make the game be either 100% focused on getting 6's, or to not bother trying to get them as they're only worth 2 bonus points. This would require quite a bit of play-testing to sort out.

Also, I vote with the others. Don't make this 40k themed if you want to actually go to market.

You're right, I should have clarified that. An opponent means another player (so you could play more than two people). Reinforce will net more points. The reasoning is as follows: Player 1 attacks, dealing 12 points. Now player 2 is just racing to beat Player 1, who has an advantage. If player 2 reinforces and nets the same amount on average, he will get no chance to move onto the offensive. This way you can recover a little extra and gain some breathing room.

As for the Veterans, I didn't want them to be strictly better than normals, so you need 3. As for trying to get them, you're right, you should be trying. The Troops are just for extra points at the end of the turn.

I have been rolling around some ideas for making Troops more important, but I wanted the game to remain simple.

What about the ability to expend one Troops or Veterans die to "nullify" an opponent's Troops, Veterans, or Commander die? Maybe Troops nullify a die of your choice based on what they're trying to nullify - Troops on a 4+, Veterans on a 6+, can't nullify Commanders.. Veterans can nullify Troops on a 2+, other Veterans on a 4+, and Commanders on a 6+?

And you can only use the dice you have available from last turn. Nullifying an enemy's die basically lets you use your troops to destroy his troops, and maybe say if you fail, you lose that die instead?