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As a little one off sort of thing for our group, my friend and I were considering doing a custom "fixed dice" match, something like we use for tournaments in our other games. No, don't worry, we're not actually putting weights in our dice or melting them in the oven.

The rules are simple. The game is standard in every way, except at the start of the game you get 10 tokens for "fixed dice", and 5 tokens for "swapped dice". Immediately before you roll your dice, you can declare that you're using a fixed die. Instead of rolling, you get to choose a number you want, and will count as having rolled that number automatically. You can only use 1 die per group of dice to keep things from getting too crazy. This means that when 5 snipers shoot, one of those dice can be a 6 to hit. When they roll to wound, you can again say that one of those dice is a 6 at the cost of a second "fixed" die. You cannot however roll multiple, like 2 lascannons can only have 1 bumped to a guaranteed 6. This also includes cases of 2 dice rolled together, such as when you're rolling an assault, rolling leadership, rolling psychic powers, etc. You can fix one of the two, and then roll the others separately (no guaranteed 12 inch charge, although guaranteed 7 inch charge). Blast weapons cannot roll a "hit" on the scatter die. You cannot use this on rerolled dice, such as TL. It must be declared before any rolls are made. Finally strength D cannot get a guaranteed 6.

"Swapped" dice are 5 opportunities to counter a fixed die. If your opponent tries to use a fixed die, they must instead roll normally. Alternately, you can instead use a swapped die and a fixed die to choose what they must roll, but only against dice that they aren't already trying to fix.

The order of operations for it is:
1) Dice roll comes up.
2) Player rolling can declare that they're using a "fixed" die.
3) Opponent can deny use of a "fixed" die by sacrificing a "swapped" die.
4) If no fixed die was used, or if multiple dice are being rolled, opponent can use swapped and fixed to set a guaranteed number. This is only available if they didn't counter the fixed die.

Example: I roll 4 plasma guns. I use a fixed die to make sure at least 1 hits. My opponent can deny this guaranteed hit, or he can use a fixed/swapped combo to make one of my other plasmas get hot (not the one I fixed). Plasmas roll to wound, I can used a fixed, my opponent can counter with swapped, or he can guarantee I roll a 1 using a fixed and swapped (only if there was more than 1 hit). For saves, he can guarantee a successful save, I can swap to make him roll for it, or I can guarantee a failed save (if more than one wound was taken).

We're debating if it's too complicated, or if it's going to mess up the way the game plays too much. Would you be up for trying this if your opponent was okay with it? Keep in mind it's just 10 and 5 for the entirety of the game. We figured it'd be an opportunity to help make dice rolls a bit more consistent, add an extra level of strategy (when to use the dice best), and to just mix things up a bit. Should there be more or less tokens? Should we get rid of the "swapped dice"? Our main thing is that we didn't want to just make them rerolls, so that you need to decide before you test your luck just how important that hit is. Alternately, we were considering that fixed dice would just add 2 to your roll, but this would be bad for psychic tests, morale checks, scatter, etc.

D-weapons. Game over.

Seems like it could be cool. But I think agree that the timing of those dice could win or lose the game.
Likewise, I think the game is in depth enough with enough rules and loopholes and interpretations and so on enough without adding that in to make it worse.
Not saying it couldnt be cool, just not something I'd be interested in trying.

 Thud wrote:
D-weapons. Game over.

Finally strength D cannot get a guaranteed 6.

Sounds fun. I have also heard of similar things where you have 10 "fate points" you can use to modify any dice roll up or down by X number of points.

Some of the weapon options could actually become significantly better with this. Another fun use would be to snap fire a D weapon against a flyer, a guaranteed 6 would make that much more useful.

Also don't forget stomp attacks for no guaranteed 6's. The 6 result for stomp attacks is even worse than Str D.

 kingbobbito wrote:

 Thud wrote:
D-weapons. Game over.

Finally strength D cannot get a guaranteed 6.

Damnit! I actually went over it twice looking for any mentions of the D. Reading comprehension FTW!

It would be a fun way to play a kill team or combat patrol, otherwise nah.

Used to play an RPG called "James Bond" where when you did something fantastic you get a "Hero point" and when you really needed something to succeed or just did so incredibly badly: you used a hero point.

Using up limited resources add some drama, but yeah, kill team would be very cool, a normal big game: not so much.

Fate points might be interesting.

Hell you can have shrine like objectives pumping out fate points if you are holding it. that you generate per turn that +1 or -1 rolls that you REALLY need to use.

something silly like that that both players have access to

It would shift things up, and probably not in a good way. Things like lascannons would get a big boost for cracking open armor. Vehicles would need to live in cover, or have some sort of intrinsic save, or risk just getting popped. Flyers would spend a lot more time jinking or in creators. Some armies, like SoB would make out well. 6++ on everyone/thing? Yes please!

Somethings would cancel out. Making sure the meltagun hits snapfireing the HQ charging him can just be ignored by him 6ing his invuln.

Well you could also make fate points worth victory points at the end meaning that you really have to plan the use of them and cant just waste them here and there.

Maybe only used on shooting wounding and saving throws only.

Or you could just play Malifaux.

 Desubot wrote:
Well you could also make fate points worth victory points at the end meaning that you really have to plan the use of them and cant just waste them here and there.

Maybe only used on shooting wounding and saving throws only.

This. This right here would, in my opinion, balance the fixed dice idea. It would really force people to decide when and how to use their dice. I would give this a try for sure with friends.

 Desubot wrote:
Well you could also make fate points worth victory points at the end meaning that you really have to plan the use of them and cant just waste them here and there.

Maybe only used on shooting wounding and saving throws only.

Something along the line of 3 of them being a point then? So if you don't use any during the game you'll score 5 points? Also love the idea of controlling shrines, or maybe play a relic based game with that rule.

Also, the more people are mentioning some of the more broken stuff the more I am considering that you can just spend them before a roll to say +1 or -1, as I hadn't even considered things like sisters. Either that or making it a kill team exclusive, as we do play a good bit of that and (outside of maybe sisters, or popping a vehicle) I can't see it being as effective at that size.

Here Just make it a 1000 points or less game
6 objectives on the field which are all shrines.
At the start of each player turn if that player holds an the objective they gain a fate point. these last until the end of the game where they are traded for 1 VP or can be used in game to modify a single to hit, to wound or to save roll by +1 or -1. these can be stacked for that single roll.
no Mystery objectives.
FB and LB is a go.

Forces a tighter list at 1000 points, makes it so that holding objectives securely is actually a thing. or you can go all out and just try to knock people off objectives equally valid.