I read the play brief for Doomseeker, Soda Pop Miniatures' new card game, licensed from Games Workshop...
Once each player (including the one doing the fighting) has had a chance to play a fate card, the slayer fights the doom. To do so, they roll a six-sided die and add their strength (along with any modifiers). If the result is equal to or greater than the doom’s strength, the doom is defeated and added to the slayer’s scored pile! If the result is lower than the doom’s strength, the doom is discarded and the slayer suffers a wound.
When you defeat a doom, you gain an amount of gold listed by the doom’s card. This gold may be spent to purchase treasure from the shop. Any treasure purchased in this way is placed in front of you, and will aid you on your journey to death and glory.
If a slayer suffers a number of wounds equal to those shown on their card, the slayer has died. The doom that killed the slayer is added to the slayer’s scored pile (it is assumed the slayer and the doom killed each other in a cataclysmic fight) and, if it is an epic doom, it will even be worth additional renown.
Dead slayers may still impact the game! They may still play fate cards during the battles of living slayers. And, although they may not fight dooms themselves, they may bet on the outcomes of the fights of the living.
Once there are no more dooms in the doom deck, the game ends, and each slayer counts their renown. Renown is gained for the dooms the slayer has scored, successfully betting on the outcomes of fights while they were dead, and other game effects
I'm sorry, but that's just awful. It's competitive without elimination, where the "battle" is a 1d6 roll?
Obviously,
SPM doesn't have the Dwarf Slayer concept down cold.
What it should be is players rolling fistfuls of dice, looking for criticals, and trying to find their death at the hands of the biggest, baddest monster possible, where the winner dies in the process of slaying something truly awesome and huge.
Scoring should be based on the power of the thing that killed you!
- tiebreak to the amount of damage you did to it
- tiebreak to the total amount of damage you've dished out and taken
Something like that. Player and monster roll 4-6d6 each, with re-rolls!
3 rounds. If you are fool enough to get eliminated early, too bad for you, probably not going to be winner.
But lots of secret bidding to make the game interesting.