Roll of the Dice - application - part 2

Once again making down my list of last played games talking about how RNG relates to them.

Next down the list is ... Cat Tower ... another dexterity game. I don't usually play this many dexterity however many of my friends enjoy playing these type of games. I actually would rather play heavier games but I play to have fun with my friends. Well the main RNG in this game is a die. Two of the sides have a single cat on it so it means a single cat should be rolled more often. The other RNG mechanic uses tokens with effects on the flip side. The RNG is pretty much the same with cards as the tokens are taken, the chances change for the remaining tokens. You get one when you roll a Fatty Catty so the odds of getting one of this is lower than a standard roll effect.

Sun, Moon, & Stars. Finally a non-dexterity game. This is a micro deduction game. Quite a new game. There's four different hidden roles and a small deck of cards to draw from. Because of the small deck of cards and each player only having a single card for their hand, it is possible to count cards just like a standard deck of playing cards. The hard part is remember what the cards do as they have creative names and some do multiple things. However there is only one of each card so if you are actively watching and remembering it is possible. Even if you are able to deduce the roles that others have gotten, you still need to be lucky to draw the right card to achieve your goal and avoid giving others the win.

So hopefully that's given you some insight into RNG and how it applies to games. I mentioned house rules in my previous post so I might do a post on that and what sort of house rules we apply in the games we played. Look forward to the installment.

Roll of the Die - application

Previously posted about RNG. In this post we will look at how it applies to the games I've last played.

Well the last game I played was Terror in Meeple City, which is a dexterity game ... There generally isn't RNG in dexterity games as it is a physically skilled game. Okay the only RNG aspect in this game is probably the Character, Power, and Secret Super Power cards. Each player gets one of these at the start of the game. Character gives you point scoring opportunity, Power gives you a continuous ability to use, and Secret Super Power lets you use a once off ability. These randomly generated cards will influence the whole game as players compete to gain extra points from their Character and use their unique Powers to give them advantages. In this game the importance of the Power depends on ones dexterity ability. 

Example from this game is there is a blowing move in the game. This is not a recommended move as it is difficult to pull off. However because it's such a unique move, everyone else wanted to practice and try it. One particular person was probably the worst at this ability ... and while we were distributing Powers, they got one that specifically applies the blowing action. In their case this would be getting the worst card or rolling the worst number. But that is how RNG works. Some of the scoring cards are easier to score with and it should work well with your power. In this game most people's power didn't really work towards their scoring. Just ended up with people knocking each other over however they could and eating whomever was within their grasp. Not the best example of RNG.

The game before this was ... Disc Duelers ... another dexterity game ... Actually there's a mechanic in this game that works around RNG. The idea of RNG is complete randomness. This means you can get the best, or the worst seen in the previous game. What you're dealt is what you get. In Disc Duelers you draft. The RNG is that you get 6 characters you choose from. However in drafting you choose one of those 6 and you pass the rest on for them to choose, with someone passing you their leftovers for you to choose your next character. This mechanic tries to mitigate the chance one gets a totally useless hand of characters. If you did get a hand full of useless characters, least you have a chance to get a better one from a hand that is passed to you. Also means eventually they need to pick from the original hand you have so would also have to pick a useless character. It is true that they would have the best of the good hand of characters, but you would have picked the best of the worst. 

This is usually a good way for players to even out the abilities of the characters they have and also to take characters that you think would be advantageous to other players. However we did find that with overpowered characters, doesn't matter who else is left, that character would win. This is something game developers need to take into account when creating characters. Pure RNG should not dictate the winner. It should be able to be mitigated by other cards, game mechanics or other things, which did not happen for this character. And this is where you house rule games and remove that character from future games.

I was going to stop here but these two games really didn't give light to RNG so I will post one more time about RNG after this.

Roll of the Die - concept

While playing board games, certain gaming characteristics get one thinking. I thought I'd cover some of them and how they have effected the gameplay in some of the games I have played. One of the most reoccurring mechanics that keeps coming up is RNG, random number generator/generation.

RNG's most basic idea is a die. You roll it, and it generates a number by the side that faces up. So it's a device that creates a random result within a set. Almost all games have a form of RNG, whether its a die or deck of cards. So we talked about dice, so what about cards. 

Well standard playing cards has numbers and symbols. Let's just take out the meaning of the symbols and focus on the numbers. Numbers generally are more important the higher the value so something like a 10 is bigger than a 5 so is worth more. So in that sense there a order. With added symbols, depending on the game, just means that there's a new order, not just with numbers but with the symbols. Something like big 2, once again depending on version, means some symbols are higher value than others. How about if the cards aren't made of numbers, but have different effects? Well depending on situation certain cards are more important than others. I mean its further stretch from the norm but it does have RNG properties. 

However unlike dice, when cards are removed from the deck, the RNG changes because the cards left in the deck has changed. The cards that have been removed are impossible to get from the deck if there are no duplicates, and the chances of getting the other cards in the deck has been raised. In a standard playing card deck the chance of getting one card is 1 out of 52. Once a card is taken from the deck, if the intended card has not been taken, the probability of that intended card becomes 1 out of 51. Not a great change in chance but still a better chance. The smaller the deck, the better the odds.

Roll over to the next post to read how I think RNG relates to the games I've played.

How it Works

I have another blog. It's about life. I game a lot in general in my life. I like to talk about games. But it doesn't always relate to life. So that's where this blog comes in. Don't know if anyone will read it, but it doesn't matter as much. I will post on the other blog and when I feel like I'm talking more about games and not about life, I will transfer that post to here. Depending on what I'm blogging about, I might intentionally blog something here. It will be on gaming concepts or on my thoughts, on gaming concepts or games.

If you intend on continue reading the other posts in this blog I hope you post on what you think and correct me if I'm wrong on anything. Well let's play it interesting.