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Tactile Play
One joy of tabletop gaming is the tactile feel of rolling dice, hefting pieces, and interacting with components. As more board games get ported to apps or are available online, sometimes this is forgotten.
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Customizable dice remind me of LEGO bricks as I push die faces into them and then, using a dice tool, pop them out.
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When testing Dice Realms, I'd watch players smile unconsciously as they improved their dice. (Of course, people vary and not everyone does this.)
I first saw customizable dice while developing Roll for the Galaxy: Rivalry. Wei-Hwa Huang used them to test different arrangements of its Deal game's die faces among the deal dice. This led me to create Rivalry's Orb game, giving each player a single customizable orb die.
After that, I wanted to do a game just about customizable dice. Previous games, such as Rattlebones, used customizable dice to move around a board's track and interact with its spaces. In Dice Realms, I wanted the customizable dice and their changeable faces to be the play focus.
Roll 'em!
Dice-rolling games have a simple structure: Roll your dice, maybe do some re-rolling, then do stuff based on which faces are showing.
For a customizable dice game, this becomes roll, do stuff (collect and spend), and upgrade faces. Since everyone has their own dice, players can (mostly) do this simultaneously.
In Dice Realms, players roll their dice, then may make one free re-roll of one die. This gives everyone a re-roll decision each round and helps mitigate bad luck.
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During this Roll step, players use any re-roll powers they've rolled and can use re-roll and set-a-die tokens that they invested in during previous rounds. This lets players further mitigate bad luck and possibly control their dice to pull off a big combo that they have set up with improved die faces.
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For example, the Cattle faces shown above feed off of each other, producing 16 victory points (and 16 coins and 16 grain).
In the Collect step, players collect the grain, victory points, upgrades, and coins they have showing, marking upgrades with a disk in the treasury tile notches.
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Coins can be used to buy upgrades, more dice (which also requires grain), or re-roll and set-a-die tokens; repair destroyed faces; or save one coin for next round.
In the Upgrade step, players spend upgrades to improve any faces on their dice. One upgrade improves a face from its first (1-dot) tier to its second (2-dot) tier, while three upgrades would improve it to its topmost (4-dot) tier.
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An upgrade can "cross-grade" a face to a different line at the same level. One can go for coins first and later convert a top-tier Commerce face to a top-tier Lands face that produces four victory chips.
Marking upgrades and separating the Collect and Upgrade steps lets players freely rotate their dice to choose which die faces they will improve without having to remember what they rolled, as well as letting them improve a newly bought die.
Adding Strategic Tension
Dice Realms is a dice-building game in which the five standard lines of die faces (see above) are always used and five tiles are randomly drawn from a bag of 35 tiles to determine which other dice faces will be used in a game. Choosing five from 35 tiles creates over 300,000 different set-ups!
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In Rattlebones, Rivalry's "Orb Game", or Dice Forge, players start with one or two dice and can never get more. In a game focused on the dice, I believe players should be able to buy more dice.
In Dice Realms, each player begins with a realm of two dice, with roughly twice that number of dice available to expand it. These dice form a common pool. If one player buys four dice (of the five extra dice in a two-player game) and the other player buys just one, then the first player has a 6-to-3 dice advantage. This limited shared pool creates a race to secure more dice.
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However, having more dice is not always good. During Winter, players must pay one grain for each die they have, taking a -2 VP misery token for every grain they lack.
More dice are bought with coins and grain, but upgrades can be acquired by either rolling upgrade symbols or buying them for two coins apiece.
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Improving a 2-coin commerce face to its 3-coin face is only a 50% gain, while improving a 1-upgrade progress face to its 2-upgrades face is a 100% gain. Upgrading your "upgrade tech" is quite powerful but doesn't, by itself, get you to more dice.
This creates a tension between grain production, coins, and upgrades. Do you go for upgrades first and hope there are enough dice left for you to purchase later? Or do you go for more dice early on, planning to upgrade them later while hoping that Winter won't cause you too much misery before you increase your grain production?
Working in 14mm Circles with a Limited Palette
Dice Realms has 72 different die faces and 668 total faces. Its changeable dice faces are 15 mm diameter plastic disks (with a plug on their bottom to attach to the customizable dice).
Print tolerances gave me 14 mm circles with which to work. That's a small space, particularly if I wanted multiple or complex powers on a single die face.
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If players are often rolling 4-6 dice, another issue is that rolled dice end up oriented in several directions. Players need to "read" their dice at a glance without having to rotate a die face several times.
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This orientation issue was solved by adding a "horizon" line to faces, separating a die face's powers from its upgrade dots and other information.
The images on the changeable die faces consist of up to three layers of printed transparent film heat sealed to the die face's surface. Each piece of film can have only a single "spot" color on it and black is one of these colors.
These limits meant that I had to choose between three different image approaches:
First, use simple powers on die faces and carefully deploy spot colors to add artistic detail.
I rejected this as while the standard lines of faces could mostly be done this way, more complex powers on variable tiles couldn't be done if color was being reserved for artistic detail.
Second, instead of putting powers on the dice, put artistic emblems that players look up to determine what a given emblem does. This approach worked for Rattlebones as the matching board spaces for each die-face emblem could explain what it did when you landed on that space.
I rejected this as — without a board — it would result in too much indirection and lookup, particularly when a player is rolling 4-6 dice with many different faces.
Third, represent powers with icons, reserving a spot color for more complex powers.
Dice Realms has four primary icons: grain, victory chips, coins, and upgrades.
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By making grain a solid vertical shape and upgrades a hollow vertical shape and spending one spot color on coins so that its circular shape is clearly not the hex used for victory chips, I could make these four items easily distinguishable.
My other spot color (which could vary from face to face) could then be used for complex powers.
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I tried this approach, and it worked well. New players could easily read the dice and, after a few rounds, rarely needed to refer to either the reference sheet (which lists the five standard lines) or randomizer tiles (which explain the variable faces).
The downside of this icon approach is that the heavy reliance on black results in a fairly stark overall look.
To check my work, I consulted with several artists and graphic designers. They agreed that given the nature of the game, the number of dice being rolled at once, and the technical limits, the icon approach was best. Martin Hoffmann then polished my crude icons into their final form.
Enter the Fate Die
Any dice-rolling game has luck. As I considered how Winters could occur, I settled on a Fate die that would be rolled every round to affect all players.
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By default, it has two Winter faces, which trigger feeding realms; Good and Bad Harvest faces, which affect grain production; an Innovation face, which gives two upgrades; and a Robber face, which causes each player, if they don't defend against it, to set aside one die for that round.
The Fate die itself is customizable. Event tiles change the game by altering the Fate die's faces. This can add a third Winter face, remove a Winter face, or add some nasty Plague faces.
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Adding the Fate die solved two other issues:
• Games with simultaneous play need a synchronization point. Having a round end by passing the Fate die, once everyone is done upgrading, to the next player creates one.
• Simultaneous games typically need a tie-breaker for some situations. Breaking ties by the current Fate die player, then clockwise is a natural tie-breaker.
Weaving Setting and Mechanisms Together
I needed a setting with many small realms, with rapid improvements over time (otherwise, constant upgrades wouldn't make thematic sense), with conflicts that didn't involve air or sea, and where the concept of fate loomed large.
These are tough requirements. There aren't that many pre-industrial eras with lots of innovation and many small realms vying with each other.
One is the Late Medieval / Early Renaissance era in Europe. Yeah, this setting has been used many times, but it fits. One of the most striking images capturing the medieval worldview is the Wheel of Fortune.
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This idea that people can't truly control their fate comes from the Great Plague's devastation; at any moment, even a ruler could be struck down. This seemed appropriate for a dice-rolling game, which inherently involves luck.
Medieval farming has been portrayed in other games, but in a very mechanical, almost industrial way: Plant some wheat, then automatically produce wheat the next three harvests. But medieval farming was extremely uncertain. Crop yields varied dramatically from year to year (hence, good and bad harvests), and winters could be mild or extremely harsh.
Putting these effects on the Fate die conveys the uncertainty of medieval life. Other aspects are captured by various tiles:
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Improvements in plows were central to increased grain production during this period. Plows were too expensive for a single village, so plow teams would be shared among several villages. Matchmaker provides a cheaper alternative way to gain a die, representing the dynastic concentration of land via marriage during feudal times.
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Monasteries were generally self-sufficient and often had defensive walls during medieval times. Most larger aristocratic estates were managed by Stewards, who would improve them over time. These estates often contained vast pastures to support sheep and an emerging woolen trade.
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Sheep is a tile that adds a line of three upgradeable die faces, instead of a single die face, to a game. All Sheep faces produce effects based on the number of land faces showing.
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Religion was central to many people in medieval times. Almshouses were built to relieve misery among the poor and homeless. The Almshouse allows a strategy of ignoring grain production and taking misery tokens during Winter, with the intent of removing them via an Almshouse which, being a re-roll power, also boosts the other faces on its die.
Historically, Late Medieval times were more diverse than many people believe. For example, Ethiopian envoys visited Europe multiple times starting in the early 1400s. By not identifying Dice Realms with a specific historical country or date, we could be more inclusive in its artwork:
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The great medieval fairs were large affairs drawing visitors from across Europe and evolved from horse fairs to trade fairs, which continued to grow and were combined with tournaments. All three served to transmit new ideas to distant areas.
Start and Finish
Players begin with two dice, three grain, one re-roll token, and one treasury coin. This enables them to mitigate a poor first roll, survive a first round Winter, and gain at least one upgrade 99% of the time, moving the game forward.
The game ends when any of three piles — VP chips, misery, or grain — runs out and more is needed.
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Players then use the 10x chips so that everyone gets what they earned, finish the round, and score.
Players pop out their improved faces and score 1 VP for each "2-dot" face and 2 VPs for each "4-dot" face. They add VPs from chips, then subtract 2 points for each misery chip that they collected during play. The player with the most VPs wins.
Improved faces being worth VPs ensures that upgrading faces, even if they are never rolled, is rewarded.
It is not uncommon for players to score more victory points for their improved die faces than for their VP chips, especially if they gained several dice and used them as cheap victory point "platforms".
Pool Interaction
Emptying the VP pool as an endgame condition solves an issue in games with VPs: how to reward players for earning VPs in the midgame.
Since rivals gaining VP chips in the midgame reduces the common pool, a later, larger VP "engine" can't run as many times in this situation, which makes it less obvious when to stop building VP engines and start running them.
The game rarely ends on misery chips unless several players don't invest in more grain production or one player digs too deep of a hole trying to get all of the dice and Winters give them too much misery.
But the game can end frequently on grain running out, particularly if players boost grain production and don't find ways to invest their surplus grain.
Two ways to use excess grain are always present: Grain is needed to get more dice, and Bad Harvest (on the Fate die) lets players sell grain for coins. Various tiles, such as Grain Trade, add ways to affect the grain supply.
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Keeping an eye on the available dice, VP chip, grain, and misery pools, and reacting to the collective decisions of other players with regard to them is a nuance that many new players overlook.
For example, the suggested "first set" of tiles includes both the Plow Team (which adds grain) and the Gardener (which can convert a single grain to 2 VP chips).
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Both faces are re-roll faces: when rolled, you apply their effects, then re-roll them until you don't roll a re-roll face. (Re-roll faces are limited to one of each kind on each die, so infinite grain machines are not possible!)
Many new players buy Plow Teams and are sometimes surprised if Winter isn't rolled much and the game ends due to emptying the grain supply. More experienced players, unless a string of early Winters has been rolled, will buy the Gardener first and add Plow Teams later. That way, the game is less likely to end quickly and, if it does, they will likely be ahead due to the VP chips that their Gardeners have been trickling in.
I have used VP pools before (in Race for the Galaxy), but I haven't seen a game that uses multiple pools as endgame conditions. This subtle form of player interaction is actually more important in Dice Realms than its "direct" interaction (described below).
Variety Is the Spice of Games
While the core game is interesting, long-term replay comes from the variable tile faces that force players to reevaluate their strategies.
Mentioned above were the Matchmaker, which provides an alternative route to getting more dice, and the Almshouse, which opens up misery strategies. Here are some more:
• The Banker is powerful both for converting excess grain into coins and controlling the endgame. In the midgame, a player with an 11+ grain surplus who rolls it can simply buy a die and a set-a-die token. Once the player has a set-a-die token, then they can use it to get the Banker whenever they have a large grain surplus and lather-rinse-repeat. Later, this player can often convert a large number of grain to VP chips and empty the VP chip pool.
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• Acquiring a Monument is tough; you need at least five upgrades in one turn (one to cross-grade a 4-dot face to white and four to then boost it into an 8-dot face). A Monument does nothing when rolled, but is worth 13 points at game's end: 9 for itself and 4 for its 8 dots.
• Jack of all Trades doubles the chance that you roll a particular (non-reroll) face on your dice. Doing this makes your dice more efficient and is often key to pulling off a quick win with just two starting dice.
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• The Engineer by itself looks like a flexible progress face: get two coins or upgrades, whichever you need. But if you also roll another coin-producing face, say a 3-coin commerce face, then it can produce five half-price upgrades (which normally cost two coins apiece). Why bother with progress (upgrade) faces at all?
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• Nobles is a line that, like Cattle, rewards setting up and pulling off a huge combo; in this case, Noble faces and Lands (victory) faces.
There are two types of dice on offer: duplicates of starting dice or green Lands dice, with six 1-dot victory faces. These dice can have only green faces. Nobles is a line, like Sheep, that leverages these green Lands dice.
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• Why worry about converting grain when you can simply accumulate grain and score for it via Holdings faces?
Holdings, like Grain Trade, adds extra grain to the grain pool during set-up. This ensures that the game doesn't end too quickly.
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• Fairs leverage lots of dice. Trade Fair gives you coins to buy them (once you get going); Horse Fair lets you feed them; and Tournament lets you upgrade them for VPs. When Fairs are in play, either the race to acquire more dice takes center stage or someone must have a very good plan to quickly end the game and win...
Direct Interactions
While pool interactions are subtle, attacks — which affect all opponents — are obvious.
At least one attack, the Robber face on the Fate die whose attacks affects everyone, is present in most games.
Successful attacks can cost players grain, the use of a die for a round, or even the loss of a die face with a destroyed face substituted for it, which can be later repaired.
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Each shield that a player rolls lets you ignore one attack (of your choice).
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A player can never lose their last die or their last non-destroyed die face. (That player ignores attacks that would do this.) I want players to make some progress every round.
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Most attack tiles add an extra tile (unless it has already been drawn) during set-up to ensure that players can invest in defensive options besides the standard Settlement line.
Two primarily defensive tiles, Quarantine and Monastery, each add an attack to the Fate die if no attacks are present among the five drawn tiles, to ensure these faces remain viable options in those games.
Some players really enjoy the "direct interaction" of player-initiated attacks while others strongly dislike them, even when attacks affect all opponents and are not directed "take-that" attacks.
I needed an attack mechanism for certain thematic event effects (such as the Robber and Plague), so I included player attacks for those who enjoy them.
Attack effects form a spectrum. I understand how player attacks that destroy faces may be too much for some people and flag Sabotage and War in the rules as potential issues.
Grain loss, however, occurs quite frequently due to Winter. As such, grain attacks (Grain Robber or Pillage) may be acceptable as they simply add "pressure" to something already happening in the game.
A one-turn temporary loss of a die (Bandit) falls somewhere in between. Groups who generally dislike player attacks can discuss these effects and tailor the game to their taste.
Dealing with Plague
I designed and developed Dice Realms — including its Plague event — in 2016-2018, prior to Covid-19. Periodic eruptions of the plague in Europe occurred throughout the game's period. (The last major European plague outbreak was in 1720 in the Marseilles region.)
While Winter is not an attack and cannot be defended against, Plague effects are attacks.
The most effective defense a town had against the plague was to shut its gates against all travelers, except merchants who had papers certifying they came from a disease-free region. These papers allowed those merchants to "pass the porte" and are one of the origins of passports.
Players often ask why the number of shields in the Settlement line increases, then decreases? This is because most fortified settlements would start as a village around a tower, which villagers could flee to when attackers showed up, before evolving into walled towns that protected their homes as well. However, when a successful town became a city, it would outgrow its fortified walls, becoming more vulnerable to attackers (and the plague) again.
Hopes and Fears
Dice Realms is the sixth dice game I've worked on. I believe it contains some of my best work and hope it finds an audience.
However, Dice Realms is quite expensive. I worry that its high price tag will scare too many people away, especially from a dice-rolling game.
As many are comparing its price with Dice Forge, that game has eight dice and 108 faces while Dice Realms has 18 dice and over 650 faces. That's more than twice the dice and six times the faces of Dice Forge for roughly two to three times its price.
You're paying for the greater variety you get with Dice Realms.
Image: Kalvis Kincis
This variety frequently changes play. Some games are all about getting lots of dice; others are about setting up a big combo and buying set-a-die tokens to make it happen; others are about pressuring your opponents; and still others are about managing the VP and grain pools.
I hope players like ruling their realms and enjoy the hard choices this game presents between upgrading your dice, acquiring more dice, and investing in dice control. Ultimately, Dice Realms is my love letter to dice-rolling games. Enjoy!
Tom Lehmann
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