Cosplay Prizes and Succor Contest
So after what feels like forever, I finally have almost all the prizes for the Cosplay Contest Winners in order. And by “winners”, I mean everyone who entered because they are all awesome.
The Grand Prize, an original painting by Lauren K. Cannon inspired by Margherita in her Inevera costume with her face painted in, is in the works. Lauren and I have exchanged a few messages and picked a pose and color sketch, which will show our favorite dama’ting in the great Krasian temple of Sharik Hora.
Already, the three First Prizes, warded silver necklaces from Fotini Designs, are out the door and will soon be received by the deserving winners. They are gorgeous. Rebecca took a picture of one before she sent them out:
The dozen or so Second Prizes took a little longer, because the dice bags I initially ordered were WAY too small to hold a set of four of the warded Succor dice we had made. The dice look amazing, though, and each set of four will go out with a black velvet bag and a set of printed instructions taken as a quote from the book:
Succor
From The Warded Man:
“Let’s play succor,” Beni said. She pulled a tiny leather pouch from her pocket, rolling four wooden dice onto the floor of the loft. The dice were painted with symbols: flame, rock, water, wind, wood, and ward.
There were many ways to play, but most rules agreed you needed to throw three wards before rolling four of any other kind.
An interesting thing about the quote is the “many ways to play” line. Indeed there are, and more people should have a chance to. If you’re interested in a free set of Succor dice, come up with a fun game using them and post brief rules for it it in the comment section. Best five to come in the next week or so will win.
Ready… go!
Damn. Wish I was better at this kind of stuff. I’ll still try to come up with something.
Congrats again to everyone who entered-, and double-plus to the winners of-, the last contest!
I shall have a think about the game this evening, see if inspiration strikes. Thanks for another opportunity to take part in TDC world!
I’m rubbish at this stuff, but would be interested in buying a set if possible, and assuming Peat publishes the best of the games suggested!
P.S. that necklace is very, very cool.
The necklace looks awesome, and I’m lusting after the dice, so here is my entry.
Since I’m quite partial to having a tipple, the obvious solution to me would be a drinking game.
If you survive and roll 3 wards first, you can invent a new rule such as if you get two fires and two woods then you have to eat something that grows and is hot, like a jalapeno. Or your standard drinking game variations, like thumb on table, only pointing with elbows, everyone picks a silly name, whatever.
Lose by getting 4 rocks. Time to hit the hard stuff. Take a short of courzi (can’t look up the spelling, both of my books are on loan… I’m busy recruiting 😀 )
Lose by getting 4 waters, well you need to increase your fluid intake. So drink half your beer.
Lose by getting 4 winds:
You’re feeling breathless because you have to run four laps of the bar.
Lose by getting four woods: spend some of that dough from Fort Angiers – you buy the next round.
Lose by getting 4 flames: it’s time to light it up. Have a smoke/toke. Non-smokers like me can kick into a kitty to help towards the wood penalty, or can be taken by whoever safely rolls wards.
On a separate note, I’m having trouble posting, as this is the fourth go, after swapping locations from work to home. Maybe finally logging out will fix it (here’s hoping). Take 5, trying logging back in again under meta (fingers crossed).
Hey Snellopy, your message kept getting caught in my spam filter. I am guessing because a lot of weight loss spam includes a lot of paragraphs starting with “Lose”.
FYI to all, I check the filter regularly and approve comments that are valid. If you post something and it doesn’t go through, I will probably get to it within 24 hours. If it time sensitive, like in a contest, I consider it to have been submitted at the time the filter caught it, not when I found it.
Margherita, I am already sending you a set of dice, though the ones you made yourself are cooler by far. Something to tide you for the months it takes to put the painting (which will be AWESOME) together.
Peat, the moment you posted this my head started swimming with ideas. Finally got a chance to type them out. Here’s mine:
Requirements:
-At least 4 succor dice
-A method of recording wards (“official” being a gamecard with 9 ward places on an outer ring and 3 on an inner ring)
Getting Started:
Determine who goes first by rolling a single ward. The person that rolls “ward” goes first and play continues clockwise (to the left). If more than one person rolls “ward,” they roll off a single ward to determine who goes first using the win chart below (which can be its own mini-game like paper-rock-scissor in its own right):
Rock beats flame and wood.
Flame beats wood and wind.
Water beats flame and rock.
Wind beats rock and water.
Wood beats water and wind.
Reroll generic wards.
Gameplay:
The goal of the game is to ward yourself against the night with 4x three different wards.
On each player’s turn, he or she rolls four wards and adds any wards they wish to keep to their circle. A player may only have three types of wards in their circle at any time. “Ward” wards are wildcards and may stand in place of any other type (house rules determine if the type must be chosen when added to the circle, or may change at any time making generic wards highly prized). If the player chooses, they may discard all of the wards of a given type from their circle to be replaced with wards from their roll.
Until a player has three balanced sets of wards (3 wards of 3 types), they may not add a fourth ward of any type to their circle. Once three sets are balanced, they may begin to add the 4th ward of each type to their circle. Completing three sets means a player has achieved succor and is safe (they win). If only one player reaches succor on a turn, they win. If more than one player achieves succor on the same turn, each tests the wards of the player to their left.
Testing Wards:
To test another’s wards a player rolls four wards, rerolling any generic wards. Any rolled wards that exist in the defending player’s circle are ignored. Rolled wards that do not exist in the defender’s circle count as a failed ward against them. After all players in succor are tested, the one with the least failed wards wins. If there is a tie for least failed wards, ward testing continues with the tied players until one player has fewer failed wards than their opponents.
Possible Betting/Scoring:
For every empty ward in their circle when succor is reached by another player, a player may be required to contribute an ante to the pot to be split by those reaching succor (either by a ratio of failed wards, or by “safety” in which the winner takes the pot and the others safe in succor do not contribute to the pot).
Every player contributes ante, which is kept by the winner.
Every player contributes ante for every round they wish to partake in, which is kept by the winner. In this method of scoring, succor may not immediately halt play and play continues until no more players wish to buy rolls with additional ante. Multiple rounds of ward testing determines the winner unless no one is willing to contribute ante before succor is reached, in which case the player with the most wards in their circle wins.
When I read the contest I felt that I could give it a try. I have not tried enough games to see if the game is properly balanced, but here it goes a first try for the contest:
Sharak dice game as played in Krasia
———————————————–
The game was invented to show young children the brutality of the world
Krasians live in and the importance of the alagai’sharak, the fist against
demons.
In Krasia the dice are different from other parts of the world. Each of the sides of the dice holds one symbols, with four of the symbols
representing different types of demons: Sand, Flame, Wind, and Clay.
Two other symbols represent the Krasians weapons in their fight against
demons: Spear and Ward.
Spears kills demons, however, as the strenght of demons vary, the number of Spears required varies too.
Wards block demons, but do not kill them. Again, the number of Wards required to block demons depend on their strength. It has been observed that in some sets of dice the Shield symbol is represented instead as the shields of the Sharum are usually Warded.
The relationship between symbols is based on the experience of the
alagai’sharak. The Krasians experience have led them to consider the Sand demons
as being the most powerful, not merely because of the strength of each individual but also because
of the number of demons that rise every night of this type. The Krasians consider the Flame and Clay demons as the weakest alagai.
When playing the game, in order to “kill” a demon, the following is required:
– Sand demon: 3 spears / 2 spears and 1 Ward
– Wind demon: 2 spears / 1 spear and 2 Wards
– Flame demon: 1 spear and 1 Ward
– Clay demon: 1 spear
In order to “stop” a demon, the following is required:
– Sand demon: 2 Wards and 1 Spear
– Wind demon: 2 Wards
– Flame demon: 1 Ward and 1 Spear
– Clay demon: 1 Ward
The game is played between two players, with each player using its own set of
4 dice. It is played in at least five rounds, with each player taking turns to
act as Sharum (Warrior) or as Alagai (Demon). Each
round represents one night of alagaai’sharak.
The first player to throw is the Sharum. When acting as Sharum, the player
first throws the four dice and can reroll, at most, two times more.
After each roll he can select which one of the dice he will reroll and which
ones he will keep. The only useful symbols for the Sharum are the Spear
and the Ward. The final selection of symbols defines the “alagai’sharak
strategy” for that night.
The next player that throws is the Alagai. When acting as Alagai the player
just throws one time. The throw of the dice determines how (and which type) of alagai rise that night and the
Sharum has to fight. The only useful symbols in this case are the Demon
symbols.
After both sides have rolled. Both dice sets are compared:
– Demons are either killed or stopped, based on the Sharum’s strategy used
(the symbols he holds). All of the Sharum’s dice count towards killing or blocking
demons.
– Any Demons that rise and are not stopped score a “Sharum Death”. Following a “Death”, in the
following rounds round, the Sharum, after the first roll, can reroll one
less dice for each “Death”. For example, if in the first night the Alagai
scored two kill then in the next round the Sharum will throw first the 4
dice but can only reroll 2 dice in the next rerolls. This count is
cumulative.
– Any Demons that rise and are killed count as a “victory” for the Sharum.
Victory points are annotated.
The following additional special rules are taken into account:
– If the Sharum rolls 4 Spears in his first throw, then the counters
of “Deaths” is reset. In subsequent runs he will be able to reroll all the dice. This is
called the ‘Sharum Ka’ roll.
The honor of the alagai’sharak resides in the fight, so the winner of the game after all the rounds is the player that has killed more Alagai. If the game ends in a
tie then the winner is the one who has less “Sharum deaths” when the game ends.
The Krasians consider that hiding behind Wards is of weaklings, a player that
follows the strategy of always selecting Wards symbols when acting as Sharum
will be frowned upon.
Game example
——————-
Consider two players: Reji and Mare.
Sharum First round (Reji is Sharum ):
– First throw: 1 spear and 1 ward, 2 demon symbols. He keeps the spear and
Ward and rerolls the demon symbols.
– Second throw (2 dice rerolled): obtains 2 demon symbols again. He decides to rerolls the 2 demon symbols and the Ward from the first roll.
– Third throw (3 dice reroll): He obtains 1 spear and 2 demon symbols.
The alagai’sharak strategy is 2 spears.
Alagai First round (Mare is Alagai): Rolls: 1 Sand, 1 Wind and 2 Spears. The Spears are discarded.
The fight is 1 Sand and 1 Wind demon against 2 Spears.
Result: 1 Death (Sand demon cannot be killed or blocked) and 1 victory (Wind
demon is killed)
In the second round Mare will play Sharum and Reji Alagai.
Sharum Third round (Reji is Sharum and has one Death)
– First throw: 4 demon symbols. He will reroll, but since he has sufference one “Death” he can only reroll 3 dice.
– Second throw: obtains 1 Spear and 3 symbols. He keeps the Spear and rerolls
(again) 3 dice.
– Third throw (3 dice rolled): obtains 1 Spear, 1 Ward and 1 demon.
The alagai’sharak strategy is 2 Spears and 1 Ward.
Alagai Third round (Mare is Alagai): Rolls: 2 Sand, 1 Spears and 1 Ward.
The Spear and Ward are discarded.
The fight is then 2 Spears and 1 Ward against 2 Sand.
Result: 2 victory – as both Sand demons are killed.
Note: After the breach of the gates of the Desert Spear in the year 326 AR by
a Rock daemon, a variance of the game re-emerged in which the
Rock demon symbol replaces the Clay demon symbol. This variance was played in
the past but had been long unused as no one had seen a Rock demon for many
years.
In this variance of the game, the Rock demon is considered to be very
powerful: 4 Spears are required to kill it and it can only be stopped by
3 Spears and 1 Ward or by 4 Wards.
hmmmm i had trouble trying to find it too then boom, saw this post, so i’m gonna try my luck and try posting on here.
the game i had in mind as soon as i saw this was that it could make a very unique version of liars’ dice…
firstly you would need 10 dice, so that each player had 5 each.
the wards should be fixed with a numerical number similar to a dice such as:
1. rock 2. water 3. wind 4. wood 5. flame 6. ward
decide who the first player is by the first to roll a ward or the agreed element.
the players should be seperated by a screen or some visual block so they cant see the other players die.
next, the first player roll their dice and say what they have rolled (this can be made up, for example….’i have rolled 1 Rock 2 Waters and 2 Flames.)
this would mean they have 2 pair, similar to poker.
the other player then rolls their dice, they can then claim one of three things:
1. they have a higher/better hand
2. call other players’ bluff (lift the visual block)
3. roll again. a limit of two additional rolls should be put in place. (only three rolls per round) after the three rolls, they must choose one of the other two options.
then the original player must decide if they think the second player is bluffing. they then choose from the three options above.
once the visual block has been lifted (someones bluff has been called) then the round is over.
the person with the higher hand wins
OR
the person who told a lie loses…e.g Arlen says ‘i have 2 wind, 2 wood and 1 ward’ (this would be two pair)
then Leesha says ‘i have a higher hand. three flames, two wards.’
Arlen can choose to re-roll but he calls the bluff, Leesha was lying and had two flames and three water.
therefore Arlen wins.
hands are as follows:
Five of a kind – SUCCOR – five of the same kind of wards, five flames etc – automatic win – you survive the demon attack with strong wards! congratulations.
four of a kind – self explanatory
full house – flame flame flame wood wood – three of a kind and a pair.
high straight – ward, flame, wood, wind, water (6, 5, 4, 3, 2)
low straight – similar to high straight but one step down – (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) flame, wood, wind, water, stone.
three of a kind – self explanatory
two pair – water water rock rock ward
par – self explanatory.
if both players should get SUCCOR then they both must roll until one player rolls more wards than the other. i mean, c’mon, theres only so much room in here, we both can’t succor. the cruel twist in humanity’s breeding.
enjoy.
Stew
Play requires two sets of succor dice.
One player represents the Warded Man, the other player represents the Corelings.
Each player takes turns attacking and defending. At the start of play, each player rolls their succor dice. The player with the most wards defends. In the event of a tie, reroll.
The attacking player makes a single roll to represent an offensive strike. Ward symbols are discarded in the attack roll.
The defending player must counter the attack by rolling a matching element or by using a ward die, which is wild. After the first defensive roll, the player must choose which dice will be assigned to each offensive die. Remaining dice may be rerolled once.
If the defender is unable to match the attackers roll, the defender loses a die for each unguarded attack.
If the attacker has a larger number of dice than the defender, he may roll all of his dice, but may only use a number of dice to attach with equal to the defenders dice.
Gameplay ends when one player no longer has any dice remaining.
Examples of game play:
#1
The Corelings roll a Wood, Water, and two Fires.
The Warded Man rolls two Waters, a Wood, and a Ward. He places a water and a wood for defense against their respective elements, and assigns a Ward to Fire. He rerolls his remaining water die, comes up with a ward, and defends against the remaining Fire
#2
The Warded Man rolls a Rock, a Wind, a Ward, and a Water. He discards the ward die and places the remaining 3 to attack.
The Corelings roll a Water, two woods, and a Ward. The Water is assigned to defend against it’s respective element, and the Ward is set to defend against Rock. The Coreling player rerolls and receives a Rock and a Fire. Since his Ward die was assigned to Rock in the previous roll, he is unable to make use of the second roll, and loses a die.
#3
In a later round, the Warded Man still has 4 dice, but the Corelings have 3.
The Warded Man attacks and rolls three Rock and and Fire. He may only use 3 dice to attack, and so chooses to attack strongly with Rock and discards his Fire roll.
The Coreling player rolls 3 dice to defend normally.
I will say with absolute certainty that I have no expectation of winning over the awesome entries that precede me. So I’ll take a page from my experience of martial arts training with a group of engineers, physicists and mathematicians. Rather than talk about math and angles and other complicated things that would make my liberal arts mind itch, my sensei would simply look at me and say, “Less fire, more water.” So with that in mind I’ll submit this entry.
The Simplest Form of Succor as taught to children.
A group of four players roll a single die. Any player that doesn’t cast a ward is immediately eliminated from play. Not very fun, but the morale is imperative.
The man without wards dies.
There are two phases in this game
1. The warding stage
The players take it in turns to roll the 4 dice in an attempt to get one of the following wardings. They are allowed to re-roll any or all of the dice once per warding.
Four Wards – Full warding – Blocks three Corelings of any types
Three Wards and One Coreling – Minor Full Warding – Blocks one Coreling of any type and one Coreling of the type on the dice.
One Ward and Three matching Corelings – Major Warding against the Coreling Shown – Blocks two Corelings of the type shown (E.g. three flames and a ward would be a Major Warding against fire corelings and would block two fire corelings.)
Two Wards and Two matching Corelings – Minor warding against the Coreling Shown – Blocks One Coreling of the type shown (E.g. Two wards and two rocks would block one rock coreling)
No wards and no matching dice – Broken Circle – All wards previously thrown are removed. (E.g. One rock, one wind, one fire and one water)
Any other roll is a failed ward and the dice are passed to the next player.
(E.g. One ward, two wood and a rock)
The dice are then passed on and if the player rolled one of the wardings listed above then they record its type. All the players roll an agreed number of times to set up wards (e.g 5 or 10) and when they have all rolled that many times phase two begins
2. The rising
The players total how many of each type of coreling their wards will be able to resist Wards that can block any kind of coreling are held in reserve and can be allocated after corelings start to rise.
Each player takes it in turn to roll a dice that represents a coreling rising. The total number of each coreling type is cumulative and if there are more corelings of a particular type than a player has wards for then they are out of the game.
If a ward is rolled then each player can increase the strength of one warding against a coreling type.
The winner is the last player who remains safe behind their wards.
Alright, off the top of my head this is what I came up with:
The game can be played with any number of players.
OBJECT: The object of the game is to defend yourself from the demons of the night by preparing the appropriate wards.
PLAYING: Each round, one player assumes the roll of the demon. The demon rolls one die. This determines the type of demon the other players must defend against. Each other player then rolls two dice, if either of these dice match that rolled by the demon then the player has successfully found succor from the demon.
Note: The ‘ward’ symbol counts as a wildcard for the player and may be used to represent any other ward. If the demon player rolls the ‘ward’ when determining the type of demon the other players are to defend against then the defending players may only roll one die while attempting to find succor.
If any player fails to defend themselves against the demon then the defending player gains a demon-point.
After all players have rolled to defend themselves play passes to the player to the left of the current demon player, this player is the new demon and the process is repeated.
LOSING: If a player accumulates three demon-points then that player loses the game and is eliminated from play. They have failed to find succor and have been lost to the night.
WINNING: The game is over when there is only one player left with less than three demon-points. The winning player has successfully found succor against the demons of the night.
Wow, guys, these are all really cool! I may play a few of these rules with my friends and some normal D6s, heh.
To Matt I just want to say; Brutal. Brutal, but brilliant.
And here, with apologies for my usual rambly-length, is my attempt. Just got back to the house after a surprisingly thorough test-run of this, it seemed to meet general approval. [I lost….Impressively.] Here goes; I took the basic principle described in the book, and just expanded it a little. I hope you like it!
————————————-
Invented to give a rudimentary education of wards to children, this game works best where wards can be drawn in dust or dirt – but can also be played by holding the images of the wards in your mind. While at times it may seem a touch convoluted, please bare in mind that it is harder to learn from paper, than it is to teach, and thus ideal for children – and a world where paper itself is much more expensive.
To play Succor requires four dice. The dice are identical, and have a ward on each side; flame, rock, water, wind, wood, and a linking ward on the last.
The game takes place in four stages:
1 – Dawn.
Three linking wards must be rolled to advance. Play continues clockwise, each rolling all four dice, until this happens (see i, ii & vii).
2 – Day.
Once a player has their three Linking Wards they must defend them! Opponents now have two options, they can either attempt to roll their own three link wards, or can play coreling’s advocate, and move to attack!
Once a player has rolled their dice, they can decide whether they will attack or attempt to form their own wards, depending on the outcome (see iv & v). If the defender survives, with any number of intact linking wards, they can move onto the next stage.
3 – Dusk.
During this stage, the defender must roll four of a kind. [Three linking wards can be used either to bolster defence and restore Linking Wards to three, or qualify for a re-roll (see ii)]. If the defender does not successfully roll a four-of-a-kind, his linking wards are still open to attack, and the destruction of all three returns the player to Dawn’s Light. Rolling four coreling-specific Wards completes the Ward-net! Congratulations, you have reached Succor!
4 – Night.
As you curl up to sleep within your Warded Circle, the Night closes in around you. In order to survive this night, which lasts two full turns, you must trust in the magic of your wards, and the succor they provide.
While a player may think they have won once they reach succor, your wards are fickle beasts indeed. Opponents here have the option to attack, working alone or as a pack to destroy the warded defence! If the ward net is broken (see vi), the player is unprotected, the corelings are free to feast, and the player is out of the game entirely.
Rolling process:
i) Rolling Two Pair. [eg. Two Flame Wards + Two Wood Wards]
This roll will allow you to re-roll either set of two.
ii) Rolling Three-of-a-kind. [eg. Three Rock Wards + One Wind Ward]
This roll will allow you to either re-roll all four dice, or any two dice of your choice.
ii) [If all players are in Dawn’s Light] Rolling Four-of-a-kind. [eg. Four Water Wards]
This roll, due to it’s difficulty, grants you an additional roll! Should your subsequent roll not get you the results you desire [ie. Three Linking Wards] you are allowed to re-roll all four dice.
iv) [If any player is lit by Light of Day or Dusk] Rolling Four-of-a-kind. [eg. Four Water Wards]
Four-of-a-kind can destroy one of a single defender’s Linking Wards.
v) [If any player is lit by Light of Day or Dusk] Four Linking Wards.
Rolling all four Linking Wards whilst in defence allows you to either a) destroy one of a single opponent’s Linking Wards, or – should the Link-rolling player have less than three, themselves – to b) steal it.
vi) [As Night closes in…]
The Player must survive two full turns – regardless of the number of players – without their Ward-net failing. The number of Linking Wards present when the defender rolls their Four-of-a-kind represents the strength of the Ward-net at a certain point. One Linking Ward can be broken under the concerted attack of two demons of that type [eg. an attacking roll of two Flame Wards to destroy one of the defender’s Flame Wards]. Two Linking Wards together are stronger and can withstand the might of two-, but the elemental ward will still fail under the combined effort of three demons [eg. an attacking roll of three Wind Wards will destroy a defending Wind Ward]. If the warder successfully formed all seven wards, it will thus require four demons to destroy the net – but such a mighty attack will tear the ward net asunder entirely! [A Four-of-a-kind Rock Ward attacking roll will completely destroy the defender’s Ward-net].
Linking Wards cannot be affected during this stage.
vii) (i to v) apply to all consecutive rolls. [eg. can (following i) re-roll both Rock Wards to become which will allow you,
(following ii) to re-roll all the dice, giving you a chance to roll your and (following v) steal an opponent’s Link Ward.
I think I just got caught by the spam-filter, but am not entirely sure. I’ve posted up my entry here: http://fur.ly/0/Succor as well I hope that’s okay?
O.o
Really!!?? That’s AWESOME! Thank you so much!
I’ve spent the last week managing a Spirit Halloween store (if you’ve ever heard of ’em) and haven’t had a spare minute for myself, otherwise I would still try to come up with a game and post it for fun.
Thank you again! I reeeeaally appreciate the gesture. 😀
Oh, P.S….
These entries are nuts! I can’t imagine how much time it took for everyone to come up with them.
They’re awesome!
Thought I’d already posted this, hope i’m not too late
There are two phases in this game
1. The warding stage
The players take it in turns to roll the 4 dice in an attempt to get one of the following wardings. They are allowed to re-roll any or all of the dice once per warding.
Four Wards – Full warding – Blocks three Corelings of any types
Three Wards and One Coreling – Minor Full Warding – Blocks one Coreling of any type and one Coreling of the type on the dice.
One Ward and Three matching Corelings – Major Warding against the Coreling Shown – Blocks two Corelings of the type shown (E.g. three flames and a ward would be a Major Warding against fire corelings and would block two fire corelings.)
Two Wards and Two matching Corelings – Minor warding against the Coreling Shown – Blocks One Coreling of the type shown (E.g. Two wards and two rocks would block one rock coreling)
No wards and no matching dice – Broken Circle – All wards previously thrown are removed. (E.g. One rock, one wind, one fire and one water)
Any other roll is a failed ward and the dice are passed to the next player.
(E.g. One ward, two wood and a rock)
The dice are then passed on and if the player rolled one of the wardings listed above then they record its type. All the players roll an agreed number of times to set up wards (e.g 5 or 10) and when they have all rolled that many times phase two begins
2. The rising
The players total how many of each type of coreling their wards will be able to resist Wards that can block any kind of coreling are held in reserve and can be allocated after corelings start to rise.
Each player takes it in turn to roll a dice that represents a coreling rising. The total number of each coreling type is cumulative and if there are more corelings of a particular type than a player has wards for then they are out of the game.
If a ward is rolled then each player can increase the strength of one warding against a coreling type.
The winner is the last player who remains safe behind their wards.
Well, call me crazy, but I’ve actually written a computer program (in Perl) to simulate games with the Sharak rules I provided for the contest.
After running 1 million computer roll simulations I’ve found that with the rules I defined the most probable situation (over 50% chances) is that the Sharum will kill 1 to 3 demons in any of the rounds. After simulation around 1.000 games (5 rounds per game) it turns out that there is a high chance the game ends with 7 to 8 demon deaths in the Sharum’s account.
So it looks like this dice game would probably be useful to boost the Sharum’s morale 🙂
Introducing the ‘Rock’ demon symbol (as described in the notes) makes the chance of winning many victories throughout the game and it increases the chances of the Sharum ‘dying’ (losing dice) in the game (the chances of having, at least, 1 death is over 50%).
Of course, this is based on a strategy of the Sharum keeping both the Spears and the Wards in his rolls and the results vary if the Sharum’s strategy varies.
The game looks balanced as all players will have the same probabilities of winning/losing a given roll and the overall results (who kills more demons) is affected by the strategy used as well as by the luck in the rolls.
For those interested, the software is available at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41441635/sharak.tgz (along with some simulation runs).
Feel free to modify it to simulate your own Succour dice games!
There have been some really good games proposed here!
I will definitely print all of the variants out in a booklet to try out some of these games with family and friends 🙂
I just wanted to say thank you for the neckless. It’s so beautyful! I only put it down for taking a shower. This is really a unique gift. Thanks
Firstly: I am wondering if you guys would mind me copy/pasting all of these games into one topic on the forum, for easy referencing? I want make it easier to play through everyone’s version of the game, but I also think it’ll be nice to have them all toegether. Does anyone object?
Secondly: I have just realised that my final paragraph has dropped a few words due to my poor choice of characters. The last paragraph should read:
vii) (i to v) apply to all consecutive rolls. [eg. [Flame][Flame][Rock][Rock] can (following i) re-roll both Rock Wards to become, with luck, [Flame][Flame][Flame][Water] which will allow you, (following ii) to re-roll all the dice, giving you a chance to roll your [Link][Link][Link][Link] and (following v) steal an opponent’s Link Ward, all in a single turn].
Elicius, by all means repost to the forum. I will try to go through all these sometime soon.
Here, for your (eye-blistering, ear-bleeding, brain-melting) viewing pleasure, the combined entries to The Succor Contest:
http://goo.gl/EQdGM
Feel free to rock and/or roll to your heart’s content!
[…] Hello everyone! I’m Meg, Peat’s new assistant. I will be posting regularly to both the blog and the forum. As one of my first duties, I am pleased to announce the winners for the Succor Contest. […]
[…] Hello everyone! I’m Meg, Peat’s new assistant. I will be posting regularly to both the blog and the forum. As one of my first duties, I am pleased to announce the winners for the Succor Contest. […]