Home Forums General Game Design Rock paper scissors as dice mechanics

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  • #156846
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    nope

    #156852
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    Oh well I read it from the e-mail, but change of heart?
    Want me to delete this?

    #156853
    Avatar photoMartinR
    Participant

    I have actually used RPS as a simple game resolution mechanic in an air defence game. (Soviet fighters vs Vulcans). Best of three wins the encounter. It is a bit less random than throwing dice and involves reading your opponent, something which seems appropriate for air combat.

    "Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

    #156875
    Avatar photoGuy Farrish
    Participant

    I’ve played in several games where stone/rock, paper, scissors was used as a best of three (usually) quick personal combat mechanism, usually in earlier  periods than Martin’s air combat.

    It was not a constant mechanism replacing dice throwing throughout the game but it gave a personal involvement in the part where personality played a part – Dark Age heroes before the main battle lines clashed, medieval knights leading a retinue etc.

    Yes, you could do it with opposed dice rolls/charts etc but it gives a more fun, physical way of doing it without resorting to fisticuffs.

    #156878
    Avatar photoBenjamin Cato
    Participant

    Very hard to use if you are playing solo.

    #156880
    Avatar photoSane Max
    Participant

    I ran a very successful multi-player game of Blitzkrieg Commander 1st edition using Military related Quiz Questions instead of Dice for passing the command tests. The hard bit was sorting the questions into ‘dead easy’ for the first test all the way to ‘They will never get this’  for subsequent ones (BKC Command tests become increasingly hard the more you pass) as it was hard to assess the knowledge of the players. One player was just a kid, and it was a real shame how he kept getting blown up 🙂 Kids these days, should read more!

     

    Rock Paper scissors has real possibilities. Add ‘Lizard’ and ‘Spock’ for harder things 🙂

     

     

    #156883
    Avatar photoGuy Farrish
    Participant

    Maybe a modern urban combat game could use questions about famous TikTok-ers to get the drop on old gits like – well, me?

    #156884
    Avatar photoSane Max
    Participant

    Ha that would be very mean 🙂 funny, but mean.  I have been asked to do the same thing for games with the same sorts of mechanics – Warmaster, Black Powder etc etc  – but it’s a lot of work coming up with the questions. I still rather like Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock

     

     

    #156892
    Avatar photodeephorse
    Participant

    There are internet military (and other subjects) history quiz sites.  You could get your questions from there.  One problem though is that they are clearly set by Americans, and the answers provided are sometimes very far from correct!

    Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

    #156893
    Avatar photoSane Max
    Participant

    yup, but you would still need to grade them from easy to hard…. maybe one day

    #156895
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    I didn’t expect all the comments.

    My initial post was using a blank dice and fill the sides with RPS, ratio can varies so each dice will behave differently in different situations. I was thinking of both air combat, RPG and operational level games, where each d6 is a character, aircraft or formation. For solo games I’d roll another d6 for challenges, but yes difficult to get tasks and difficulties, but works better for air combat.

    Changed my mind once I figured you only really need 2 of the 3 symbols on the d6 to have a good chance of winning.

    Up to you Mike if you want to delete this.

    #156896
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    Too late now…

    #156897
    Avatar photoDarkest Star Games
    Participant

    I have a game called “zombie dice” where YOU are the zombie just trying to avoid crazy shotgun wielding humans.  There are 3 colors of d6, and each color has a different ratio of the symbols with green being the “easiest” to survive but least rewarding and the red being the most “difficult” to survive but more rewarding.  Could easily be used in solo gaming for easy, moderate and difficult tasks/challenges.

    Now with RPS, we have used that a couple of times for the same things as stated above: heroes dueling in front of their respective armies to gain bonus dice for the upcoming battle, and the like.  It really does work.

    "I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

    #156899
    Avatar photoSane Max
    Participant

    Changed my mind once I figured you only really need 2 of the 3 symbols on the d6 to have a good chance of winning. Up to you Mike if you want to delete this.

    Call them something neutral like ‘hammer’ ‘Anvil’ and ‘Blacksmith’ and then have them succeed or fail depending on the roll on another dice maybe? But I dislike games with special dice, 1-6 was good enough for me. Make your players play RockPaperScissors properly  🙂

     

    #156900
    Avatar photoMartinR
    Participant

    The main emphasis in my game (actually our game, it was a team effort) was the intercept – the Vulcan was flying a pre-programmed course around a large bit of grass, and the Russian defenders had to track it on radar, radio in  the plots to the fighter command team who then vectored the fighters in. All using hand held radios in real time between the different groups.

    So on the vanishingly rare occasions they actually managed an intercept, I needed something quick and easy for combat resolution as the Vulcan never stopped until it reached its target.

    I’ve used it in other games too. Just prefer it to dice as it is a bit more tactile and interactive.

    "Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

    #156902
    Avatar photoJim Jackaman
    Participant

    I think No Go Zone has a mechanism based on RPS but replaces the usual with punch, slap and a two fingered salute.

    #156903
    Avatar photoJim Jackaman
    Participant
    #156936
    Avatar photoPatrice
    Participant

    Very hard to use if you are playing solo.

    There are dice to do it.

    http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
    https://www.anargader.net/

    #157035
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    rock-paper-scissor-lizaed-spock

    This is waaaaaay too complicated. Don’t think I’ll be able to remember all the relationships. It does look like earth-wind-fire-water-spirit

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