- Joined
- May 14, 2019
Lots of vidya games over the years have had board, card, and dice (usually the latter two as gambling) games as minigames. I suspect that's because they usually are adapting things with premade rules, probably standard Computer Science exercises, and require very little animation to do. This is one of the things I really love in games, especially because it's introduced me to some fantastic games, obscure in the modern day, which I would like to play IRL.
So this thread is an invitation to talk about fun board/card/dice games, especially more obscure or fictional ones you've found and enjoyed.
For me, it's:
LIAR'S DICE (from RDR2)
Poker and blackjack are also obvious, but this one is one that I have asked people if they know often and they never do. A game of bluffs, the gist of it is that as you circulate around the table, players must claim to have at least a certain number of dice (rolled and kept private) of a specific number of dots. As you go around, everyone must either pass, raise the stakes (up the number of dice, the number of the die, or both), or call the bluff. You call a bluff correctly, they lose a die, you call a bluff incorrectly, you lose a die, you win by being the last one standing. So simple of a game driven by the same sort of decision-making as poker (what's the chances they're lying, based both on probabilities and their behavior).
There was some board game I played IRL that seemed to be liar's dice wearing the skin of an original game. Don't remember it's name.
FARKLE (from Kingdom Come: Deliverance)
Basically dice blackjack. Roll dice, different combinations score points, you have the choice of how far to push your luck to try to rack up points. Admittedly, it's kind of weak in that it's a game where you don't really play against someone else (in the sense of interesting interconnected strategic decision-making) so much as you just both play and try to score higher than each other.
FANORANA (from Assassin's Creed: Rogue)
This one originates from French Madagascar or something. It's kind of fun but it has a terrible drawback in that it is incredibly easy to wind up in a stalemate. Symmetrical start, checkers-like board. You capture pieces, a whole row, by moving in the direction of that row. As long as you can keep capturing pieces, you can chain moves together. That's it. It plays very fast, though, because the initial moves will wipe out a huge section of board. Lot of thinking many steps ahead, but something that you can crank out a game of very fast compared to something like chess.
GWENT (from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)
The only one on this list that is fictional. I absolutely loved this one. Great way of abstracting a medieval field battle into a deck-building card game. Basic idea, you've got three types of troops, the melees, the ranged, the artillery. Total points value is your score, beat the other guy. But then you get these interactions between cards, like playing weather cards that can eliminate a row, or cards that sync up with other cards, or cards that remove the other guy's cards. Ton of depth to it, yet super easy to learn and play. Didn't really fit thematically with a high fantasy world (who exactly is making and marketing these Gwent cards?) but I just love it, heck, I'd love a version of it with real life armies and historical figures.
Honorable mention: Caravan (from Fallout: New Vegas)
Feel obligated to mention it, but I never did like Caravan. Obsidian's attempt at reinventing the wheel with poker for their setting. I have to admire the attempt but I just could not wrap my head around it or be bothered to learn.
So this thread is an invitation to talk about fun board/card/dice games, especially more obscure or fictional ones you've found and enjoyed.
For me, it's:
LIAR'S DICE (from RDR2)
Poker and blackjack are also obvious, but this one is one that I have asked people if they know often and they never do. A game of bluffs, the gist of it is that as you circulate around the table, players must claim to have at least a certain number of dice (rolled and kept private) of a specific number of dots. As you go around, everyone must either pass, raise the stakes (up the number of dice, the number of the die, or both), or call the bluff. You call a bluff correctly, they lose a die, you call a bluff incorrectly, you lose a die, you win by being the last one standing. So simple of a game driven by the same sort of decision-making as poker (what's the chances they're lying, based both on probabilities and their behavior).
There was some board game I played IRL that seemed to be liar's dice wearing the skin of an original game. Don't remember it's name.
FARKLE (from Kingdom Come: Deliverance)
Basically dice blackjack. Roll dice, different combinations score points, you have the choice of how far to push your luck to try to rack up points. Admittedly, it's kind of weak in that it's a game where you don't really play against someone else (in the sense of interesting interconnected strategic decision-making) so much as you just both play and try to score higher than each other.
FANORANA (from Assassin's Creed: Rogue)
This one originates from French Madagascar or something. It's kind of fun but it has a terrible drawback in that it is incredibly easy to wind up in a stalemate. Symmetrical start, checkers-like board. You capture pieces, a whole row, by moving in the direction of that row. As long as you can keep capturing pieces, you can chain moves together. That's it. It plays very fast, though, because the initial moves will wipe out a huge section of board. Lot of thinking many steps ahead, but something that you can crank out a game of very fast compared to something like chess.
GWENT (from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)
The only one on this list that is fictional. I absolutely loved this one. Great way of abstracting a medieval field battle into a deck-building card game. Basic idea, you've got three types of troops, the melees, the ranged, the artillery. Total points value is your score, beat the other guy. But then you get these interactions between cards, like playing weather cards that can eliminate a row, or cards that sync up with other cards, or cards that remove the other guy's cards. Ton of depth to it, yet super easy to learn and play. Didn't really fit thematically with a high fantasy world (who exactly is making and marketing these Gwent cards?) but I just love it, heck, I'd love a version of it with real life armies and historical figures.
Honorable mention: Caravan (from Fallout: New Vegas)
Feel obligated to mention it, but I never did like Caravan. Obsidian's attempt at reinventing the wheel with poker for their setting. I have to admire the attempt but I just could not wrap my head around it or be bothered to learn.
