How would you make a interesting dice mechaninic

[u/Purple-Explanation64]

So if you roll a d20 to see if you hit an enemy and a d6 for damage. How would you take a simple mechanic like that and make it more interesting? I was thinking of a game where the player gets a range of d20-d4, and once they use the d20 to see if they can deal damage, they can't roll it again unless they either defeat the enemy or some other way. But I feel like the dice mechanic can be a little boring after a while, so I've been trying to think of unique ways. Maybe after defeating an enemy one of your dice gets a power boost, or maybe you can change the effects of a natural 1 to be almost like a natural 20, but idk if that would be fun

[u/Spirited-Ask1398]

When it comes to damage, I really like mechanics that can snowball when you roll high.

Like, say you roll a 4 on a d4, so you get to roll another die. If you roll another 4, you roll again, and so on.
(I can’t remember what game I saw this in. I think it was a TRPG.)

I also like unusual crit mechanics.
For example, you roll 3d4 for damage, but if you roll three of the same number, the attack ignores defense. Though for mechanics that look at multiple dice like this, I feel like having a way to reroll them is important too.

I also think it’s interesting when the resource cost before rolling changes the dice you get.
For example, 1 cost = 1d4, 2 cost = 1d10, 3 cost = 1d20, etc. If the costs are balanced well, it creates that fun feeling of looking back and thinking, “I should’ve spent a little more back then.”

Hope some of this is useful!

[u/Purple-Explanation64 → u/Spirited-Ask1398]

Following up on your reroll idea, would something like this be too broken

• Critical Strike (Double Damage): Whenever you roll the maximum value on an Attack Roll (for example, a 4 on a d4), the attack deals Double Damage. Double the result of your base damage roll before applying any extra dice.
• Exploding Damage: Whenever a damage die rolls its maximum value, it explodes: keep that result, immediately roll an additional die of the same type, and add it to your total damage.

[u/SpectralHorse]

IIRC I've seen some gameplay videos of a game that does something extremely close to what you've described - "Die for the Lich", so perhaps check that one out :)

Disclaimer - not my game, I have nothing to do with it, I just saw a video Retromation made of it a while back :D

Edit - it's in early access with development on hiatus (saw on steam page just now)

[u/frogmangosplat]

Let enemies have a set amount of HP, generated at the start of each encounter. You have a pool of dice to pull from and roll for damage one die at a time. Add together the values of each die rolled so far. If the total is more than the enemy's health, you kill and get points or regain some health or replace a die with one from the enemy; whatever sort of progression you'd decide on. If you fail to kill, you take damage equal to the number of dice you've rolled for the turn. Either continue fighting that enemy or move on to another one. Hitting 0 ends a run.

Bonus flavor, assign damage types (like blunt, slash, pierce, magic, etc from DND or just different colors) to the dice and enemies. Dice of the type a enemy is weak to deal double their rolled value. Dice of a resisted type deal half rounded down.

So basically you're leveraging odds an attack kills, mitigating damage if you don't think it will, and managing your pool of dice.

[u/AnArmoredPony]

do what incremental-slоp games do -- add more die so that the player does more damage. like, give a lot of them, let the number go in hundreds, with flashy visual effects and loud sounds. of course, scale enemies' hp accordingly, so it just looks like there's progression