SFR, Inc.

[willpell]

I've tried several times here to read the rules for Duels, but my eyes just sort of glaze over, which is not a common reaction for me since I'm a fellow of at least average intellect or above (if occasionally prone to tautological redundancies). This is clear proof that the game is a bit complex, at least at first; therefore, I'm thinking a simpler version could be used. Here is my proposal for a short, easily memorized list of rules for an extremely simple game that can be played with Dragon Dice, which may or may not be related to Duels but is at least inspired by it.

"Dragon Dice-Off"

To create their Duelists, each player chooses from their collection 1 rare die, 2 uncommons, and 5 commons (8 dice, 12 health). Other sizes are possible, but this will be the default assumption for now.

To start a turn, both players roll their dice; the player who rolls more ID icons gets to go first during the turn. If this is a tie, remove rare dice and then compare; if this is a tie, remove uncommons; if this is still a tie, play Rock-Paper-Scissors or something.

Once a first player is established, he or she chooses "melee" or "missile". *Counting non-ID results only*, he inflicts 1 damage on the opponent for each 1 of the chosen result he rolled.

The opponent reduces the damage with saves and maneuvers from his own roll (again, do not count IDs). Against Missile, each 1 Save and each full 2 Maneuver icons will prevent 1 damage (it's hard to dodge bullets/arrows/etc., so shields are best); against Melee, the reverse is true (at close range, you can get around past your opponent's shield and stab him in the side, unless he's quick enough to stay in front of you).

Once damage is reduced, any that's left kills that many health of units of the damaged player's choice. It is important to select dice whose results have already been applied (maneuvers, saves, or ID) if possible. Unlike in Dragon Dice, damage less than a unit's health WILL kill that unit if no other casualty is available.

With all surviving dice, the defending player inflicts casualties on the attacker using the same attack type chosen by the attacker. This time, whichever "defense type" would have applied at 2 for 1 is not applied at all, so if the attacker used Missile, he could defend only with Saves, while a Melee attack would be countered with damage preventable only with Maneuvers.

The players then roll again; the previous defending player automatically adds one ID result to his roll in an attempt to break ties, but it is still possible for the same player to attack several times in a row with unusual luck. (Fair? Balanced? Not so much, but at least games will be quick.)

There are two special cases:

Magic: For simplicity's sake, we will currently limit magic to creating only one spell per color. Each 1 point of magic rolled is applied to immediately create a specific icon type as follows (choose either of a unit's colors if applicable):

Fire: "Fireball" - treat as a Missile icon.
Death: "Finger of Death" - treat as a Melee icon.
Earth: "Stoneskin" - treat as a Save icon.
Water: "Fluid Motion" - treat as a Maneuver icon.
Air: "Chill Wind" - *subtract* 1 from whichever of Maneuver or Saves is dominant in the opponent's defense roll. This does not inflict damage unless damage was rolled in addition to the magic; it only reduces the odds of a save.

Amazons can produce any type of magic except Death, but must spend 2 magic icons to get 1 of the icon of their choice (or 1 subtraction of an enemy icon if Air is chosen). If other units are in the same Duelist as the Amazons, they may convert their magic on a 1-to-1 basis to match the colors of those dice, up to the amount rolled on those dice. (Example: you roll 3 Amazon magic, 2 Dwarf magic, and 1 Feral magic. You may convert 2 Amazon magic to Fire and produce 2 more Fire, 2 Earth, or 1 of each from the Dwarf. The third Amazon point can be converted to Earth or Air with the Feral. If the Feral was not there, the third Amazon point could not be spent, unless you converted only 1 Amazon point to Dwarf and spent the other 2 on a color of your choice.)

Undead can produce only Death as usual.

SAIs: This is a sticky issue which can only be resolved through common sense. In general, if you know what an icon counts as, you may treat it as whatever it normally is (though not more than one thing at once). So Fly is either Maneuver or Save; Trample is either Maneuver or Melee; Counter is either Melee or Save; Smite is Melee; Bullseye is Missile. For more obscure SAIs, if you don't remember what it does, just treat it as an extra ID result (since it's always going to be on a Rare die, it'll be the first to get discounted in the event of a tie).

Continue going back and forth until one player's Duelist loses all dice; the other is the winner. For the moment, there are no rules for the use of dice other than six-siders. (Use of Dragonkin as melee/maneuver beasts is legitimate; just treat their Belly face as blank, ignore their automatic saves, and treat a rare's Breath as an additional ID.)

Hopefully a "game" of this will take about 10 minutes, as long as players don't agonize over their choice of dice. It's probably not very satisfying this way, but at least it's a start; once you feel like you could play this version in your sleep, you can start introducing complications to add strategy, and perhaps end up with something resembling Duels itself.
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Designer of Hybrid Dragon Breaths, the Enchant Element spell, new colored Dragonkin Breaths, and various homebrew races and dragons. If you want to know where to find them...good luck, I don't remember anymore.

[cliffwiggs]

Duels was originally designed to be a 'pickup game' that takes minutes to play, but it is expanding into a full RPG. thus the complexity.

You have a good idea for a nice pickup variation, so I moved this topic to that forum instead.

I encourage you to continue to expand and play it.

Cliff
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[willpell]

Cool beans, Cliff! Will do!

(I would love to see a recent immigrant from Slovenia or something try to comprehend the above sentence. English is fun.)
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Designer of Hybrid Dragon Breaths, the Enchant Element spell, new colored Dragonkin Breaths, and various homebrew races and dragons. If you want to know where to find them...good luck, I don't remember anymore.