Simple but exciting AMES: are the random, in which the case is the undisputed king. Here is the guide to random board games.
Guide to Board Games: Random, Where Chance Reigns Supreme
Welcome to our board game guide! Today we consider a fundamental component,randomness, that is chance, luck, what moves many games, regardless of the strategic ability of the player. Let’s see some board game that completely focuses its mechanics on the case.
Tokyo! | Guide to random board games
Tokyo is not marketed, it is part of the “pub games” because a pair of dice is enough to challenge your group of friends.
Components
- Two six-sided dice
Challenge
At the beginning, a maximum amount of points to lose, or points to win or any other variable is established.
Each participant, per lap, challenges the next one (clockwise or counterclockwise, of your choice). Roll the two dice and check the result, covering it for the rest of the group.
At that point, he can declare the real value he has just read or bluff, this because the declared value must necessarily be equal to or higher than the previous one (apart from the first one, obviously).
If the challenged person accepts the declared value, he receives the dice without knowing if it was real and continues the game with the obligation to declare a value equal to or greater than the previous one.
If it does not accept, the value is revealed. If the declared value corresponds to the real one, the challenged person loses one point; if it was a bluff, the one who rolled the dice loses it. In case of “non-acceptance”, we start again from the lowest value.
The values of the dice must be read by placing the highest digit as the tenth and the lowest digit as the unit. This creates the order 31, 32, then 41, 42, 43, 51 … 54, 61 … 65, then the double values 11 … 66 and finally Tokyo, that is 21, maximum value. A variant foresees the presence of 31 as Small Tokyo and 21 as Greater Tokyo.
Technical features
- Author: spontaneous game;
- Number of players: 2+;
- Duration: variable;
- Randomness: high;
- Portability: high.
Perudo, the pirate game | Guide to random board games
Perhaps invented by the 15th century Conquistadores, perhaps by pirates, Perudo, dice and bluff game, was marketed from the 90s.
Components
- For each participant, 5 dice and a non-transparent glass.
Challenge
After choosing who starts, each player shakes the dice in his own glass and then places the same upside down, in order to see each his own result by hiding it from the others.
Whoever starts declares avalue(from 1 to 6) and thequantity of diceof that value present (among all those in play).
If it isdeclared exactly, all the dice in play are shown and there must beexactlythat value repeatedexactlyin that quantity. If so, everyone loses a die; if not, the bidder loses the die.
If you declare (normally), the next participant (for example clockwise) can accept or doubt. If heaccepts, he re-rolls the dice, declaring a greater value or a greater quantity; if hedoubts, all dice in play are shown and there must beat leastthat declared value. If so, everyone loses a die; if not, the bidder loses the die.
Various editions present other mechanics and the presence of Jolly, but where have we already seen this dice game?
Technical features
- Author: spontaneous game;
- Year: spontaneous game marketed in the 90s;
- Distributed in Italy by: Parker Brothers;
- Number of players: 2+;
- Duration: variable;
- Randomness: high;
- Portability: high;
- Price: around € 22 (available at home).
Goose Game and Ladders and Snakes Guide to random board games
Nothing to say, thegame ofthegooseandstairs and snakesare the first on which we face in life, simple, linear. Produced and reproduced in thousands of different and thematic versions (like theOcalimocho, Spanish drinking game), they are today among the most popular and memorable children’s games.
In the educational field, they are useful for teaching to count (the dots on the dice), to add (the values of the dice and the advanced boxes) and to train the logic (“snake eyes means that you throw again”).
In 1580 Francesco I de ‘Medici gave thenew and very delightful game of the gooseto Philip II of Spain. It is possible that certain elements on the board have some connection with numerology.
The goose is a lucky symbol, whoever stops on the goose box rolls again and, originally, whoever won got a goose as a prize. From the following century, the game of the goose became very popular throughout Europe (losing the goose as a prize).
Stairs and snakesis less known in Italy, having been born in Victorian England from the mind of John Jacques II, founder of theJacques of Londonpublishing house (founded in 1795, in business).
Very similar in mechanics, with the addition of stairs, which allow you to climb from one box to another, and snakes, which report at the bottom. Stairs and snakes can also be used in education.
Ludo and Don’t get angry | Guide to random board games
Ludo was created by Jacques of London in 1896 while the German Non t’arrabbiare is from 1907 from an idea by Josef Friedrich Schmidt who was inspired by Ludo himself and the IndianPachisi.
In both games, each player has multiple checkers available to complete one turn on the board. The object of the game is to make each of your own pawns complete the path. Both games use similar mechanics, also present in some ancient games.
Impressions | Guide to random board games
The purely random board games are fun in childhood, but overlooked from adolescence onwards (except for Perudo for its gambling component).
Undoubtedly games of another genre that maintain a random component are fascinating even in adulthood, but what theright percentageof randomness is to personal taste.