Multiplayer games of Dice Masters.

dice masters, Dicemasters

At the moment our next Dice Masters session at the end of the month is going to be a three player event.

Which means we can still draft from the pauper cube or use the Dark Phoenix draft packs that I ordered.

However I’m not keen on having one person sitting out watching whilst the other two are playing a game of Dice Masters with their drafted team.

So my thoughts went to what about a multiplayer game of Dice Masters?

I know that there are official rules for Dice Masters Doubles. But it’s not really an option for just three players.

Ideally I want this to play similar to Commander, or one of the Game Night kits in MtG. Maybe even Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

The other limitation is that whatever ideas I come up (borrow more like)

with they will support 3 or 4 multiplayer games only. Scaling above this becomes a major headache and I think the downtime between turns becomes too long and makes the game boring. If there are more players split into pods of 3 or 4.

Basic action cards

The first issue that is unique to Dice Masters compared to similar games are the basic action cards.

Which ever of the multiplayer format ideas I have below this bit should be the same for them all.

I’m thinking each player puts out one basic action card. If there are only 3 players a fourth basic action card is selected randomly from a discard pile (if the players have been drafting) or the remaining basic action cards from each player are shuffled together and a random one selected.

Determining First Player

I like using the bgstat app to randomly select the first player. However some might like to be more traditional and let the dice decide with the sidekick roll off.

Whichever way you choose determine a first player for all of these formats below.

Free for all

The Game Night kit uses regular 60 card MtG decks and is a free for all. It’s fun and is the easiest to implement. That’s why the deckbuilder Star Realms also suggests this in their multiplayer rules.

Baring in mind that there might have to be adjustments for turn order for the first turn (see below).

This is a last person standing format.

There are no limitations on who you can attack/target. You can also attack multiple opponents at once! So you could have 2 dice attacking one opponent, and a sidekick attacking the other for instance.

Rivals

This format is based on Vampire the Masquerade Rivals.

Vampire the Masquerade Rivals was designed to be a multiplayer game from the start. It actually has in my opinion a cool mechanic for choosing a rival who you need to defeat to win the game. And it is this mechanic that we will be borrowing.

For this format you will need four tokens numbered 1 to 4.

We will then chose our rival for the game as the Vampire the Masquerade Rivals rules describe below.

“Randomly determine who goes first and give them the ‘1st Player’ token. Each player has a number based on where they are sitting. The player with the ‘1st Player Token” is Player 1. The player to their left is Player 2, etc.

…

In a 3p game, grab Rival tokens 1_3. In a 4p game, use tokens 1_4.

Place the tokens face down in the middle of the table and mix them up. Starting with player 1 and continuing clockwise, each player in turn grabs a token and flips it over. If you grab a token with your player number on it, grab a new one and then throw yours back in face down and mix them up again.

When there are 2 players yet to
grab a token, if either of their numbers have not been
revealed by the earlier players, flip the remaining
tokens over and each player who doesn’t have a
token grabs one that isn’t their own.

This prevents these players from being left with their own token.
Compare your token to the turn order (clockwise from player 1). The player whose number is on your token is your Rival for the game. So if you grab token #2, your Rival is player #2—the player one seat clockwise from player 1.” Vampire the Masquerade Rivals Rulebook page 4

The other rule we will borrow and modify from Vampire the Masquerade Rivals is “IMPORTANT: You cannot attack vampires controlled by a foe who has yet to take their first turn.” This will be changed to:

IMPORTANT: You cannot attack a player who has yet to take their first turn.

To win a game in this multiplayer format you need to defeat your rival, ie knock their health down to zero.

If another player defeats your rival then the player with the most health remaining wins. HOWEVER the player that holds the defeated players token gains 3 health (up to a maximum of 20 health).

Hunter

I’ve borrowed the name and format from Star Realms.

This is also a last person standing format.

In Hunter you can only attack/target the person sitting to your left .

If the player on your left is knocked out, then the next player to your left can now be targeted/attacked.

First player advantage and handicaps

I know in Dice Masters we have the first player rule in place that they roll four sidekicks and one of them gets placed in the Used zone. Which I like as a rule to get round the first player advantage. And games like MtG have similar mechanisms in place.

However in multiplayer games of MtG whether it’s Commander or the Game Night kit the rule of the first player not drawing a card at the start of their first turn does not apply.

In Star Realms they do have handicaps in place for their multiplayer formats.

But do we need handicaps in place for a multiplayer Dice Masters game?

I’m tempted to go with yes, and have the current first player handicap apply to all players except the player going last.

Obviously this needs LOTS of play testing. And I’d be really interested in the thoughts and experiences of others on this subject.

So those are my thoughts on possible multiplayer formats for Dice Masters.

They are formats I will be trying with my gaming groups when we get a chance to get Dice Masters to the table on our weekly lcg/ccg/tcg game night. Which appears to be this evening now!

Let me know if you have tried any of the above, how you got on, what worked and what you would change.

A Dark Draft Format For Dice Masters

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters

In Epic the Card Game Wise Wizard Games (WWG) came up with a draft format for two players called Dark Draft.

The following are the rules for a Dark Draft by WWG.

  • “Shuffle a stack of at least 120 cards. Deal 5 to each player.
  • Each player takes 1 card out of their hand of five cards and drafts it, then passes the other 4 to the other (at the same time).
  • Each player takes 2 cards out of their new hand of four cards and drafts them, then discards the remaining two cards into a shared face-down discard pile.
  • Both players now have drafted three cards. Repeat nine times to get to a 30-card deck, shuffle and play.”

WWG finish by describing this draft format as “…a fun, fast, and skill-testing draft format for two players.”

I like this format because it gives that bit of mystery during the draft of you know what you handed over to your opponent. However you don’t know what they kept and what was discarded. So you have partial information.

My current thinking is take the 48 card cube I’ve created and use that as the stack to shuffle and deal the cards from. I’m also still using just two dice per card as per official draft packs.

I still want to have that team building element.

The way I see this working is starting with the basic action cards being drafted.

I can’t see this phase of the draft being anything other than a single draft round. It’s also the phase I think might need tweaking the most.

So each player gets dealt 5 basic action cards. Select one and pass the rest to the other player. Both players then select two basic action cards and discard the remaining two to a discard pile facedown.

Now onto the meat of the dark draft.

This takes place over 4 rounds and at the end of it each player has 12 cards to build a team of 8 from.

Each round both players get dealt 5 cards. They choose one to keep and pass the rest to the other player.

Each player now has a hand of 4 cards. They choose two to keep and discard the remaining 2 cards face down to a discard pile.

This is repeated another three times. Giving each player 12 cards.

Once the players have built their teams, and chosen the two basic action cards to use, they reveal their teams and then recruit the dice required as per rainbow draft rules.

In summary this Dice Masters Dark Draft requires a minimum of 40 cards to draft from for the teams. Is drafted over 4 rounds. Giving each player 12 cards to build 8 a card team from. It also requires a minimum of 10 basic action cards to draft from. These are drafted over a single round and give each player 3 basic actions to choose a final two from.

I do like the idea of using the pauper cube I built (or any cube) for this. It gives enough cards to use, plus a little variety as the whole cube is not being used.

Obviously this hasn’t been tested yet. But it will be at the first opportunity I get with (most likely) Dave.

If you do get a chance to try this out please let me know how you got on and what you thought. Or even if you haven’t what you think of this idea anyway.

Testing the TMNT teams

dice masters, Dicemasters, game night

As well as testing the Marvel Pauper Cube I also got to test the two Turtles teams I built from the TMNT set I have.

Dave and I played two games with the two teams I had constructed.

Dave as per usual chose the forces of evil ie the Shredder deck. Whilst I used the Turtles deck.

The decks seemed to work fairly well.

However I still don’t like having to use Fugitoid in the Turtles team. But you can’t have two Splinters going by the team building rules. However I think that’s what they want you to do!

But in this game I’m obeying the team building rules. And only had one die on Fugitoid. Whilst Dave had the other two on his copy of the character.

We both won a game each.

I’ll definitely use these teams again.

What teams did you build with the set?

Testing my first pauper cube

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, game night

If you remember I wrote some thoughts on creating a cube for drafting in Dice Masters. Since then I created two cubes.

The first being a mashup of four draft packs I bought. Which will need some tweaking. It was fun to play. But it can be improved.

However I have created a second cube.

The cards for this cube were from the following two sets that I have.

I also just chose common cards from those two sets. Making this a Marvel pauper cube.

From those common cards I tried to make sure that only a small number were factionless, and that there were a variety of factions. So we have Villians, X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four as our factions.

Here are the cards for this Marvel Pauper Cube:

Character Cards

  • Cyclops:Slim
  • Ant-Man:Biophysicist
  • Thing:Ever-Loving Blue-Eyed
  • Nick Fury:Mr. Anger
  • Sentinel:Mutant Hunter
  • Mystique:Unknown
  • Punisher:McRook
  • Pyro:Saint-John Allerdyce
  • Loki:Trickster
  • Hawkeye:Longbow
  • Storm:Weather Witch
  • Mister Sinister:Archvillian
  • Magik:Illyana Rasputina
  • Professor X:Recruiting Young Mutants
  • Doctor Octopus:Megalomaniac
  • Iron Man:Upright
  • Deadpool:Assassin
  • Bishop:Omega Squad
  • Magneto:Former Comrade
  • Phoenix:Ms. Psyche
  • Black Panther:Wakanda Chief
  • Vision:Density Control
  • Black Widow:Natural
  • Colossus:Unstoppable
  • Red Hulk:Thunderbolt Ross
  • She-Hulk:Jennifer Walters
  • Apocalypse:Awakened
  • Scarlet Witch:Wanda Maximoff
  • Namor:The Sub-Mariner
  • Nova:Quasar
  • Green Goblin:Goblin Lord
  • Doctor Doom:Reed Richards’ Rival
  • Doctor Strange:Sorcerer Supreme
  • Toad:Tongue Lashing
  • Rogue:Anna Raven
  • Emma Frost:Archvillain
  • Marvel Girl:Telekinetic
  • Captain America:Special Ops
  • Sabretooth:Something to Prove
  • Spider-Man:Hero for Hire
  • Falcon:Samuel Wilson
  • Mr. Fantastic:Brilliant Scientist
  • Mystique:Ageless
  • Psylocke:Betsy Braddock
  • Professor X:Principal
  • Wolverine:Wildboy
  • Venom:Eddie Brock
  • Gambit:Ace in the Hole

Basic Actions

  • Gearing Up
  • Teleport
  • Ambush
  • Teamwork
  • Smash!
  • Rally!
  • Focus Power
  • Take That, Villian!
  • Selective Shield
  • Transfer Power
  • Invulnerability
  • Distraction

Remember: This is a 48 card cube that should support up to 4 players.

So how did it play?

I thought it worked just as well as using two draft packs.

These are the two teams that we drafted.

Dave’s Team

  • Nova: Quasar
  • Phoenix:Ms. Psyche
  • Pyro:Saint-John Allerdyce
  • Cyclops:Slim
  • Rogue: Anna Raven
  • Magik:Illyana Rasputina
  • Gambit:Ace in the Hole
  • Mr. Fantastic

Basic Actions

  • Gearing Up
  • Smash!

My Team

  • Falcon:Samuel Wilson
  • Nick Fury:Mr. Anger
  • Black Widow:Natural
  • Hawkeye:Longbow
  • Iron Man:Upright
  • Punisher:McRook
  • Spider-Man:Hero for Hire
  • Red Hulk:Thunderbolt Ross

Basic Actions

  • Focus Power
  • Selective Shield

From the draft we built teams that had some synergy and despite Dave dominating me with two wins to my one. They were fun games.

They were also three games where we both bought basic action dice. More so than any other games we’ve played in the past.

I want to see how this goes with four or three players.

I also had an idea to come up with a Dice Masters version of the Epic the Card Game Dark Draft format.

It’s a draft format that works really well for two players. But I’ll write more about it and how it might work in another post. I need to sleep on it and get it right in my head first before sharing.

Laters.

Getting Started in Dice Masters in Autumn 2023

dice masters, Dicemasters

I’ve returned to Dice Masters after a long break from the game. But some of the issues I have/had getting back into the game are the same as those wanting to get into the game for the first time.

So I thought I’d write this post sharing my thoughts and suggestions on getting into Dice Masters for new players.

In an ideal world some-one looking to get into Dice Masters will know some-one already into the game or can find some-one at their FLGS.

I’m assuming that the existing player would then teach the game and then set the new player up with some basics needed to play the game.

The basic new player kit I give to new players!

However we don’t live in an ideal world. If we did there would be no need for this post.

Getting the basics

So before we even start playing a game of Dice Masters a new player needs some basics that are required for every game.

Those are:

  • 8 sidekick dice
  • 2 different coloured basic action reminder cards and matching coloured basic action dice (3 per card). In an ideal world you’d have four.
  • Play mat
  • Dice bag

So how does a new player get these if there is not a generous existing player on hand to gift them these?

The easiest way is to pick up one of the two Secret Wars Origin packs.

Inside an Origin Pack

The only thing that these Origin packs don’t give you is a dice bag. But any dice bag will do for this. If you have to buy one they can be picked up cheap enough off Amazon or from your FLGS. The nice thing is even if you end up not continuing with Dice Masters the dice bag can be used with other games.

Picking up both Origin packs will give you everything (except dice bags) to play a learning game or two with a friend.

Another option is to pick up one of the older Starter sets. These do give you everything for two players to start playing with. Well almost! They do include the dice bag. Ok it’s a waxy paper bag. But it’s good enough for learning with. You can always splash out for a better bag later on. However there are no play mats (except in the rule booklet). But you can print these off using the play mat pdf that Wizkids have on their website. The advantage of the older starter sets is they have enough cards for both players to play with the full 8 card teams.

A third more expensive option is to pick up one of the campaign boxes. These are the more complete experiences for two players.

Turtles Campaign Box Contents

Which Starter or Campaign box should a new player go with? Pick the theme that attracts you the most. Love DC go with one of them. Like Warhammer pick up one of those.

Ok I have the basics and learnt the game, now what?

Once you’ve played some learning games it’s time to start building your collection and building teams.

You could buy older set booster boxes(some of these can be picked up for under £50 a box) or individual packs. Crack them open and start building teams. Or you could go with the draft packs of more recent sets and do the same.

Which of the two options above you go with depends on if you want to play Modern Age (uses just recent sets) or Golden Age (uses all sets) games.

However instead of just cracking open boosters or draft packs, why not with your friends play a draft tournament and get some extra game play out of your purchases? It also has the side benefit of building your team building skills.

Another option is to just buy singles. By this I mean just buying the card and dice that you need to build a particular team with. This is usually the cheaper option when building a team. However my experience of the secondary market in Dice Masters using eBay is not great. It’s not as healthy as say the much more popular MtG.

Obviously all this assumes that you have a friend who wants to learn the game as well. However if you don’t then you are then going to have to find a local Dice Masters community to join. Or failing that look to play online using a webcam. I’ve not looked into which is the best online community yet for doing that. I’m assuming it will involve joining a Dice Masters Discord server or two. It might also be worth joining a Dice Masters Facebook group for whichever geographical area you reside.

I hope this has helped. If you are an experienced player what have I missed?

It’s cold outside

game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

It was that one evening a week when I currently manage to get some gaming in once again.

This week finally (since I bought the game back in 2015) saw Arctic Scavengers hit the table. The edition I have comes with the base game, plus two expansions HQ and Recon.

Setting up a game

I had spent some time Monday configuring my copy of the game as an all in setup. Afterwards on the Fenland Gamers Discord channel for lcg/ccg/tcg games (I know Artic Scavengers is a deckbuilder) I asked Diego to bring his copy of the game so we could quickly and easily play a base game only.

When you look through the rulebooks (there are two in the box, one covers the base game and HQ expansion, the other just the Recon expansion) you are presented with the premise that the expansions are module and told which cards to add to include for the module. They then suggest the market has a particular unit plus 9 others to make up to 10 units to buy from. That gives you the impression that you can choose any other units etc. However if you go all in on the modules. You do not have that freedom of choice. You are basically not using any of the base games units.

But I do really like this kind of a la carte module choice during setup. Plus there are two or three modules that do not actually add cards to the game but change rules.

I also like that scattered through out the modules there are suggested setups for things like the contested resource deck, and suggestions on tweaking things.

A final word about setup of the game. The game comes with an insert that organises the cards and helps speed up the process of setting up. However it also means that cards warp/bend when stored this way as I found out Monday. A better solution would have been labelled card dividers but hindsight is a marvellous thing, especially some 8 years later.

Onto the game

Set in the near future of 2097 in an arctic post-apocalyptic world when humanity is struggling to survive and attract new tribal members from survivors. The theme of the game made me think of post-apocalyptic movies such as The Colony, and Snowpiercer, and even the board game Dead of Winter (without the zombies naturally). But did the theme come through as we played the game?

Diego, Marcin, Dave, and myself played the base game plus the gangs, leaders, and buildings modules thrown in.

The leaders each of us chose are below:

Our leaders

I liked the art it had the right tone for the theme. But did it help get the theme across?

On your turn you can go hunting which allows you to recruit new tribe members. You can go scavenging that allows you to go looking for useful items in the junkyard. Or you can take part in a fight with the other tribes for contested items like bigger groups of tribe members or more powerful items than can be found in the junkyard. But do these mechanics help get the theme across?

Now I’ve asked that question three times about theme without answering it. For me the theme seems paper thin. It’s hard to get the theme across in a deckbuilder. Without being told what the theme was you might guess it’s post-apocalyptic from the art.

The combat phase at the end of each round that took place from the third round onwards felt very Dune Imperium like. But I did like the combat. It gave you an interesting choice to make with your hand of five cards. How many did you save for the combat and how many did you use to do one or two of the other actions? Was that contested resource worth going all in for? Something only you knew when you became the initiator for the round. There is the bluffing element also, where you could save two cards that are useless in combat. But it makes the other players think about how many they commit. Maybe forcing them to do less action wise trying to beat you in combat.

The game itself is 16 rounds. With the contested items deck acting as the game timer. I like clever touches like this.

I liked the asymmetry that the leaders added to the game. We went with the default way of choosing our leader of being dealt two, pick one and discard the other. However in one of the two rulebooks there are a couple of alternate rules for picking them.

At the end of the game after the gangs went to the appropriate tribe, the dust settled and Marcin had amassed the most tribe members.

Final scores

I did enjoy Artic Scavengers. It was a fun experience. Just sad that it has taken so long to get to the table.

Another great evening gaming.

Next week Marvel Champions hits the table.

Failed Orders

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

Not much has been going on the last few days.

A dice tower I had ordered via Amazon turned up but broken. It wasn’t damaged in the post. It had to have been done when created. So wasn’t chuffed with that. But it got worse as the dice tower also wasn’t the clear plastic that I wanted but frosted. Naturally I asked and received a refund.

Continuing the refunds I had a refund for the issue 250 of Retro Gamer I had ordered direct from the publisher. That was a real saga. Allegedly the issue had been posted. But it was never delivered. So they sent a replacement which did turn up. However that was the wrong issue! They then once again allegedly sent another replacement. Which you guessed it never arrived. After a brief email exchange from a now unhelpful support I requested a refund via PayPal. Which I got. I’ve sworn never to buy Retro Gamer again after this awful experience.

I was really keen for issue 250 because of the mini magazine looking back at the legendary 8 bit power house software developer Rare/Ultimate.

Back in the day Ultimate as the majority of the UK knew them were creating amazing games that were pushing what the hardware could do.

Cookie, Jetpac, and Trans Am on the ZX Spectrum were my first encounters with Ultimate’s catalog.

There was definitely a distinctive art style to those games. They had great game play. Jetpac became one of my all time favourite games of all time. A game that I did get up to level 99 on.

Attic Atac was also a great game that influenced my all time favourite video game creator Jeff Minter on his C64 classic Ancipital.

I could go on title by title of their catalog. But it was their game Knight Lore, third title in the Sabre Man series that had everyone go wow! It was isometric. It looked amazing. Reviewers and players were like how is this even possible on a Spectrum? It was ground breaking and was copied by others. I don’t think it is unfair or incorrect to say it was genre defining.

Seeing the Ultimate name on the box was seen as a guarantee of quality back then.

That’s why I wanted this particular issue of Retro Gamer. I wanted to see if there were any new insights into this legendary British powerhouse. And maybe step through memory lane once more. Looking back on the good times I had playing those games.

So that’s my two stories of recent failed orders.

Catch you in the next post.

Bees in Space!

Stonemaier Games

It should hardly come as a surprise that Apiary the latest game published by Stonemaier Games was an instant buy for me.

This worker placement, slash engine builder designed by first time game designer Connie Vogelmann, and art by Kwanchai Moriya looks right up my alley.

For starters I love the two main mechanics. Ok there aren’t many mechanics I don’t like. However worker placement I really do like and it can be combined with others to produce something unique and fun. Take Dune Imperium as an excellent example of combining worker placement with deckbuilding. I think possibly I have one other game in the collection that might be considered as combining the same two mechanics, which would be The Manhattan Project. I love that game, despite it not hitting the table for a long time.

I love the box art by Kwanchai Moriya. For me it has a kind of modern take of 1950’s sci-fi book cover art. Very retro yet modern!

As for component quality I know this will be great before I even get my hands on the game. Stonemaier Games just get this right every time.

The game was announce mid September but only now can it be ordered directly from Stonemaier Games. If you want to support your FLGS it will be available about a month later. It’s why I’m haven’t said anything about Apiary until now.

So in little over a week (or less if I’m super lucky) it should be with me. Then my biggest problem is going to be getting it to the table. But that’s a self inflicted problem.

Trying the cube

dice masters, Dice Masters Cube, Dicemasters, Fenland Gamers, game night, lcg/ccg/tcg game night

Last night was the weekly Fenland Gamers lcg/ccg/tcg club night.

Our game for the evening was Dice Masters.

Earlier in the day I prepared two “welcome to Dice Masters” packs for Diego and Marcin who were playing for the first time.

The welcome packs are basically a set of sidekick dice, a set of basic action dice, set of basic action cards, and a wax dice bag.

I’d done similar for Dave last time we played the game.

The only thing missing are play mats. Need to find a solution.

Welcome to Dice Masters packs for the new players

After a learning game for Marcin and Diego using the Secret Wars Origin packs (I keep these in a deck box precisely for this reason) I have we went on to draft from the make shift cube.

Franklin’s Galactus was in my starting hand of the draft. I had to draft the card even if I wasn’t going to put it in the final team. I just couldn’t run the risk of having to face it across the table.

After building our teams and selecting our basic actions we paired up to play.

It was myself vs Dave, and Marcin vs Diego.

Here are the teams for my match with Dave.

My Drafted Team

  • Franklin’s Galactus: No Mercy
  • Iceman: Mr Ice Guy
  • Psylocke: Telepath
  • Namor: Leading the Cabal
  • Jean Grey: Xavier’s Dream
  • Cyclops: First Class
  • Mr. Fantastic: Brilliant Scientist
  • Angel: Jean Grey’s School

Basic Actions

  • Making the Team
  • Escape!

Dave’s Drafted Team

  • Apocalypse: Wicked Supremacist
  • Forge: More Than Firepower
  • Invisible Woman: Regents of the Uhari Throne
  • Mister Sinister: Bar Sinister
  • Bishop: Time Traveller
  • Namor: Warring with the Surface
  • Beast: Olympic Athleticism
  • Falcon: Take Flight

Basic Actions

  • Power Bolt
  • The Siege Perilous

Whilst Marcin and Diego were battling away I managed to smash Dave convincingly with a combo of Psylocke, Namor, Iceman, and my big threat Franklin’s Galactus.

Unintentionally I had drafted a pretty lethal four cards. Namor punished Dave for blocking, so once out he just sat there. Psylocke was my early buy and didn’t come into her own until I got Franklin’s Galactus out. Up until that point I kept her fielded as a blocker. Once the big guy was out I wanted her to do that get knocked out, and refielded thing so I could give the level 3 10A 10D Franklin’s Galactus overcrush. Which with the Iceman energise was lethal and got me a very emphatic victory.

So after obliterating Dave in game one, we went onto game two because Marcin and Diego were still battling it out.

This time Dave tried to disrupt my plan and take me out before I got a chance to get those lethal four cards working together.

And his plan was working he had me down to four life before I got Franklin’s Galactus out, and pulled off one of the nastiest bits of shenanigans going. Earlier in the game I had bought basic action die for Making the Team. With the thought of getting Namor out quickly.

However this particular bit of shenanigans had me rolling that basic action die, along with enough dice to give me the energy to buy Franklin’s Galactus. The basic action die came up with the side to activate the basic action ability. So I bought the big one. Then did the basic action, rolled Franklin’s Galactus and got its level 2 face.

Dave was impressed and disgusted at the same time.

I survived Dave’s next go, and was rolling a lot of dice once more that included the basic action die.

Not only did I have enough energy to get the second Franklin’s Galactus, which rolled into its level 3 face. I had the energise side of Iceman and fielded a Psylocke. That level 3 was now 20A 10D with overcrush and I swung in with everything.

Good night Dave.

Onto game three.

Dave came a lot closer to defeating me, getting my life down to 2. But a last ditch turn of mine that saw two basic action dice for Making the Team allow me to get both of my Namor dice fielded, another Iceman energise, fielding a Psylocke, and an already fielded Iceman and a couple of sidekicks sitting as 2A 1D swing in to get exactly twelve points of damage that I needed to grab the win after Dave had allocated blockers.

That was a much closer game. Dave’s plan of using Mr Fantastic’s global against me to force my fielded Namor to attack really worked.

Near the end of the third game the epic battle between Marcin and Diego ended. Sadly I didn’t get who the victor was. Hopefully Diego will add a comment with the result.

So a clean sweep for me against Dave.

Diego and Marcin really enjoyed playing Dice Masters. Which was good to hear. Maybe next time we will try the new cube I created using just commons from Uncanny X-men and Avengers vs X-Men. Which I need to do a post about the cards selected.

I thought this cube was fun. It does need some tweaking. But I need one or more draft packs to be able to do that. One or two of the cards are pointless because they have things trigger if there is a Wolverine fielded. So I either need a Wolverine card or replace these with others.

I know I’m sounding like a broken record but this was another really fun evening.

Finally…

Over on my favourite Dice Masters podcast A Double Double ‘n Dice Podcast they have once again read my comments out on the show. This time they also link to the blog and my posts to do with Dice Masters. Which was kind of them to do. I appreciate this blog is very niche at best, and certainly not to everyone’s taste.

So at some point I might see people who know Dice Masters much better than myself calling me out for my errors.

But in the meantime you can listen to the latest show (at time of writing) here on YouTube.

My New Dice Masters Play Mat & Mouse Mats

dice masters, Dicemasters

Whilst a very busy Gavin has not had a chance to hunt for the missing play mat I decided to get a custom play mat.

Here in the UK the best place I’ve found to get one made is Patriot Games.

But first I needed a design to get printed.

I stumbled on the Medusa design (below) on Etzy for about £2.99. I’d give a link but it looks like the seller is currently not selling it or other designs.

I’ve liked Medusa as a character since I first saw her in a UK Fantastic Four reprint in the late seventies.

What sold me on this design apart from the incredible art, was the speech bubble “… and you shall pay in blood!”

I loved the sentiment for knocking out a character die.

On the Patriot Games website I went with their custom play mat service and select a 24” by 14” invisible stitched edge play mat.

Because of the large file size of the pdf with the design in I had to use a file sharing site and send the link to Patriot Games. It should be noted they don’t do iCloud. They do recommend using WeTransfer for this. Which is what I went with.

I was really impressed with the quality of the mat. My photo above really doesn’t do it justice.

With Tuesday evenings being a chance to regularly get Dice Masters to the table I needed an option I can use with others to play with.

I wanted to move away from the paper play mats with something less cramped.

So once again I turned to the custom play mat service of Patriot Games.

The official Wizkids pdf I have is perfect for my needs as it helps teach the game and remind players of the steps.

I had to convert the pdf to a jpg and rotate it so I could upload it to the Patriot Games site.

The design just about fits on a mouse pad. Although it is about 2 or 3 millimetres two wide on either side. But the bit lost isn’t too noticeable.

I got three mouse mats ordered with this design.

I’d liked to have had the life track a bit larger. But the mouse pad size wouldn’t allow it.

These aren’t meant to be a complete play mat, just a larger more robust version of the paper mats.

The quality of the mouse mats are really good. And I’m very happy how these turned out. Shame my photo is so poor.

If Gavin doesn’t find the play mat I will need to get another full size play mat. I’ll let Nathan choose the design for that. After all it’s mainly for him to use. So makes sense to let him choose it. But I’ll definitely use Patriot Games again for this. Which surely is the ultimate recommendation for them.

UPDATED 4/10/23: added better pictures taken last night at our Dice Masters session.