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Larry Buckel
United States
Whittier
California
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A few weeks ago I posted the idea of using dice with POE as an alternate way to play instead of using resource cards. After playing Stone Age with my wife this weekend (her first time trying it) I finally pulled POE out and had a go at creating a dice variant.
After a couple of test runs I have a variant that works pretty well.
Pillars of the Stone Age!
This variant was inspired by Stone Age (rolling dice for resources) and Yspahan (gold bonus kicker die). All you need are 7-9 dice which are standard with either Stone Age or Yspahan. It is recommended you should have played Stone Age at least once to have a feel for how this will work.
The game sets up as normaly except that the Gravel/Forrest/Stone resource cards are not used. Each player only uses the 7 smaller wood meeple workers in each color. The large value 5 worker is NOT used.
In Phase 1 of the game, players choose craftsmen cards as normal.
Then players place their 7 workers on the 3 resource areas and Wool Mill. Each worker counts as one die to be rolled later in Phase III when actions 1-14 are resolved. They can choose how many workers to add to each area until they are out of workers. Placements can take place simultaneously by all workers since resources are unlimited.
Values are as such:
The Wool Mill earns one gold for every 2 rolled (if a 1 is rolled you get no gold so placing 2 workers here will guarantee at least 1 gold is earned).
Gravel= 3
Wood = 4
Stone = 5
Using the Tax die as ‘tool’ kicker:
Before rolling dice in Phase III, players may opt to pay 1 gold to add the numeric Tax Die which will add a bonus value of 2-5 to the total of a single rolled group. This bonus die can only be used at the Forest, Gravel and Stone resource areas. You can’t use the Tax Die at the Wool Mill. Also, players cannot use the Tax Die by itself. It can only be used along side of a placed die or group of dice. Players can decide before rolling weather to pay to use bonus die or not. Players can use the Tax die for each of the 3 resource areas as long as they have gold to pay (up to 3 gold max during a players turn. If you don’t have gold, you can’t buy the Tax Die.
Players roll dice in turn order beginning with starting player who rolls for all the areas before passing dice to the next player. They collect what they have earned exactly as in Stone Age. Extra pips left over don't count for anything.
Example: A player has placed 3 workers in the Quarry and now rolls 3 dice. The total rolled is 12 so they can take 2 stone cubes.
After rolling for resources, the game continues as normal per the standard POE rules.
If a player collects 2 bonus workers from Shiring Castle, they may roll 2 additional dice during the next round. In this way it is possible to roll up to 9 resource dice not including the Tax Die.
For a tougher game, don’t allow the Tax Die to be used during resource collection. For moderate difficulty, allow the Tax die to be used only once by each player during the round.
My wife and I tried this with a couple of 2 player games and I think it balanced out pretty well. I got better than average cubes and she felt she got less than normal. You are rolling dice so it will vary, but the choices you make and the number of dice you place in each area should help you get what you need.
I have not tried this with a larger group but I think it works pretty well so far with 2 player games. I'm curious as to what others will experience with this variant. Let the forum know what you think. For us, it was nice to pull this game out again and try it with a twist. We have been playing Caylus lately and Troyes is a little too long for my wife's taste so this is a nice compromise. Like a lot of folks, she loves the books and likes the character cards that flavor this game.
In a week or so I will post a text doc in the Files section so people have a printable edition with further details.
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Robin Goodall
United Kingdom
Cambridge
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Interesting idea but being able to always get the resources you need may be a problem. This was part of the tension in larger games as you prayed that no one took that last stone resource card before it came round to you. It also, reduces the importance of the start player.
Additional suggestions:
1) limit the number of workers at the material resources to 7 and take it in turns to place (starting with start player). So someone can claim all of a resource but they've used all their workers to do it. You can also put some in then top up later when it comes back to you.
2) when it comes to collect each resource then auction the tax die (prior to its roll). Once round the table, starting with start player, must beat the previous bet or pass, can bet nothing but don't get the die. Also, may bid for it even without workers as a last ditched (possibly expensive) way to get the resources you were unable to get due to being restricted by (1) above.
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Larry Buckel
United States
Whittier
California
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I forgot all about the 7 meeple limit in Stone Age. Nice call Robin! Yes that sounds like a good idea. In 3+ player games do you think the Wool Mill should remain limitless or also have a 7 player limit? Your auction idea sounds interesting. My main concern is not to add any more time to the game but it sounds interesting. I have also thought about limiting the craftsman cards to just the ones on the game board to keep competition tight. I want to get some more games in to fine tune it. I appreciate the comments. Let me know how your play testing goes.
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