Board Game Cleanup 4: Dice Masters

Much to my chagrin, it is becoming more prevalent to find a touch of sexuality in games that target children and families. As I've discussed in previous posts, some games feature only a few cards or game elements that portray women in a sexual way, while other games display such images pervasively. This reality almost always steers me away from certain games because main character females are depicted in an objectifying way that can fill any boy or man's head with inappropriate thoughts. Sadly, one of my favorite games is not exempt from this: Dice Masters. Created by Eric Lang and Mike Elliott and derived from Lang's Quarriors system, Dice Masters employs dice as characters, sidekicks, energy generators, and as determiners of whether basic actions are executed or not. In short, you choose a "team" of eight characters and/or artifacts and you duel with another player. Each character die has a character card associated with it; for example, if you want to have Captain America on your team, you choose a Captain America card (which can come in a common, uncommon, or rare version, each one with differing abilities) and allocate up to four custom Captain America dice to that card. Then, whenever you purchase a Captain America die and then draw it from a bag, that die has the in-game ability its card bestows upon it. Each die has three Levels for each character, with Level 3 being the strongest version of the character. Each die can also generate energy for purchasing and/or deploying characters.

To me, Dice Masters has many wonderful qualities: it's a customizable experience in which you choose your characters and basic actions; you get to roll dice, which is usually (but not always) fun; you can play with popular Marvel or DC characters, such as Batman, Superman, Captain America, and Iron Man; it's portable; and, (a quality that is appealing to me because I'm a bit fastidious with protecting my game items) people can bring their own collections and play against other people. There is so much to like about this game, and yet the one thing that bothers me is some of the imagery, specifically the comic book depictions of female superheroes. Let me provide some examples.

Example 1: Spider-Woman

Out of the Amazing Spider-Man Dice Masters set, Spider-Woman is one of the borderline depictions, in my opinion, but I do have an issue with the form-fitting costume in the chest area. Some people may disagree, but I think the shape alone suggests body paint and not a costume, which is not so far from nudity.


Example 2: Black Widow

Another card out of the Amazing Spider-Man set, Black Widow is a decent, low-cost character that bares just a bit too much mid-cleavage. Realistically, I would expect a superhero's suit to be armor-like and protective, but that's not the case in comics, apparently.

Example 3: Magik

From the X-Men Dice Masters set, Magik is a fine character statistically speaking, but there is a lot of bare breast in this art.







Example 4: Catwoman

From the DC Justice League Dice Masters set, Catwoman's rare card offers an intriguingly random ability, but she is also one of those characters with barely acceptable art (no pun intended). Her body shape is voluptuously depicted here, but at least her chest is somewhat obscured with the darkness of her costume. I was on the fence about this one.

As I have stated in past posts, many people may find my concerns unfounded, but I understand the struggles of the male mind, and the art in these cards do nothing to help a young boy or man NOT to objectify women or avoid those feelings that one should have for one's wife only. I believe that God has put it upon my heart to keep my family's gaming on the purer side, sexually speaking, and to protect my young boys from the rampant sexuality in today's society, even in games.

With that in mind, how do I handle questionable art in Dice Masters? Simply put, I sell the cards and dice, or I exclude the cards from my and my sons' collections because there are so many heroes to collect and use, even female ones. I've found more appropriate Black Widow and Catwoman art in other sets, and there are female superheroes that are portrayed non-sexually, such as Marvel Girl, Rogue, and even Psylocke (the art thankfully depicts her from the neck up). I'm certainly not for banning all female characters, but I do recommend being judicious with the art in the game, even if the female hero has a powerful in-game ability. This doesn't mean that there aren't characters about which I am indecisive. One example is Wonder Woman; traditionally, her costume bares a lot of leg, but she is rarely portrayed (in Dice Masters, anyway) in a way that suggests she's selling more than being a hero. I suppose there are nuances that I detect in the game that drive my conviction, such as character poses and intent.

In any case, these are my opinions based on my personal conviction as a follower of Christ. If you are an atheist or follower of another religion, your opinion may vary. However, I don't believe it can be denied that women are depicted in overly sexual ways in media today. Whatever your belief system, I recommend that every parent examine the art in a game and determine if it suits his or her family. Even male art can be inappropriately sexual or frightening or grotesque. By taking control of the art in your home, you can guide your children through the tricky waters of today's sexually liberal society and, at the same time, train them to think for themselves to better identify mental dangers... and avoid them.

Rules Discussion: Dice Manipulation

As much as anyone, I love chucking dice and seeing what happens. The thrill, the anticipation, the excitement of a good result, and the disappointment of a terrible result: dice can engender all of these feelings, sometimes sequentially, but sometimes simultaneously. Yet, I didn't used to feel this way about dice. From my childhood, I have traumatic memories of losing battles to a vastly inferior defending force in Risk, and of never landing on the three or four properties I needed to complete sets in Monopoly. Unfavorable dice rolls even dogged me when I played RPGs, as if rolling poorly was a ravenous bloodhound intent on devouring any sense of fun I could derive from gaming. Dice rolls in games conspired to filch the joy out of my gaming sessions, but I have come to discover a mechanic that is more like a game design paradigm: dice manipulation.

Dice manipulation is actually a time-honored idea, and I'm not referring to loaded dice with weighting to favor certain sides. No, I'm talking about in-game elements that allow players to change dice roll results to favor them. One way this is done is allotted roll attempts, which Yahtzee, in all its underrated glory, manifests beautifully; in that game, you can choose to reroll as many dice as you want to try to achieve a desired result. King of Tokyo, a modern classic, appropriates this approach, and is a wonderful filler game because of it. Another way to manipulate dice rolls is through bonuses or items earned in the course of play; Alien Frontiers, for example, not only employs dice as "ships," but it provides Alien Tech cards that let players change their rolls when they choose to activate or discard those cards. Castles of Burgundy provides workers that afford players opportunities to change rolls, as well. Kingsburg has a similar mechanic in which earned +1 chits can be applied to rolls. A third way dice are manipulated is team resetting, which is endemic to the Escape series of games; in those games, when all of your masks are locked into their black sides, teammates can help you out by granting you their gold "masks" or "faces."

Yet another method by which dice are manipulated does not really involve changing dice rolls as much as changing the role dice play in a game (pun intended). A brilliant exemplar of this is the Dice Masters system created by Eric Lang and WizKids. In Dice Masters, each die is either a Sidekick, a character, or a basic action die. All dice can provide energy of some kind to purchase character or basic action dice or to deploy characters, but the nice twist is that character dice, when rolled on one of three possible sides, are actually played as "characters" on the field. For example, a Captain America die has a Level 1 side, a Level 2 side, and a Level 3 side; Level 3 sides are the strongest offensively and defensively, but considering all three character sides of a six-sided die, you have a 50% chance of deploying a character, a 16.7% chance of generating two energy points, and a 33.3% chance of even generating one energy of a particular type. In addition, Sidekick dice have five energy-generating sides, but also a sixth side that serves as a "sidekick" with an Attack strength of 1 and a Defense strength of 1. In other words, the dice are THE playing pieces, as well as the determiners of the amounts of energy generated, but Dice Masters also involves re-rolls, "spinning" dice up or down levels (i.e. changing the faces of dice to match a certain Level), drawing more dice, putting more dice in the draw bag, and even removing dice from play. If anything, Dice Masters encompasses many dice manipulation principles.

I'm sure that there are more ways in which dice are manipulated or employed, such as in Panamax in which dice determine what kind of cargo is being carried and are placed on the ships themselves. I do invite comments about other examples of dice manipulation. What are your favorite ways by which dice rolls can be altered in a game? Have you encountered any unique mechanics that use dice?

Rules Discussion: Catch-up Mechanisms

Catch-up mechanisms are a somewhat polarizing concept in gaming, for it involves enabling players in last place or close to last place to catch up to the leaders. The prime example of this is in Power Grid, in which the last place player (who does bid for power plants last) purchases resources first and connects to cities first, as well. This affords those back-dwellers opportunities to "catch up" with better deals on resources, which lets them conserve money to add to their networks. It's a mechanic that defines Power Grid and (as I heard in a Long View podcast) German politics and utilities in that the lagging company is helped, while the leaders are distrusted enough to be penalized. American business is the opposite, which leads to massive oligopolies and disappearing mom-and-pop shops.

Based on my somewhat limited knowledge of board games, I can only say that there are other games that have some kind of catch-up mechanisms, though I'm not familiar with them. A possible example is Star Realms because certain cards let players draw another card, either by simply playing those cards or depending on the presence of allies. If a player plays enough "Draw one card" cards in quick succession, damage can accumulate rapidly, leading to a 30-point attack on an opponent who may have been way ahead in Authority points. However, this is not a catch-up mechanism as much as it is an example of a game that has single cards or actions that can turn the tide of a game for a player. When I talk about catch-up mechanisms, I'm talking about a general rule or mechanic that is inherent to each turn of game play, not singular events that can change the game. I suppose I could refer to those events as "game changers," but that would be employing a terribly hackneyed expression in its proper context; that just bothers me...

Anyway, catch-up mechanisms are controversial for a few reasons. One is because they can serve to hand victory to the lagging player; for some, this is a nice leveling element that offers the newbie a chance to win a game; for others, catch-up mechanisms can cheapen a game, denying a front-runner the victory mostly because he or she was in first place most of the game. Another reason is a causal effect of the first reason: because experienced players may be well aware of the presence of a catch-up mechanism, they may hang back on purpose to yield the benefits of the lower position, and then surge ahead at the end. Much like running, cycling, or auto racing, you can "draft" off your opponent as he or she faces the full brunt of wind resistance, all the while conserving energy until the final straightaway. A third reason why catch-up mechanisms are controversial is a broad one: they feel oddly un-democratic, as if the "nail that sticks up gets hammered down," as they liked to say in Japan (I speak from six years of experience living there). Who wants to feel like they are fettered by a mechanic just so that the trailing players have more opportunities to win? You're almost better off stinking for most of the game...

Personally, I haven't played enough of Power Grid to truly understand the impact of its catch-up mechanic, but I understand it enough to see its value, which is mainly that it levels the playing field for new players to keep up with experienced ones. The funny thing, though, is that experienced players would know well enough to NOT run in front until the end, which is very much like running, cycling, or auto racing. The sweetest victory would come when a front-runner can stay in front despite the catch-up mechanism, but the more plausible road to victory involves staying with the peloton (the cycling group behind the leader) until you see the finish. In this way, veterans can negate the catch-up mechanism, and instead use it as the means to surge in front, which would mean that the catch-up mechanism isn't really for catching up at all... It's just a way to "draft" behind the leader. I guess catch-up mechanisms aren't so bad, after all.