Weekly Dice Arena #91 Wrap-Up: Collaboration Time!

Wait… Why are you doing a wrap up of the Weekly Dice Arena?  Are things so dire with the apocalypse?  Well… no.  This particular WDA was a bit of a collaboration.  If you are not aware, The Weekly Dice Arena runs an online stream every Tuesday.  They run a wide variety of Dice Masters Formats.  While searching for this week’s Format, I volunteered a TOTM that I have been sitting on since February 2019.  We were going to call it “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, but it goes by Chaos Format, just plain Chaos…  The title doesn’t really matter.  Just realize this is a crazy format.

I decided to dust off the old TOTM article and give you some insight into how this Format works.  I’ll obviously be cutting out the parts that didn’t make it into the WDA (yes… this was originally intended to be even more chaotic than it was).

This was a format run at a local store, and I unfortunately missed out on the original run.  One of our local players (thank you Jason) decided to resurrect this format and he ran it live a while ago.  You can read about my experiences with that here.  It was incredibly fun to play live, so I wanted to try and translate it the best that I could to the online world.  So, with that in mind, let me present to you…

What does this mean?

Here’s to short version:  Starting after 5 minutes, a new “meta” rule will be in effect for all players.  Every 5 minutes after that, a new rule will take its place.  A D20 will be rolled (the gods roll) to determine what rule the gods have determined will be active.

These rules will change the game for everyone during that time period.  Some are good.  Some are terrible.  Unless otherwise stated, these rules will reset when a new one becomes active.  The currently active meta rule will remain active at the start of the next game.  I had to make some modifications for Jason’s original list to make them a little more internet friendly. 

** Note that the WDA activated things a little differently, but this was the original intention. **

The god rolls…

The following are the current pool of possible meta rules that the gods may choose from:

1. #GDM:  At the start of your turn, roll all of your active characters.  Add any that land on energy to your Reserve Pool.  Return any that land on character faces to the Field Zone on their current face.  This does not trigger and character or action abilities.  Continue your turn as normal.
2. ACTION/REACTION:  Take the Basic Action Cards off of their colour identifier cards.  Mix them up and put them back in a clockwise rotation, starting with your opponent’s leftmost BAC slot.  All purchased BAC dice now match the new indicator colour.  This effect does not reset when the gods roll.  This effect DOES reset at the start of a new game.
3. BOGO:  Buy one get one free on all dice.  Free die must be equal or lower value to the purchased die.  No rainchecks or substitutions.
4. PRICE GOUGING:  You must have 2 matching energy to purchase dice.  Even if this would increase the purchase cost of the character/action die.
5. TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN:  All dice in the Field Zone have their printed attack and defense values swapped. 
6. UNCHECKED AGGRESSION:  All characters must attack each turn, if able.  Characters that do not attack receive damage equal to their level.
7. NO COVER CHARGE:  All characters field for free.
8. MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK:  During your Clear and Draw Step, you may place one of the dice drawn on any face, instead of rolling it.
9. AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED:  All characters lose their Affiliations.
10. KNOCKED INTO NEXT WEEK:  Characters that are KO’ed go to the Used Pile.  No game abilities can prevent this.
11. ABRA KADABRA:  All characters in the Field Zone are now 1A/1D Troll Dice with no character abilities.  Characters fielded after this takes effect retain their original abilities.  You will need to keep track of this on your own (maybe group the Trolls in one place on your mat).
12. RITUAL SACRIFICE:  All character cards gain Fabricate 2-X, where X is 2 less than their printed purchase cost (minimum 4).
13. THAT’S ENOUGH OUT OF YOU!:  Unblocked attacking characters are removed from the game after dealing their damage.
14. GROUNDHOG DAY:  Move all dice in play (Used Pile, Prep Area, Field Zone, and Reserve Pool) to your bag.  Reroll to see who goes first.  Life totals remain where they currently are.
15. THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE:  Blocking characters that are not KO’ed deal their remaining defense in damage to your opponent.  No more than two blockers may be assigned to any one attacker.
16. STOP HITTING YOURSELF:  All non-combat damage that would be dealt to your opponent is instead dealt to you.
17. BIZARRO WORLD:  You may pay the purchase cost of your opponent’s active dice to return them to their cards.
18. I’M RUBBER (AND YOU’RE GLUE):  You may redirect any effect that targets you or your characters to your opponent.
19. REDUCED TO CLEAR:  All dice have their purchase cost reduced to 1.
20. CHAOS THEORY:  Both players empty their bags and set those dice aside.  All dice currently in the Field Zone are considered out of play.  Place all non purchased character and non-BAC dice into your bag.  Shuffle the 8 cards on your team and place them on your mat face down.  Draw dice and place them on the face down cards, one at a time (starting in the upper left corner), in a clockwise rotation until your bag is empty.   Flip the cards over to reveal them.  All dice retain the abilities of their respective cards, but may only be purchased by paying the cost of the card they now reside on.  Return dice set aside to your bag and all dice in the Field are considered active again.  This effect does not reset when the gods roll.  This effect DOES reset at the start of a new game.

A little something extra…

We never got to this, but if people wanted to give the Format another go it can get a lot more interesting.  😉

Each meta rule/gift of the gods will only occur once until each one has been exhausted.  If a number comes up a second time, before all numbers have been exhausted, the next highest available number will activate.  (I forgot about this rule during the WDA… it would have saved some time).

The WDA went with a “new” modern build.

With regards to intentional slow play to “reset the clock”, or wait it out for the next gods roll… please don’t.  Don’t be afraid to institute the CR Gameroom “Don’t slow play me brah” if needed.  The whole point of this is to be a little on the chaotic side of things.

Things you will need for these games, as there are certain effects that may refer to these:

1. Colour indicator cards (4 different ones, ideally matching your opponent, but it is not critical).
2. A full complement of Basic Action Cards, or at least a way to track any changes throughout the games.  Your actions may change during the game.

If you did not get a chance to see the stream live, Ross normally uploads it to YouTube.  I will update the article with the video link once it is available.  In the meantime, check out the video on Twitch here.

This was a blast to watch.  Seeing a rule change at the most inopportune time for a player was both joyous and heartbreaking.  It is hard to prepare yourself for this type of  Format as the rules are ever changing.  Unless you have a Team that is fast enough to win quickly, you will get hit with one of these chaotic rules.

As an observer, it is not the easiest Format to run online.  I definitely see ways that this can be improved for a future run.  Overall it was fun to watch though.  Thanks to Ross for letting us participate in this week’s WDA.

Did you participate in the WDA last night?  What did you think of the Format?  What improvements do you see that could make this type of an event better for the online environment?  How do you feel about cucumbers?  Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

– jourdo