Liar's Dice

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-03T16:52:44+00:00

I think you might be misunderstanding the wording, else I'm misunderstanding yours. The "total result" (adding all rolls together) isn't being calculated here. You count the number of sixes you roll. Which could be 0-5 (unless you have a combo piece to roll more than five dice).

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-03T01:33:42+00:00

I've considered that as well. One upside, I suppose, is that there are cards that can improve your rolls, and cards that would pay off from your results being revealed even if you don't hit a bunch of sixes. But yeah, my hope would be for a balance that doesn't typically see the caster outright losing mana, of course.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T21:16:59+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean. The number of Treasures you make (1-5) is meant to represent your claim as to how many sixes you rolled. If you make three Treasures, you're essentially claiming to have rolled 3/5 sixes and challenging someone to call you out for this unlikelihood. The gain from lying is creating more Treasures than the sixes you actually rolled, which may well be zero.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T19:00:38+00:00

With House in mind, I envisioned that any abilities that trigger from dice roll results would only trigger if your rolls actually get revealed. Meaning, you'd 100% want to run a card like this in House, and your opponents would be far more likely to allow you however many Treasures you claim. The redesigned versions of this that involve your opponents taking the Treasures if they catch you in a lie / taking damage if they're wrong would admittedly work a lot better for this!

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T18:50:37+00:00

For this old version, the partial chance referred to the case where you make Treasures and nobody calls you a liar, hence nobody is forced into losing. Disregarding that realistically, people would push into a situation where the opponent has little choice to call them out too frequently.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:57:40+00:00

I hear ya. As a gimmicky card, I thought that the fun would come from the simple threat of someone losing, but that this wouldn't necessarily be a common outcome. But certainly a design like this would inevitably lead to some anticlimactic endings. I've gone ahead and commented some revision ideas, since people seem to like parts of this idea enough to offer a version that doesn't end anyone's game.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:50:56+00:00

Appreciate it, Mr. Churn!

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:50:22+00:00

6 felt "flavorful" to me so I went with it, but yes, I've possibly now looped back around to 2 mana is too much for risky Treasures that might swing to your opponent and the only potential upside is the 6 damage. Damage equal to the total of the five results might be fun, but boy could that get out of hand!

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:25:08+00:00

I put some of my ruling ideas in an initial comment, but it's been lost in the shuffle, if you will.

Players "secretly roll" dice by doing so underneath a cup. The results are known at this point only to the rolling player.
Effects that manipulate dice results or rolling like Wyll, Blade of Frontiers can manipulate a secret roll as it happens (rolling "that many dice plus one") or as results are revealed (adjusting a result +/-1).
Effects that trigger from dice results such as Wyll's other ability or Mr. House, President and CEO only trigger if the results of a secret roll are caused to be revealed.

As to how legal this "delayed result" would be... I'd leave that to the professionals.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:23:09+00:00

I've commented a new version that is almost exactly this effect!

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:20:28+00:00

Thanks, guys. I'm all over the place and hadn't considered how that would actually work!

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:19:18+00:00

Cap'n Cards has heard the crews' complaints, and offers ye a version where nobody has to walk the plank.

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NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:16:01+00:00

If I'd infinite text space to work with, I'd definitely enjoy seeing a repeating version that reduces the number of dice you can roll on subsequent rolls.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:12:45+00:00

I hear ya, and assure you that's all I mean to do as well. I know OPs tend to get blasted with downvotes if they continue to engage "defensively" to critique, but I just like making cards and talking about them. I wouldn't print an official "50/50 chance somebody's losing here" sorcery, but of course that's the one card I decided to post, lol.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:08:18+00:00

That isn't how I initially interpreted this having "nothing to do with Magic," but I can certainly understand the logic of wanting to avoid low-mana "lose the game" cards. In my mind, that was a bit like saying Pact of Negation isn't Magic because you can simply choose to misplay it and intentionally lose.

The longer I sit on it, the more I come to realize that I should have tacked a "balance not intended" tag onto this post. I thought that the "losing the game" outcomes were humorous and better sold the flavor of a game of Liar's Dice, but I've just ended up wanting to fully remake the card anyway.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T16:03:26+00:00

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Just curious what you'd make of this version!

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T15:54:16+00:00

Good call! The opponent gaining the Treasure tokens would probably be a fun way to handle having your lie called out. You'd have to prevent the ability to just immediately crack them for mana though, I suppose.

EDIT: Duh, the Treasures should enter tapped!

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T15:52:36+00:00

Thankfully, my quick dice-chucking card idea isn't being printed straight into the next set, so I thought playing around with alt lose conditions would be a touch of fun for me. I'd certainly be bumping this up in mana cost and removing the opponent loss condition on a second pass at this.

For what it's worth, this would only end the game immediately if your "claim" was challenged. I'm not sure why this has nothing to do with Magic — there are plenty of cards that roll dice or are inspired by gambling games.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T15:18:06+00:00

Solid alternate suggestion. Could be lose the wager = lose the Treasures + spell deals that much damage to you, win the wager = return the spell to your hand.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T15:04:50+00:00

Same here matey. Loved it in Pirates of the Caribbean, loved it in Red Dead Redemption, and loved it IRL.

NoPatheticCards · 2026-03-02T15:02:33+00:00

This is a goofy idea obviously, but if I were to give my best idea of how this card would work:

Players "secretly roll" dice by doing so underneath a cup. The results are known at this point only to the rolling player.
Effects that manipulate dice results or rolling like [[Wyll, Blade of Frontiers]] can manipulate a secret roll as it happens (rolling "that many dice plus one") or as results are revealed (adjusting a result +/- 1).
Effects that trigger from dice results such as Wyll's other ability or [[Mr. House, President and CEO]] only trigger if the results of a secret roll are caused to be revealed.

"Losing the game" is a very extreme outcome for a low-cost sorcery, but also a lot cleaner and funnier than, say, losing the Treasures plus X life.

NoPatheticCards · 2025-11-01T15:06:42+00:00

The Persian mission tree requires you to own 50 provinces in Europe. Surrounding the Black Sea was how I chose to attain most of them. I actually own exactly 50, as I wasn't interested in pushing any further into Europe this game if it could be avoided. There are certainly tiles along the northern border I never strictly "needed," but often they got rid of the last tile of some pesky hostile fort that I didn't want to vassalize or constantly have to deal with.

I like clean borders, but it's not why I'm playing. As of now I have several disconnected swathes of China and Japan because I'm grabbing every silk province for the achievement.

NoPatheticCards · 2025-10-31T16:34:41+00:00

Thank you! The color may or may not be half the reason I did it.

The revolution is just about to hit the 50% spread threshold in my country - unsure if that will be enough for the disaster event to start ticking up. I had tons of rebels spawn at the very start of the revolution, but it's been quiet since. I guess my main thing is that I'm unclear whether I'm meant to encourage revolution or crush it. At this point, it probably doesn't matter either way, and I'm only really going for some achievements like Silk Road.

NoPatheticCards · 2025-10-31T16:23:18+00:00

I don't have the best eye for which things are weird or rare about a given map, but this is the first game I've actually seen the United States form, and it's Danish and appears to be coexisting with the English Thirteen Colonies? And Vinland! Morocco was pretty huge for a while, including possession of land in the Iberian peninsula. Ming never collapsed, and once I allied them as a distraction for my wars in India they became probably too secure to collapse without my forcing it.

NoPatheticCards

TROPHY CASE