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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8662028" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/abuiq7d.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/185715/Arena-A-Tavern-Game-with-Dice-and-Cards" target="_blank">DM’s Guild Page</a>The first product we’re covering is a dice and card game commonly played in taverns across Faerûn that simulates fantasy monsters fighting each other. The game itself is pretty simple, with the bulk of the product containing illustrated printable cards with pictures of monsters using official D&D artwork.This is covered in the product preview above, but the rules are a mixture of luck and tactical deployment of the cards. To paraphrase, each player has a “stack” of coins to bet during play, with an ante pile known as the “stakes.” Cards are drawn with numbers rated from 1 to 3, indicating the monster’s level of power. Each player places a card face down, flipping over all of them once the final player plays their card. Every player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to their card’s rating. The highest result wins, with ties being rerolled. The winning player chooses one other player as the “loser,” who must then ante up a coin into the stakes as well as discard their losing card, and the rest of the players return their own cards to their hands. Further rounds continue until a player runs out of cards, at which point the remaining players add up the value of the cards in their hands. The player with the highest number wins the game, claiming all of the coins in the stakes. Ties are resolved by rolling the dice of the strongest card’s value.So in short, Arena encourages a conservative play-style: one could play 2 and 3 rated cards to maximize the probability of winning a round, although losing them can lower the chances of winning the game at the end. <a href="https://anydice.com/program/29454" target="_blank">As a rating 2 card averages a 7 on a 2d6, it’s a pretty big upgrade from a rating 1 card, with a rating 3 card almost guaranteed to win against a rating 1.</a> Additionally, while a loser’s loss of coin and card is significant, the revealing of the cards they have (which are then returned in the case of non-losers) allows players to count the cards of others.Thoughts: The rules look fine and functional at first glance, and the combination of card-play with dice seems like a good mixture of the tactical use of the former with the randomness of the latter. The use of monster illustrations can be easily repurposed to mix and match whatever monsters the DM wants if they aren’t sufficiently satisfied with the product’s choices. The sample monsters in Arena are a bit obscure, leaning more towards options such as Ibixian (goatfolk), Death Giant, Naga, and the like rather than more “common” monsters you’d expect the average fantasy townsfolk to know of or recognize.</blockquote>

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