Breaking Liar's Dice: Positive Feedback loops and their Importance

Like this, but less fun.

Image http://boardgames.about.com/od/dicegames/tp/dice-games.htm

This week in game design class, the name of the game was Liar's dice. The task was to make modifications to the game such that it's positive feedback loop is removed. 

What is a positive feedback loop?

A positive feedback loop is a continuous cycle of challenge and reward which allows a player to progress towards a goal, or win condition. In the case of Liar's dice, the positive feedback loop (or at least one of them) is the successful calling of someone's bluff. When this happens, the player who lied loses a die and is one step closer to losing. 

What did this do to the game?

To be perfectly honest, this made the game completely un-fun. Not only are positive feedback loops necessary to maintain good pacing in a game, but they are essential for rewarding players and providing dynamic game-play. With the modifications made by my group, the games took forever to finish and became uneventful, chores to complete.

Here's a rundown of the rules updated with our changes:

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The game is made for 2 or more players.  Suggested ages 12+

Each player has a cup and 5 dice (the cup can easily be replaced by using your hands). Players will roll the dice in the cups and hide what they rolled from the other players. The first player will make a guess about how many of a die facing there are. i.e. 3 fours or 2 fives. 

The next player will have 3 decisions to make: 

LYING: They can call their bluff by saying they are lying meaning there are less of the number that they guessed then there are between the players. i.e. if they say 4 twos and there are 3 or less between all the players then they are lying. If they are wrong and there are more or equal to the number they guessed they lose a die. i.e. if there are 6 twos.

CORRECT: The player can instead decide that the player is spot on meaning if there are exactly the number they guessed then every other player loses a die. i.e. if they said 4 twos and there are exactly 4 twos between all players they are correct. If there are not exactly as many as they guessed then they lose a die instead.

GUESS: The player can make their own guess if they think the player is correct but not exactly correct. When they make their guess their number of faces must be higher than the previous guess. i.e. if the player before them guessed 3 sixes then they must guess 4 or more of any facing such as 4 fives.

After one of the players choose lying or correct then the players reveal their rolls and determine if the player is right or wrong in their accusation. After that is decided the players roll again and the game continues with the next person starting the round off. After all but one player loses all of their dice then the game ends with the person with dice being the winner.

MODIFICATIONS

1. Players start off with 5 life counters. When a player would normally lose a die they instead lose a life counter.

2. If a player improperly calls a bluff, they lose a life counter

3. If a player correctly calls a bluff he cannot look at his hand for the next turn.

4. Each player is given a penny.  At any time when it is their turn, they can choose to trade in their penny to make the leading player show their dice to the rest of the table.

5. Once per game, you can make a winning player unable to look at their hand on the next turn. (trade in their penny)

My Rule: If a player improperly calls a bluff, they lose a life counter

How this affects the positive feedback loop: This adds a bigger risk to attempting to call someone’s bluff. This puts the risk/reward less in favour of impulsively calling bluffs, and more in favour of playing safe.

Predictions: Players would play more patiently and safely, rather than choosing to call a liar every turn.

Actual Outcome: This rule in combination with rule #3 made players rarely call bluffs unless they were guaranteed. This made games take extremely long.

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The lesson? Positive feedback loops are a good thing (We probably didn't need to ruin liar's dice to figure that out).