Really psyched about this one.
https://www.marksteeregames.com/Diablo_rules.pdf
Diablo is a dice game with the potential for strategy and tactics. Not just luck. It's related to Backgammon but played on a two dimensional board.
Diablo vs Backgammon: Diablo is notable for what it doesn't have. It doesn't have the godawful boring dice race at the end. Diablo's endgame winds down much quicker. Diablo also doesn't have the doubled doubles gimmick that was, I strongly suspect, designed to inject "excitement" into Backgammon's dreadful endgame. I don't like that kind of excitement. I'm ok with luck. I'm ok with novices beating intermediate players now and again - but not as frequently as happens in Backgammon. I'm playing to win the game I'm playing now. Not trying win 60 out of 100 games. **** that.
There's plenty of excitement in Diablo, but not the derailed roller coaster "excitement" of Backgammon.
All that being said, Backgammon's underlying mechanism of cycling checkers but still managing to be finite is brilliant. Magnificent. Its quality of play? I've played Backgammon more than any other game, by far. But for me it's love-hate. By this time, mostly hate.
Diablo Strategy. In my test games against myself, there was a tendency to grow one tall stack and keep it at least equal to, if not taller than, the tallest enemy stack. But having too many of your checkers consolidated in one tall stack isn't necessarily advisable. Your tall stack won't be captured but eventually you'll have a hard time getting dice rolls to match the limited moves you have available with your few other stacks. Then, without getting lucky rolls, you'll have to remove some of your own checkers.
Like in Backgammon, there are distinct strategies in Diablo. In Diablo you have to consider the ranges between the stacks and how moves might match dice rolls. For example, you wouldn't want a 6-stack on the same row or column as, and within range of, an enemy 7-stack. At least require a two part move along a diagonal to kill your stack. That is, require a doubles to kill your stack, if you can't get it out of range.
Countering the tall stack strategy is a blitz strategy. Kill as many enemy checkers while you can, as fast as you can. I don't think any one dominant strategy will emerge. Seems like more of a balance. I'm not a particularly talented player of games. I didn't get too far advancing the strategy while play testing it alone. But I think I do see the potential for meaningful strategy in Diablo.
By the way, there aren't a lot of dice rolls available from the 3-sided dice of the 6x6 default board. There's only 1-1, 2-3, 3-3, and 1-2, 1-3, 2-3. Nine rolls (counting the non-doubles twice). A quarter that of cube dice.
The endgame is lucky just like in backgammon. Maybe there's no getting away from that in a dice abstract. You might get lucky, score some direct hits, and stay in the game. Or you might not and have to remove some checkers.
Comparing the two games. The ending, lucky phase in Diablo is not nearly as strung out as Backgammon's. Also, being played in two dimensions, Diablo's end phase is a little more "colorful" than racing along a track.
Diablo design interest. None of the rule components are ground breaking. You have dice driven checker moves, like in Backgammon and perhaps hundreds of other games. You can merge your stacks with friendly stacks or kill equal or smaller enemy stacks. Nothing new there. If you don't have any moves, you have to remove some of your own checkers - a very effective anti-stalemate tool, borrowed from Impasse. Of course there's a synergy among Diablo's rules, but overall not my most clever design ever. Herd was a fairly clever design, if I may say so, but the gameplay is, to a high degree, luck. Diablo should be at the opposite end of the luck vs strategy scale.
By the way, "Diablo" is a conjunction of "Dice Abstract". The bull on the game box was a yak standing on the side of a dirt road in northern Mongolia. As I walked past, he lowered his head and brought it up fast as if to say, "Keep walking." Didn't have to tell me twice. Yaks are not always friendly here.
Oh and remember...
"Think outside the shrinkwrap."
