No, not super-hero powers, but exponents. ThinkFun is always one of my favorite booths at the NYC Toy Fair. Mostly because the people in the booth are the very people who put their heart and soul into making a cool game company. ThinkFun CEO, Bill Ritchie and his wife, Andrea, always take the time to chat about their games, what’s new for the year, and where they think the future is.
This year the coolest addition to their lineup was an updated Math Dice. Like last year’s game, this one starts out with two D12s, but instead of multiplying the D12s, we take the blue die to the power of the red die. To keep the numbers in reasonable ranges neither d12 has a 1, and the red one is only 2′s and 3′s. Playing for 12^4 might get difficult.
Once the target is determined, someone rolls 3d6 and everyone works out equations in their head, calling out their closest answer as they go. The person with the closest answer then reveals the equation. First one to four points wins.
To keep the game interesting and the numbers in a reasonable range the exponent die is only 2′s and 3′s. The d6 are also modified to make 1′s rare. Trying to get anywhere near 12^3 with 1, 1, and 1 would be impossible. I’m also glad that 12^4 isn’t possible because I’d be lost without a calculator.
It wouldn’t be difficult to work up some rounding rules for unmodified gaming dice, but at under $8 on amazon, the Math Dice Powers are a pretty good deal.
One of my favorite booths at Toy Fair this year was Thinkfun. They make a wide array of puzzle games with multiple games for each age group. I spent nearly half an hour talking to the founders of the company and was genuinely impressed. They are actually passionate about the games they design and spend a lot of time play testing them to ensure their success.
In the end they gave me three games to test out, two of which we played for a while in the hotel bar after dinner one night. The one that surprised me most is Math Dice. The premise is simple and I thought it might be too difficult, but as a casual game it really works. We started out slightly competitive, but soon found that aÂ collaborativeÂ effort was both easier and more fun.
The rules are simple, and most geeks should have the required dice on hand. To start, roll 2d12 and multiply the values, giving you a number between 1 and 144. Next roll 3d6 and try to find an equation using those numbers that comes as close as possible to the target number. For example if you roll a 9 and 4 your target number is 36. If the 3d6 roll as 3, 4 and 2, then a possible equation could be 3 * 4 * 2 for 24. You can also use powers and roots, so the best answer would be 3^2 * 4 = 36.
If the round proved too difficult, or impossible, then we’d just re-roll and keep going. No score was kept and no egos were bruised.
For more in depth rules, including tournament play, check out the Math Dice site. In addition to information about the game they even have a series of Flash games that you can play online.
If you don’t have any d12s, you can buy the Math Dice game, complete with a rules pamphlet at Amazon for about $6.