"I will take this one, my dear madam!"
It feels like dice drafting or the shared dice pool has become a go to mechanic for many Euro-style board games in the last few years, and mostly in 2015. Yes, we've seen it before, but not like that. "Older" games like Seasons, use dice drafting as a side mechanism to compliment the main card drafting mechanism and add a bit of a random factor. In Age of Conan dice are used for action selection, but it's not a Euro in any way. Other games that use this mechanic, are rather on the light side of Euros.
So how has it become such an integrated mechanic for some of the top rated medium to even heavier Euros?
In my eyes, one of the things that are important in a board game is a balance between what I know and what I don't know. Dice drafting mechanic features a nice combination between randomness and control. While the dice results are 100% random, the fact that I get my pick is on the other hand 100% controllable. I am not sure that I will be able to carry out what I want exactly as I want it, but for a given ("lucky or unlucky") roll for the shared dice pool I can grind my Euro-brain-gears and optimize my moves.
It takes the fear of randomness some Euro gamers have and takes to the more familiar edge of certainty and "we are all in this together" kind of feel. It allows for great depth of thinking while narrowing the thinking to "what action I need right now" and "what options will I have left for me once it's my turn again".
In no particular order, here's an analysis of the dice drafting mechanic in some games and how well it works on the basis of 6 sided dice only:
It's not a dice drafting game, but one crucial phase of every turn is 100% pure dice drafting in its simplest form. 2X+1 dice are rolled, where X is the number of players. Players take turns choosing one die each time and gainning the reward associated with the number on the die. The left over die gives its reward to all players.
The benefits of this twist on dice drafting:
It's simple and straight forward.
First player chooses first, but last player has the power of setting which reward every player gets and which one he takes only to himself (unless the last two dice are of the same number...).
The whole game here is driven by dice drafting. Dice are rolled every round and associated by color to different actions. While the color of the die sets the action(s) you can carry out, the value of the die will tell you how high is the discount you get for carrying that action out. Here, unlike all the other examples, the rules of the game allow you to carry out any action you wish given you have enough money on hand, but at what cost? Taking higher valued dice may also prevent you from getting the end of round bonus.
The benefits of this twist on dice drafting:
All actions are there, the choice is yours.
Higher values are both good and bad at the same time, which is always good for mitigation.
In this game you draft pairs of dice, giving you the ability of activating action spaces that show the number that is the sum of pips on the pair. Some of the dice are black and have a penalty involved in drafting them, although sometimes you want to take them. "I really want to create a '2' but is it worth taking a black die for?" Drafting pairs of dice gives an uneven distribution of values you can create. Of course an action that shows 7 will be potentially activated more than one that shows 12. It is also easier to prevent a player from playing an action that is on the edge of the distribution.
The benefits of this twist on dice drafting:
An uneven distribution of actions that allows you some statistical control over what actions will be played more than others.
A different color of dice that carry an additional cost.
Much like La Granja, every number of pips on a die is associated with an action, but the more dice are rolled with the same number of pips will determine the 'power' of that action. More accurately, how many times you can carry out that action (also you may pay for adding a virtual die). In addition, the number 6 is a joker, which allows you to take any action of 1-5, but with an added cost. This allows for luck mitigation, so even if the number you want wasn't rolled you may pay to take that action anyhow.
The benefits of this twist on dice drafting:
Not only the value of the die matters, but also how may dice of that number were rolled.
Very smooth luck mitigation.
All in all, I love this mechanic because it's so flexible and as I stated in the opening, it takes randomness and mitigates it by putting everyone in the same boat.
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Pini
In the picture - La Granja's dice drafting phase.