Rubik's Cube

Hopeless_Wanderer's picture
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Has anyone ever used a Rubik's Cube as a randomizer?

Emmett's picture

Nope but let's try. My first thought is the player picks a color on a mixed up cube. The colors might be themes like red = violence. They get three moves to try and get the most of that color onto a side.

For opposed tests, the opposition gets to pick another color and the color with the most squares wins.

Hard mode plan your moves and then close your eyes to make them.

James Mullen's picture

Another possibility would be to have the GM/MC randomise the cube at the start of the session, with each colour corresponding to a type of action or a move, e.g. red for combat, blue for mystic/magic stuff, etc. When you make the move, roll the cube and count how many squares of that colour are face up, modified by your stat (or don't have stats, just results on success, e.g. you do more damage on combat rolls, your spells have greater range & duration, etc.)

On a miss, or when you invoke a special ability which says so, you get to turn the cube once or more, thus gradually mixing the colours around over the course of the game. Heck, with this system, you don't even need to decide your move in advance: you could just roll then pick the most advantageous result for your character at that time, thus taking a little bit of the direct control of your character's actions out of your hands and relying on fate to determine what they do.

DeReel's picture

Ah, the D6 labyrinth... I remember when we met, it was love at first sight - for me anyway...
I like James Mullen's idea, and would like to add an option : characters are localized on a square, the situation is dominated by the of this square (more or less like an hew crawl with 6 biomes) , and their actions make them navigate the cube.

a spoiler and a warning for violence : [spoiler] If you don't like gore, I advise you stop at 3 min.
[/spoiler] This is Cube

nickwedig's picture

If you use a Rubik's cube as a randomizer, then your stats might be how many changes you're allowed to make after rolling. So you roll, hoping for blue results to learn new information. You get a side with 3 blue. But you also have a Curiosity attribute of 2, which lets you make any two turns of the cube that you want, after rolling. So you take the top row and rotate it around to show more blue on top. Depending how the cube is, that might net you up to 5 or 6 more blue. but most likely it adds 1-3 more blue. That sort of thing.

Tod's picture

My concern with using a Rubik's Cube to resolve tasks in terms of color faces is this:
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-solve-a-rubiks-cube-step-by-step/
...it's not random.

There are specific ways to get what you want from the cube, once you have internalized some of these algorithms. This introduces the possibility that some players will be better at "gaming the system" by memorizing some of these turning algorithms, while others will not. It would be rather like some people learning how to roll a d10 in a way that produces higher numbers, while other players lack such knowledge.

To my mind, this limits the use the cube to specific types of situations, or to GM-only use.

Paul T.'s picture

Unless that is the desired effect - in many games, players enjoy developing system mastery, and this could be a form of that. A way to get “good” at the game could be satisfying for some people.

Gorinich's picture

What if each color represents the power of some god or cosmic force, and the rubex cube is rolled to see what force holds the most sway in any given situation. If all sides are of the same color than whatever force it something catastrophic to happen, while if they are all different that nothing happens. The right rituals allow you to change the cube others allow you to roll the cube and cause some magic to happen. This solves the problem of rubix cubes not being truly random because completely solving the cube is dangerous. There would be rules for when the GM could change the cube as well, to show how while mortals can kinda direct cosmic energies, they can't completely control them.