John Carter has a problem with board-game based drinking games. He simply doesn’t understand why so many drinking games only make a player drink when they lose.
“When you play Dungeons and Dragons, you’re trying not to get killed,” Carter told VinePair. “But when you’re playing a drinking game, you’re playing to drink. So either you’re not drinking and you’re staying healthy, or you are drinking and dying.”
So why not reward people with a drink instead? Carter and his partner Mat Nicholson, the men behind the game design company Screech Dragon Studios, announced a Kickstarter campaign on September 6 to fund Loaded Dice, a product that does just that.
Here’s how it works: Instead of using regular dice, players grab a set of Loaded Dice. For every role (to demonstrate an action a character is going to do in Dungeons and Dragons, for example), the player drinks from the delineated glass. To “roll” an 11, that person drinks to the “11” line on the glass.
A pint glass takes the place of a 20-sided dice, and other sized glasses (shot glass, shooter, rocks, etc.) replace other standard dice sizes. It takes a bit of the randomness out of a dice game, but adds a layer of strategy.
“At that point, rolling becomes an endurance game,” Carter said. “I know I have one 20 that I could roll this entire game, because I’m not going to be able to drink to 20 twice.”
Viola, drinking now equals strategy. Or a lack of strategy, depending on the desired outcome — games where drinking is the reward can get a bit dicey.
The glass designs are already made, and Carter and Nicholson now just need a bit of community Kickstarter money — $10,000 to be exact — to get production off the ground. Go ahead and lump Loaded Dice in with all the other nostalgia-generating products and media floating around these days (looking at you Stranger Things D&D scenes), but those ‘80s kids who stayed inside rolling dice all day are adults now. Drinking beer (or mead) is just as much a part of their daily lives as following their Dungeon Master to victory.
With Loaded Dice, players don’t have to separate gaming and drinking, and the only reason to leave the table is for another beer run.
