Off the Grid: Hacking LCR

Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor.

Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of LCR. My exposure to the game came from my brother, who was presented with a copy -- along with everyone else in the studio audience -- as part of Rachel Ray's Thanksgiving special a few weeks back. It was one of four token gifts handed out to audience members before the über-surprise -- brand new cellphones for everyone! -- was announced. Having no need for what he quickly dismissed as "Dreidel with dice," my brother passed the game along to me.

LCR comes packaged in a clear plastic tube, containing two-dozen red plastic chips, three special LCR dice, and a small one-sided sheet of paper with the rules. The packaging describes it as "the new game that everyone's getting hooked on." It looked modest enough, but its purported popularity certainly piqued my interest.

Am I endorsing LCR? It's certainly not on par with classics like Settlers of Catan, or even cultural mainstays like Life or Monopoly. But no game is without potential. By itself, LCR may be dull, but the smallest twist, tweak, or hack can breathe life into even the stalest gameplay experience.

The rules for LCR are basic enough, calling for a minimum of three players to be seated in a circle. Each player is given three chips to start. During his/her turn, a player rolls all three LCR dice. For every 'L' rolled, the player passes a chip to the left. For every 'R,' a chip to the right. For each 'C,' a player adds a chip to the center pot. The three sides of the dice with dots on them do nothing. Play continues in one direction until only one player has any chips left. If a player has no chips left, that player is still in the game, but does not roll dice during his/her turn. A player with two chips rolls only two dice, and a player with only one chip rolls one die. The last player with chips remaining wins the game.

The notable upside to these rules is that nobody in the game gets eliminated. Even if you're out of chips, you could be back in the game easily if the adjacent players roll an 'L' or 'R' in your favor. The downside, however, is that gameplay is completely based on chance, and skill has no part in it whatsoever. The unpredictability might make LCR fun for the first few rounds, but where do you go from there?

Well, for starters, you turn to gambling and booze.

Over at funagain.com, reviews of LCR are at odds with each other. Half of the reviewers hate it, while the other half love it, with the consent that you have to go beyond the rules to make it more interesting. Swapping out chips for coins -- or having each player "buy in" for X amount of dollars -- adds a bit more tension to the game's unpredictable style, turning it into a "winner takes all" scenario. Money will keep getting passed around, with more and more of it ending up in the center. You might be out of cash on your turn, but your opponent might roll in your favor, throwing you back into the competition. Like any good card game, a little money just makes it more interesting.

For those of the frat-boy persuasion, LCR can be tweaked to form a formidable drinking game (but only for those of legal age, of course). Start with a bottle of beer in front of every player, and an empty glass in the center. On your turn, roll all three dice. For every 'L,' the player to your left takes a swig. For every 'R,' the player to your right. For every 'C,' you pour a swig's worth from your bottle into the glass. If you roll three dots, you have to down the glass in the center. The last player with any beer remaining is the winner. To make for a longer game, start everyone with two bottles instead of one. It requires less hand-eye coordination than beer pong, and it's a lot less dirty to boot.

There are those, of course, who enjoy gaming for gaming's sake, and believe that it *is* possible to hack a game without simply adding money or alcohol to the mix. In LCR's case, a good place to start meddling is with the lack of choice. Give players a sense that they're actually doing something strategically, and they'll feel that the game is more significant. As an example, I've designed LRC, a betting variant of LCR. LRC is still unpredictable, but allowing players to place bets before rolling the dice gives more weight to each turn's outcome, making each player's success or failure a result of their own decisions:

LRC (Left, Right, Commitment)
As in LCR, each player starts with 3 chips. In addition, place a number of chips in the center equal to double the number of players (ie: 6 chips for 3 players, 8 chips for 4 players, etc). In LRC, only two dice are used.

On your turn, you can commit chips from your pile to the center before rolling.

Rolling an 'L' forces you to pass a chip to your left. Rolling an 'R' forces you to pass a chip to your right. Rolling a dot does nothing.

For each chip you committed to the center on your turn, you can earn 2 back for each 'C' you roll. For example, committing 2 chips and then rolling 2 'C's earns you 4 chips back. But if you only committed 1 chip and rolled 2 'C's, you only earn 2 back. In other words, you can't earn back more than double of what you committed.

If you didn't commit chips to the center on your turn, rolling a 'C' does nothing. If you did commit chips, but didn't roll a 'C', those chips are lost in the pot.

Like in LCR, players with no chips are not eliminated, but can not roll on their turn until adjacent players roll an 'L' or 'R' in their favor. If a player has only one chip at the beginning of their turn, they only roll one die. The last player with chips remaining is the winner.

With a greater number of people, you can change the rules to elimination-style to make LRC more competitive. If the elimination game ends too quickly, start players with more chips, or remove one of the two die to elongate the play-time.


If anyone else has any interesting hacks or variants of LCR, or of any other analog game, we'd love to hear them. Post your hacks in the comments, so we can all get the most enjoyment out of the simplest titles.

Scott Jon Siegel is a fledgling game designer, and fancies himself a bit of a writer on the topic as well. His words and games can be found at numberless, which is almost always a work in progress.