2nd game: Random Walk

Rules

It is played by two players on a 4 x 4 table. Both players get 16-16 marbles with different colors (blue and yellow). Both players place 8 marbles on their half of the table.

Every turn a coin is flipped: If it is heads the player with the yellow marbles can change any blue marble to yellow. If it is talis the player with the blue marbles can change any yellow marble to blue.

The game lasts for a predetermined set of turns.

Optional Rule - Cooperative Rule

If all the neighbours of a blue marble become yellow, the blue marble becomes yellow, too.

If all the neighbours of a yellow marble become blue, the yellow marble becomes blue, too.

The game ends if one of the colors become extinct. This happens when a new marble could only turn up with all its neighbours from the other color.

1D6 Version

Your starting value is at 3. You roll a 6 sided dice. If it is 1-3, you lower your value by one. If it is 4-6, you raise the value by one. The lowest possible value is 1, the highest possible value is 6.

There is no 1d6 version for the cooperative play.

Analysis

Neither of the states is special. Every state has the same chance to occur.

It is true, that for a short time the value will be around 3, but this is only a short range memory. The game has no long range memory. After it moved away from the middlepoint, it won't be more probable that it will get back, than that it will go to the more extreme.

In cooperative mode it simulates the forming of physical phases (solid, etc.).

In RPGs

The basic version is similar to random walks in real space, like an adventure on a map.

In the cooperative version the players have some strategical input.