Post originally by Doug Orleans at 2004-09-08 13:06:02
Converted from Phorums BB System

I was taught the game with a variant rule: instead of everyone rolling their own dice, only a single die is rolled and everyone moves ahead the same amount. This definitely cuts down on the luck aspect that you mention, so you might want to try it. However, I've lately started thinking that this removes some asymmetry in player positions, which causes more contention in the action choices, which leads to longer games (I've rarely finished a game in under an hour, although that's partly due to some chronically slow players in our group). But it might be a worthwhile tradeoff if the luck factor is too high for you.

Also, yes, the flaky gems are a well-known problem. The original German version had much nicer gems, similar to those in Dragonland. Also, the Out of the Box board has those dreaded "American valleys", which makes me sad.