You know what? It’s been long enough. I’ve shared what’s inside the Disco Candybar box with enough friends already, I might as well share it with all of you. Spill the secret sauce. Here it is.

Dice. Currently, 50 of them. Standard stock six-sided dice (or D6’s, as we nerds call them) in a variety of colors, to be precise. Cards that the dice get placed on. And a really streamlined, accessible self-managing AI system that pilots whatever enemies you and your friends are facing so that nobody has to take the role and responsibilities of being the “game master”.

As far as telling you exactly how it all works, I’m going to hold off on the deeper details for now. As the broad strokes go, you decide which cards you want to use each turn, pull some dice from your bag, roll them, and place them on your cards in descending-or-equal order.

Same goes for the enemies; there’s a dice pool in their bag that represents hits and misses. Pull a set number from their bag, roll them, and place them in the same descending-or-equal order. If the enemy you’re facing has a black die, it hits you. If it has a gray die, it misses. You trade hits with the enemy until one of you gets defeated.

It’s all pulled together with the Lore Book, which tells the story and guides you through the bigger adventure and all the encounters along the way. Read the story, make some choices, and get step-by-step walkthroughs that explain every element of how to play as you play. No rule book (as I’ve outlined in earlier posts), just tear-out pages that build a rules folder as you play. Total “hit the ground running” experience.

As you play on, you’ll find ways to grow and evolve your character. Because character builds come from improving your dice mix in your bag and card selection, there are multiple ways to customize the character(s) you’re running. And though your character starts with just one color of dice (plus white dice), you can eventually add dice of other colors and corresponding cards to “cross-class” your character. Started with a Fighter and want a Battlemage or a Paladin? you can do that. Want an Illusionist Rogue? Sure. Mix your Ranger with some Cleric cards/dice to steer into a Druid archetype.

There’s a lot more to it than just that, but ultimately, the majority of your encounters with adversaries comes down to a bag-building, dice placement engine that a games-minded kid can handle, and that a gamer adult can find interesting decisions and nuance in.

Have I designed and developed every card that would make for expansive, infinitely combinable demos yet? No, but the system absolutely allows for it. Designing that much stuff with no practical end goal is even pricier than shipping when you factor in all the time and prototyping resources. Everything about this project is calculated risk, and as much as I love where it could go, I’m don’t have limitless time or energy to invest.

I’ve had some well-placed people ask to see more when it’s available though, so who knows. Maybe some bit by bit additions when I’m feeling the right vibes, right?

I have a couple of prototypes of it built, and some of it exists in a tabletop games prototyping system online. I can’t promise a chance for everyone to get a turn with one of them (shipping gets pricey and I’m — shockingly — a little bit of an introvert when it comes to gaming online), but you can be certain that I’ll always have it with me at conventions, and if you’re in my neighborhood and have an hour to kill durdling around with me, sure, we can give it a spin.

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