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Idea by art photographer, Dan Roberts

BATTLE GIFTING!

Gift exchanges are fun, but there are ways of making it better! It sucks when you're doing a gift exchange, or white elephant gift exchange, and you draw #2. Usually #1 gets a chance to steal at the end, but #2 is the worst. Even if you're the second last to draw, and you end up with an amazing gift, you're still not safe.

Two years ago I had the idea to mix things up.

Enter the dice!

Certainty in games is less fun than uncertainty. We introduced the concept of dice rolls to the act of attempting to steal a gift in a gift exchange. Essentially, the attacker gets a slight edge, but the person holding on to a present still has a fighting chance to keep it.

The battle provides a whole new dimension and as people got used to it the steal attempts became a big part of the fun!
-- Justin W, Denver

So how does it work?

Equipment

You need three dice. One d20 and two variants of d10 (one for the tens 10-90, one for 0-9). Most game stores these days will sell you a complete set of dice that includes these three. Or use a dice app on a phone.

Attempting a steal

When someone tries to steal a gift it may or may not succeed. The person doing the stealing will have a slight advantage, but it's no longer a sure thing.

First, the person who has the gift (defender) throws a defensive roll. They get the two ten-sided dice. One of them has multiples of ten, the other has 0-9. Rolling those together will result in a number from 0 to 99. This is the number that the thief has to beat.

The thief gets both of the ten-sided dice, but they get to throw an additional twenty-side die. This will result in a number from 1 to 119. If the sum of all of their dice is greater than the defender's total then the gift is stolen. If the sum is less then the steal attempt fails. If the totals exactly match then the rolls are repeated.

If the theft is not successful then the thief must pick an unclaimed gift. They do not get to attempt another steal on this round.

If the theft IS successful then the defender, who lost the gift, may choose an unclaimed gift on their next turn, or they may make a steal attempt of their own. Your own house rules will dictate whether the defender will act immediately or be moved to the end of the line. You may also choose to allow for an immediate re-steal attempt, or you may prohibit this.

Basic theft rules

Whatever the rules are that you have in place for how many times a gift can be stolen before it's out of play, those all still hold. The only change is that a steal attempt counts toward that total, regardless of whether the gift was stolen or not.

If a gift used to be locked after it was stolen three times then it would be locked after three attempted steals, even if the theft was stopped twice and only one was successful.

What to Expect

The best part about playing this way is that the holder of an amazing gift no longer has an immediate sinking feeling when someone tries to steal from them. They have a fighting chance to hold on to the gift, and this happens on a semi-regular basis.

The next best thing is that the participants, and the onlookers, get a good-natured competitive adrenaline rush out of what used to be simple "give me that" procedure. The fun level is seriously elevated.

House Rules

You can modify these rules any way you see fit, but here are some ideas: