This is a very interesting mechanic, though as you say - 100d6 is a hell of a lot to manage!

I've been given another suggestion via Chris Sims on Twitter that I wanted to share, along with one of my own. Chris' is:

Start with 9 tokens. When instructed to pull from the tower, instead roll the die. If the die shows 6, you lose one token. If your number of tokens falls to between 5 and 2, you lose a token if the die shows the number of tokens you have left or a higher number. When you have one token left, you still need to roll a 2 or higher to lose a token. So, for instance, if you have one or two tokens left, a roll of 2 or higher causes you to lose one token. When you lose your last token, the “tower” falls.

That led me to what may be a simpler mechanic. Start with a counter that you set to 30 (the average number of pulls in a Jenga game - but you could set this to anything you like). When you're instructed to pull from the tower, reduce the counter by 1 and roll a d6. If you roll equal to or higher than the counter number, the tower falls.

Realistically you don't start rolling until the counter hits 6, obviously.

Keep the ideas coming!

I like how over the top 100d6 feels, along with how it diminishes. It's a crazy cool idea. My only issue is the minor one that to do the 100d6 pretty much requires an electronic tool. Part of the appeal of the game is its analog and somewhat meditative nature. Again, a minor issue, though.

See also... https://chandlerprall.github.io/Physijs/examples/jenga.html

I have been thinking of a way to approximate this S-shaped curve without needing tokens or software. I think rolling with advantage (roll two dice, keep highest) is a decent substitute. Closest I got is using a d100 with advantage:

1. Each turn mark, how many turns have passed (this is your Counter).
2. Roll a d100 with advantage (keep highest number).
3. If max(2d100)<Counter -> lose;  else -> keep playing.

Did some quick calculations in Excel. X-Axis is Number of Turns. Y-Axis is probability that all rolls until that turn are successes.

my favorite from this thread is chris's start at 30 and countdown.

"Start with a counter that you set to 30 (the average number of pulls in a Jenga game - but you could set this to anything you like). When you're instructed to pull from the tower, reduce the counter by 1 and roll a d6. If you roll equal to or higher than the counter number, the tower falls."

but my husband suggested rolling a d12 instead, for a chance of the tower falling after 18 pulls rather than 24.

i have the following paragraph in my game, which others can feel free to use also!

"If you don't have a jenga tower, you can play without one or use a dice mechanic to simulate the degrading nature of a jenga tower. Set aside a number of dice with their displayed values equaling 30, such as three 10-sided dice or two d20s with one die turned to 20 and one turned to 10. You will not need to roll these, but will use them to count down from 30 to 1. Each time you would pull from the jenga tower, reduce the number by 1. When you reach 12, each time this number is reduced, roll a 12-sided die (or two d6s). If the number rolled is equal to or higher than the number on your count-down dice, the tower falls."

I don't have the maths to work this out, but what does the curve look like if you draw a random domino from a full set of 28 and continue until you get a double, removing dominos after they're drawn?

I made a very basic html version of the 100d6 mechanic by Speak the Sky that handles everything for you. When I say basic I mean reaaaaly basic, I'll work on making in prettier when I can be bothered to do CSS. I hope you are okay with this Speak the Sky. Otherwise let me know and I'll take it down.

https://maxkaemmerer.github.io/wretched-and-alone-d100-dice-roller/

You can also download this file and include it in your project if you like:

https://github.com/maxkaemmerer/wretched-and-alone-d100-dice-roller/blob/master/index.html

So I posted on Twitter without thinking to come check here and see if someone had tried working up an alternative. Lots of neat ideas! 

My thought was "What if you rolled 5d6 (maybe 6d6?), and have to roll higher than the total number of 'blocks' you've 'pulled.'" If you don't, it tumbles.

My current thinking about the Jenga tower is that what it represents for the game, rather than the strict mathematics of it, is the more important part. So, what should it represent?

• A growing sense of dread
• Mounting pressure
• A chance for the player to interact more directly with the game.

I like the 100d6 method that Sky posted, but I think it misses that last point a bit - the player doesn’t actually do much. I propose a revised version to address this problem. 

You start with 100 points of supply, named as appropriate for your game. Whenever your supply is tested, scratch off any number of supply, then roll that same amount of d6s. If you can make a total of 16 or higher  on your dice, you’re in the clear.  If you can’t make 16 or higher, you’re dead.

16 was chosen because 600 / 36 rounds down to 16. 600 is the maximum of 100d6, and 36 is the practical maximum of pulls you can make from a standard 18-floor block tower before you’ve cannibalized the tower entirely. This not only lets the player decide between a more risky approach that’s likely to be more effective in the long term (choosing few dice) or a safer option that’s going to be costly later (choosing many dice). It also gives the player something mechanical to do, in that they have to add up the numbers.

can't sleep & just had this thought -- what about building a "dice tower" instead of pulling from a jenga tower? i mean who doesn't have 25755 d6s laying around

Also late, but FYI here's the one I use in my game: take a tarot deck (78 cards), remove the Tower card and replace it about 1/3 of the way through the deck. Drawing the Tower card is equivalent to the tumbling block tower collapsing.

Alternatively, if you want to remove the concept of a tower altogether (useful if you're adding other mechanisms and want to reduce the number of items on the table), add a joker card about halfway through the deck of playing cards. This one isn't exactly equivalent in terms of probability, but it's close enough.

Very late to the game, but getting three blocks of 12mm d6s from Chessex will give you 106 dice.

I'm late to the party but did anyone ever try this method? All you need one of each polyhedral dice (d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, d4)

When the game tells you to pull from the tower, roll the d20. If you roll a 1 or 2, replace the d20 with the next biggest die (d12). When you roll 1 or 2 on the d4, the tower fall.

According to my tests, the average number of pull is around 30 and the probabilities are very similar to other methods. Plus you only need 6 common dice.

EDIT: I just realized that this is not a great method since there's no immediate sense of danger as long as the die is not a d4. 

light 10 candles (or change the number depending on the expected difficulty), when the game asks, blow one out, if a candle goes out by mistake or runs out, bad luck, you can't light it again, I think this can reproduce The feeling of running out of resources and ending up in the dark symbolizes disaster. Additionally, you can add tension by cutting the candles in half before lighting them.