Dicey Dilemma

2-4 Players 15-30 Minutes Ages 6+

Deceptively Designed. Deviously Difficult.

The goal is simple. Get your dice in line. Keep your opponent's out.

SETUP

MATERIALS NEEDED

1 White 6-sided Die
12 Yellow 6-sided Dice
12 Green 6-sided Dice
12 Blue 6-sided Dice
12 Red 6-sided Dice
8 Intersection Tiles (2 Yellow, 2 Green, 2 Blue, 2 Red)

CHOOSE DICE AND INTERSECTION TILES

Each player chooses a color. There are 24 dice that are used during gameplay, plus the Center Die.
2 Players - Each player takes 12 dice matching their color.
3 Players - Each player takes 8 dice matching their color.
4 Players - Each player takes 6 dice matching their color.
Each player grabs 2 Intersection Tiles matching their color.

ROUND ONE - CENTER

STEP 1 - THE CENTER

Roll the white die and place it in the center.

STEP 2 - INITIAL ROLL

Each player picks up all of their dice and rolls them at once. Dice must remain visible to other players.

STEP 3 - DETERMINE PLAYER ORDER

The player with the most dice matching the number on the center die is the first player. The player with the second-most dice matching the center die is the second player, and so on. If there is a tie, each tied player should add all their dice together, and the highest number wins. If there is a tie after that, then everyone rerolls.

ROUND TWO - INNER RING

STEP 1 - FIRST REROLL

Each player may pick up as many of their dice as they want and reroll them all at once. They can pick up some, none, or all of their dice. They can only reroll once this round.

STEP 2 - PLACING DICE AND TILES

PLACING DICE
Starting with the first player, each player places one die at a time in the Inner Ring (2) only. After a player places 1 die, the next player places one, and so on. This is done without changing the value of the dice.

PLACING TILES Instead of placing a die on their turn, a player may place one of their Intersection Tiles on any empty square, even in the Outer Ring (3). A player may only place one Intersection Tile during Round 2. You may continue to place dice after placing a tile, and you may place dice on any player's tile.

ROUND THREE - OUTER RING

STEP 1 - SECOND REROLL

At the beginning of Round 3, each player may pick up as many of their dice as they want and reroll them again. They can pick up some, none, or all of their dice. They can only reroll once this round.

STEP 2 - PLACING DICE AND TILES

PLACING DICE Starting with the first player, each player places one dice at a time in the Outer Ring (3). After a player places 1 die, the next player places one, and so on. This is done without changing the value of the dice.

PLACING TILES
Instead of placing a die on their turn, a player may place their remaining Intersection Tile on any empty square. You may continue to place dice after placing a tile, and you may place dice on any player's tile. If all the squares in the Outer Ring fill with dice, then you may not place your last Intersection Tile.

STEP 3 - SWAP TWO DICE

After all dice and Intersecting Tiles have been placed, each player may swap any 2 of their dice. This is done in player order, starting with the first player.

SCORING

To score, you add up the values on all of your dice that are in straight lines of at least 3 consecutive dice with the same numbers. High score wins.

• Lines may be in rows, columns, or diagonal.
• 3-Dice Lines - Each die you have in a 3-dice line counts once.
• 4-Dice Lines - Each die you have in a 4-dice line counts double.
• 5-Dice Lines - Each die you have in a 5-dice line counts triple.
• A single die may be in several different lines, and it's counted for each separate line that it's in.
• The Center Die doesn't count towards any player's score, but it can be part of multiple lines.
• If there is a die that belongs to more than one line on any of your Intersecting Tiles, you get 10 extra points for that tile. It doesn't matter who the die belongs to.

Rolling Plunder

A low-cost quick playing rum soaked loot filled game of plundering pirates and scurvy scallywags.

Players act as Pirate captains with unruly crews on the high seas. Players roll dice to determine their actions. Pirate crews are often drunk on rum and wont always do what their captain wants. The player can re-roll the dice to try to get the actions they need but must be careful of having a bounty placed on their head. Bounties open them up to attacks from other players.

The object is to travel from location to location attacking the merchant ships that are sailing there. The pirate that delivers the last shot on a ship gets the loot. Everyone knows that the pirate with the most loot wins.

Components

• 4 Location Cards
• 14 Ship Cards
  • 10 Merchants
  • 4 Navy Ships
• 4 Action Dice
• 4 Pirate Ship Dice

Setup

Each player receives 1 Pirate Ship Die that represents their Pirate Ship and how much of a bounty is on their heads. Shuffle the Ship Cards and deal 12 to the players. Place 4 randomly selected Location Cards on the table next to each other (Location Cards are double sided, but only 1 side will be used).

The players take turns placing a Ship Card face down on a location until all 12 Ship Cards are placed. No location can have more than 3 Ship Cards. The players then choose a location to place their Pirate Ship Die (making sure that it is placed showing no bounty symbols).

Once the Pirate Ships are placed, flip the top Ship Card for each location over and slide them under the location card so they are undamaged. Play begins.

Location Cards

Each location provides a bonus to the players when their turn starts unless otherwise specified.

• Pirate Cove
  • Remove a Bounty from the player when their turn ends here
• High Winds
  • Player receives a bonus Move
• Merchant Port
  • Player rolls an extra Action Die
• Lost Island
  • Player may re-roll 1 Skull
• Patrolled Waters
  • Player receives a bonus Skull
• Neutral Port
  • Players may not be attacked here
• Heavy Fog
  • Player rolls one less Action Die
• Trade Waters
  • Place 2 more Ship Cards on this location

Sequence of Play

1. Roll
2. Perform Actions
3. Replenish Ships

Roll

Players roll 3 Action Dice to determine their Pirate Ship's actions. The player may re-roll any number of results up to 2 times. If a Skull result is rolled, it is set aside and cannot be re-rolled.

Dice Results

The Action Dice have 4 possible results.

• Move (2 sides)

  • Move results allows a player to move their ship to a location adjacent to their own.

• Cannon (2 sides)

  • Cannon results allows a player to attack a ship (or player) at their current location.

• Doubloon (1 side)

  • Doubloon results can be used to reduce a player's Bounty. Every 2 Doubloon results will reduce a player's Bounty by one.

• Skull (1 side)

  • A Skull result cannot be rerolled (unless the player's location specifies otherwise). For every 2 Skull results rolled, the player must add a bounty to their Pirate Ship. This is done by turning the die so that the correct number of Bounty icons are shown.

Action

Players must perform all actions shown on their Action Dice. They can perform these actions in any order.

Movement

Moving a ship to an adjacent location takes 1 Move. The play area does not wrap around.

Attacking Ships

Each Cannon action will damage a Ship Card once. Damage is represented by sliding the Ship Card out from under the location card enough to reflect how much damage it has taken. If the Loot result is revealed, that player takes the card.

Bounties

A player may attack another player at their location only if that other player's Ship Die shows any number of Bounty icons and the attacking player has enough Cannons.

• 3 Cannons for a 1 Bounty player
• 2 Cannons for a 2 Bounty player
• 1 Cannon for a 3 Bounty player

If successful, they randomly take 1 of their opponent's loot cards and their opponent resets their Bounty to 0.

Replenish Ships

If any location does not have a Ship Card showing, flip over the next card in that location's stack and slide it under the location undamaged. If the ship is marked as a Navy Ship, every pirate at that location gains a Bounty.

Victory

The game ends when any location has no Ship Cards in its stack at the end of a turn. The players count up their Loot. The most Loot wins.

D'ice Cubes: the Battle of Frostflake Pond

Components:

25 white dice (d6)
4 blue dice (d6)
4 transparent pawns (sculpted minis): 2 each of 2 different colors

Set up:

Orient the 25 white dice like so: set 1 die to 6, 4 dice to 5, 5 dice to each 4, 3, 2, and 1. Place the #6 dice in the center of the board. Choose a player to go first. Then, taking turns, each player will take 2 of the remaining dice and place them on the board, with the following restrictions:

• Each die placed must be adjacent (left-right or up-down, NOT diagonal) to an already placed die. (see illustration)
• Each row or column of dice may have a maximum of 5 dice in it.
• Gaps in the grid are allowed (see illustration), but each row and column cannot have more than 5 dice in it.
• Leave some space between the dice, so that they are easier to pick up and change. But, keep the dice in a regular grid pattern when placing them.

Each player then places their 2 pawns on top of any die. Two pawns cannot occupy the same space.

The Dice:

The dice represent a frozen pond, with each die showing the relative thickness of the ice. Your two pawns represent a pair of penguin shamans (they always come in pairs) who have the ability to raise or lower sections of the ice. The goal of the game is to eliminate your opponent's two pawns by sinking the ice chunks they are on, while not getting sunk yourself.

Turn Order:

Roll: take 2 blue dice for each of your pawns and roll them. Arrange all of the dice in numerical order, from lowest to highest. These represent the actions that you can take this turn.

Move: move both pawns to any adjacent empty die. If you cannot move, immediately change the die that pawn is on down by one (6 becomes a 5, a 5 becomes a 4, etc). If that die was a 1, remove both the die and the pawn from the board.

Raise or Lower the Ice: Starting with the lowest blue die, the player must either:

• Drop all the white dice with the matching number by 1, including any dice that have pawns on them. For example, if the player rolled a 4, all dice showing a 4 could be dropped to 3s. Any dice that are dropped to below 1 (that show 1 and are dropped to 0) are removed from the board, along with any pawns that were on them.
• Raise only the die that your shaman is standing on by one, as long as the numbers match. For example, if the player rolled a 2, and one of his shamans was on a die showing a 2, he could raise that die only to a 3.
• If the one of the player’s shamans is on a 6, and the player rolled one or more 6s, he can choose to raise any other die by 1, or add a new die to the board, set to 1.
• If there are no dice on the board that match the rolled die, the die is discarded.

You must use a dice if there are dice on the board that match.

Play continues to the next player.

Doubles:

If a player rolls 2 or more of a number, there are two options:

• Drop all of the dice of that number by one, and discard any matching rolled dice. For example, if the player rolled two 5s, he would be able to drop all the 5s to 4s, but then wouldn’t be able to use the other 5.
• Raise a matching die that his pawn is on, and then lower all other dice that match that number. For example, if the player rolled two 5s, and one of his pawns was on a 5, he could raise just that 5 to a 6, and then lower all of the remaining 5s on the board to 4s.

Chaining:

If a player rolls a string of numbers, they can use them to raise a die (that his pawn is on) by 2 or more. For example, if a player’s pawn is on a 2, and the player rolls a 2, 3, and a 4, the player can (if they choose) raise the die from a 2 to a 5 in one turn (2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to 5).

Four Player rules:

For a four player game, split the players into two teams. Each team takes the turn steps together, but each player only rolls for their pawn. Teams may take their actions in any order.

Sabredance

A dice juggling game for 2-4 Jesters

Once upon a time in a far off kingdom there lived King Falstaff. Bored with kingly duties, he desired a royal jester. To find one, King Falstaff called the greatest jesters of the land to compete in a four-day tournament to see who could impress the court the most with their feats of juggling!

Materials:

• 2 blue 6-sided dice (d6)
• 2 red 8-sided dice (d8)
• 2 yellow 12-sided dice (d12)
• 2 white 20-sided dice (d20)

• 8 green 10-sided dice (d10)

• 12 Daring Feat cards (numbered 1-4)

• 4 dice place-cards
• 2 “+100 Prestige” cards

Goal:

Win by juggling bigger and more risky objects, and doing it one handed, behind your back, or whilst spinning ‘round! Each day of the tournament you'll earn Prestige by proving your juggling mettle. The jester with the highest Prestige at the end of the tournament, wins!

Setup:

1. Feel free to give yourself a name like, "Gustav the Perilous!" or "Rolando the Magnificent!")

2. Each jester needs a pair of green d10 to keep score. If your score goes over 100, use one of the "+100 Prestige" cards to keep track.

3. Make sure you have a good area cleared around you, preferably in a room with a high ceiling!

4. Lay out the 4 dice place-cards in order and place each pair of colored die on the appropriate card. Each type of die represents an object to juggle, as follows:

• d6 Kitty Cats
• d8 Spitting Vipers
• d12 Battle Axes
• d20 Flaming Chainsaws

1. Lay out the 12 Daring Feat cards in a grid in rows by number.

2. Determine the first player by rolling the d20. Highest roll goes first, and play will go clockwise the first round.

Game Play:

The current jester picks his first object to juggle from the the dice place-cards. You may only go up from there, so pick carefully! If you’re feeling confident in juggling, start low to get more points. Otherwise, take a risk with the dice and only do the d20 "Flaming Chainsaws."

The jester takes one of the dice on the place card in hand, and rolls the other. The roll indicates the Prestige points he will get at the end of his turn for that Object.

Now, the jester must juggle the die in his hand.

Juggling:

Jester holds his hand out in front of him at arms-height and tosses the die in the air. The die must:

1. Go above the jester's head,
2. Must be caught in hand, not against the jester's body or another object.

If the jester breaks these rules, the other jester's may call "Shenanigans!" And the jester must try again. If this fairly happens twice in a row, the jester loses his turn.

If the jester successfully catches the die, he may Up His Stakes or end his turn. Ending his turn means he adds the Prestige points from the caught die to his total (tracked by his green d10s).

Up His Stakes:

The jester may roll a die larger than the one just juggled. For instance, if you just juggled the d8 (Spitting Vipers) you may now roll the d10 (Battle Axes) or d12 or d20.

After rolling the new die, you must now juggle BOTH dice. This is done by tossing up both at once and catching them. After each toss the Jester may continue to Up His Stakes, each time adding a die to be juggled.

If the Jester fails and drops any dice, he loses the points for the dropped dice and his turn ends. He still adds the Prestige value of any caught dice to his total Prestige.

After all the jesters have gone, each jester will get to take a Daring Feat card (in a two player game, take two), starting with the jester with the lowest points (for ties, it’s the latest jester to play)

In each subsequent round, play goes in order of highest to lowest Prestige from the previous round.

Daring Feat cards:

These cards represent feats challenged by other jesters. They are played during another jester’s turn in order to make a particular toss more difficult. They are played any time after the Jester rolls for points and before he Juggles the die. More than one type can be played at a time by multiple Jesters!

The four types are:

1. Toss with your off-hand
2. Catch with one hand
3. Catch with hand(s) behind your back
4. Spin at least 180° before catching dice

End of Game:

After the fourth round, the Jesters’ compare Prestige. Unused Daring Feat cards are worth Prestige equal to their type number. The Jester with the highest Prestige wins!