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 Reviews - Zombie Dice |
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by Lee Valentine
This game is featured in the OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide 2010. Steve Jackson Games just released a new "press your luck" dice game called Zombie Dice. I originally saw this game earlier this year at PAX East in Boston, MA (see my PAX East convention report for my impressions of the show). At a price of $13.13, the game comes with 13 custom six-sided dice and a dice cup. The latter is used both during the game and for storage.
Gameplay After each toss, you set aside all brains and shotgun blasts rolled. Each brain icon rolled is one potential point that you could score this turn so long as you collect those points before you take too much shotgun damage. You can stop rolling at any time and score one point for every brain rolled this turn. Shotgun blasts rolled represent armed victims who have defended themselves and injured you with a shotgun. If you roll a cumulative total of three shotgun blasts during your turn then your turn ends immediately and you lose all points that you might have accumulated that turn from rolling brain icons (though you keep points scored during earlier turns). After each roll of three dice you decide whether you will end your turn and bank the brain points you've scored. If you do, you add those points to your total score for the game, put the dice back in the cup, and you pass the cup to the next player. If you decide to press your luck, you'll roll three dice again. Runners represent the victims who narrowly escaped you last time, but who are still within reach if you can catch them before they find a shotgun. If you rolled any "Runners" on your previous roll and you decide to press your luck, then you must re-roll all those Runners, plus enough new dice drawn randomly from the cup to bring the total number of dice that you are rolling up to three. The goal is to get to 13 points of brains eaten. Once a player ends his turn with 13 or more points, the remaining players after him in the turn order get one last turn. At that point, the player with the highest number of points is declared the winner.
The game has better decision points than a dice game like LCR. The scoring, however, is easier to memorize than it would be for Yahtzee or Farkle. Since there's nominally no upper limit to the number of players (other than your patience for downtime between your chance to roll the dice), Zombie Dice is ideally suited to parties.
Components and Packaging The dice are simple and well-made, featuring nice, clear icons. The rules are on a small two-sided rules sheet, which folds up to be tucked into the cup for storage, though I doubt you'll ever need it again after playing the game even once. I thought the components were great overall for the price, but the game came without an internal means of scorekeeping. Presumably you can either write down your scores or memorize them. Ideally the game should have come with some game stones to keep track of scores visually, and indeed the folks at the SJG booth at PAX East were using a combination of Munchkin-themed coins and game stones for scoring during demos.
Conclusions Even if you were turned off by the SJG game Cthulhu Dice (see the OgreCave review here), Zombie Dice is worth a second look. Zombie Dice has a little bit more meat on its bones and uses a different rules set than Cthulhu Dice. The zombie theme is lightly pasted on though, so this is not a must buy for serious zombophile gamers. However, if you are looking for a light game that you might play now and again instead of a game that you put into regular rotation with your gaming group, then the price is right on this one. I wouldn't be surprised if someone finds a way to use these dice in an RPG or war game or even for skill checks in board games like Arkham Horror.
For Retailers
Lee's ratings:
Overall: B (weighted down by lack of depth in gameplay) Links:
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Zombie Dice
Zombie Dice introduced something new to me in the "press your
luck" genre: not all the dice are the same. Among the game's 13 dice
there are six green dice, four yellow dice, and three red dice. Each
die has two "Runners" faces. Green dice also have three brains and one
shotgun. Yellow dice have two brains and two shotguns. Red dice, the
most dangerous, have one brain icon and three shotguns. Since you
always re-roll all your Runners, and since your brains and shotguns
represent dice set aside, you can guesstimate how dangerous your next
roll might be. For example, if you rolled two red brains, one red
shotgun, one yellow brain, and you have two green Runners to re-roll,
then your next roll will probably be relatively safe for you.
The game comes complete with an attractive dice cup decorated with
zombie art by Alex Fernandez. The construction of the cup is almost
identical to a nice container for frozen, concentrated orange juice but
with a glossy, full-color label and removable lid. The dice cup is
sturdy and portable, but it is handled regularly and roughly, so the art
on the outside will pick up some scuffs pretty quickly, particularly at
the mouth of the cup. The bottom of the container is also removable,
and this might pose a potential problem if the bottom of the cup falls
out causing the 13 dice that you are shaking to cascade to the floor.
That hasn't happened to me yet – I have seen the container bottom
becoming a bit loose occasionally during play, but it usually holds
firm.