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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:52:47+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:50:53+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:48:57+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:48:02+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:47:16+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:46:28+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:45:37+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:44:45+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:43:52+00:00

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Wolfenstad Manuel — 2008-11-19T16:43:16+00:00

Thread: Re: That's a lot of dice!

demiankatz — 2007-12-14T02:47:46+00:00

It's almost as if they designed it as a roll-and-move, then took out the rolling and moving and left only the card rewards, which are too slow. I suppose a simple fix would be to double all rewards when playing with a large group....

Thread: Re: That's a lot of dice!

augray — 2007-12-11T14:12:29+00:00

It certainly plays long. We played it with 6 and needed to shorten the board by taking out a few spaces on each "land." Otherwise I agree, "it's respectable for what it is."

Nice review.

Thread: That's a lot of dice!

demiankatz — 2007-12-11T02:10:26+00:00

There's just something about a big pile of dice that draws the eye. Clearly the publishers of this game understand that, as it is packaged with a big clear plastic bubble in the front of the box showing off the fact that it contains a boatload of dice: six complete sets of polyhedral dice, sixty tiny d6's, poker dice, dice with random pictures on them, and more. When I saw it in a store display, I was compelled to buy it, even though I knew it probably wouldn't be a good game, and I don't really need more dice. There's just something about a big pile of dice....

In spite of not needing more dice, I'm certainly pleased with what I got here -- nothing earthshatteringly fancy, but nothing shoddy either. All hundred-plus dice are of decent quality, and it's probably as good or better than what you'd get in one of those "pound of dice" grab bags (and pretty close in quantity and price). The game is really just a bonus.

Gameplay is simple. The board is divided into three regions: Actionland, Thinkingtown and Triviaville. A path winds through all the regions from Start to Finish. Each turn, you draw a card that corresponds with the region you currently occupy, follow the instructions, and move forward if you successfully complete the specified activity. First player to reach Finish wins. Actionland cards are physical activities, Thinkingtown features more intellectual challenges (mostly involving basic math), and Triviaville is just what it sounds like.

Not surprisingly, the game is extremely uneven. Some cards are quite entertaining (Actionland features some clever Pictionary-style challenges and the ever-popular dice stacking), but others are mindnumbing (too many Thinkingtown cards involve rolling ridiculous numbers of dice and performing pointless math on the results only to earn a single space forward on the board). The trivia just feels out of place. The "roll a d20 and do that many push-ups" card may be met with some objections. Some players will be annoyed by the fact that the game is extremely random and borrows elements haphazardly from other party games; others will be pleased by the fact that almost every turn is completely different. Either way, it's pretty much guaranteed that some turns will be fun and others will not.

When I played the game with a fairly large group (ten people split into two loners and four teams of two), it took about two and a half hours to play -- decidedly longer than the thirty minutes suggested by the box, and definitely longer than the average party game group is likely to tolerate. During the course of that time, we went through well over half of the cards in the game. This suggests that the game is not designed to scale well for very large groups (even though team play is mentioned in the instructions) and also that its replay value may be somewhat limited. Still, there are all those dice... and a creative group might easily remove the more pointless cards and replace them with better ideas.

This certainly isn't a classic for the ages, but it's respectable for what it is, and it's not a bad way to built up an instant dice collection. I certainly don't regret the purchase!

Game: Dicecapades

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Thread: Re: That's a lot of dice!

Thread: Re: That's a lot of dice!

Thread: That's a lot of dice!