Dice Thone: Seasons One and Two
It has finally happened!
Gaming has returned to the Paduganan household. In between dental appointments, dinner, and taking new passport photos, we managed to squeeze in a little family tabletop time yesterday evening. We chose to continue our Dice Throne mini-tournament, as it is a fairly quick game that doesn't require much setup.
Way back on Monday (TGIF, by the way), Benjamin and I broke out Dice Throne: Season Two to try our some of the new heroes. Benji chose the Samurai, while I played the Seraph (because my name is Gabriel).
If you haven't checked out Roxley Games' Dice Throne...what are you doing with your life? Players choose one of the heroes (six from each season), and battle for supremacy through rolling dice to activate abilities. Essentially, it is Yahtzee/Farkle meets Magic: The Gathering/Pokémon CCG.
Each hero has a "complexity level" ranging from 1 to 6, which helps the young'uns choose which character they would like to play. In Season One, Benji and Isaiah tended to choose the Barbarian and Moon Elf, whose mechanics were easiest to understand. Generally, I would choose one of the more difficult-to-play heroes in order to even the playing field.
Some heroes are glass cannons, which specialize in dealing max damage, but aren't very effective at defending against attacks (Pyromancer). Others are focused on mitigating damage and healing their self (Paladin). More difficult heroes require more strategy and setup in order to win (Shadow Thief).
Like Magic: The Gathering, each player begins the game with a health pool, and the object is reduce the other players' hit points to zero while keeping yours above zero. In order to do so, players roll dice and match the results to abilities on their game board. Like Yahtzee, you have up to three rolls before you decide which ability you will activate. Players also draw cards each turn, which allow for ability upgrades and mechanics that alter your dice rolls or attacks. Each hero also has an "Ultimate" ability which can be pretty devastating if you can manage to roll all 6's.
There are gameplay options for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 2v2v2, free-for-all, and even more now that Season Two has been released. Each hero has all of the components to play independent of the others (read: no shared tokens/dice/cards), making this an excellent game for a tournament or larger group game night.
We highly recommend Dice Throne, both for its beautiful visuals and components, and its depth of gameplay and strategy. When playing with younger children, here are a few considerations:
Our tournament continues tonight, but here are the current standings:
Benjamin (Samurai) vs. Papa (Seraph) -- Seraph WIN
Isaiah (Moon Elf) vs. Papa (Gunslinger) -- Gunslinger WIN
In both games, I won by a very slight margin. Granted, I misunderstood one of the Gunslinger's mechanics and probably should have beat Isaiah by a lot more. I'll update the standings as we continue to play throughout the weekend.
Gaming has returned to the Paduganan household. In between dental appointments, dinner, and taking new passport photos, we managed to squeeze in a little family tabletop time yesterday evening. We chose to continue our Dice Throne mini-tournament, as it is a fairly quick game that doesn't require much setup.
Way back on Monday (TGIF, by the way), Benjamin and I broke out Dice Throne: Season Two to try our some of the new heroes. Benji chose the Samurai, while I played the Seraph (because my name is Gabriel).
If you haven't checked out Roxley Games' Dice Throne...what are you doing with your life? Players choose one of the heroes (six from each season), and battle for supremacy through rolling dice to activate abilities. Essentially, it is Yahtzee/Farkle meets Magic: The Gathering/Pokémon CCG.
Each hero has a "complexity level" ranging from 1 to 6, which helps the young'uns choose which character they would like to play. In Season One, Benji and Isaiah tended to choose the Barbarian and Moon Elf, whose mechanics were easiest to understand. Generally, I would choose one of the more difficult-to-play heroes in order to even the playing field.
Some heroes are glass cannons, which specialize in dealing max damage, but aren't very effective at defending against attacks (Pyromancer). Others are focused on mitigating damage and healing their self (Paladin). More difficult heroes require more strategy and setup in order to win (Shadow Thief).
Like Magic: The Gathering, each player begins the game with a health pool, and the object is reduce the other players' hit points to zero while keeping yours above zero. In order to do so, players roll dice and match the results to abilities on their game board. Like Yahtzee, you have up to three rolls before you decide which ability you will activate. Players also draw cards each turn, which allow for ability upgrades and mechanics that alter your dice rolls or attacks. Each hero also has an "Ultimate" ability which can be pretty devastating if you can manage to roll all 6's.
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| Lucky me! |
There are gameplay options for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 2v2v2, free-for-all, and even more now that Season Two has been released. Each hero has all of the components to play independent of the others (read: no shared tokens/dice/cards), making this an excellent game for a tournament or larger group game night.
We highly recommend Dice Throne, both for its beautiful visuals and components, and its depth of gameplay and strategy. When playing with younger children, here are a few considerations:
- Let the youngest player choose their hero first
- Keep in mind that some heroes are more/less complex than others
- For very young or new players, try playing without the card deck and focus on dice rolls
Our tournament continues tonight, but here are the current standings:
Benjamin (Samurai) vs. Papa (Seraph) -- Seraph WIN
Isaiah (Moon Elf) vs. Papa (Gunslinger) -- Gunslinger WIN
In both games, I won by a very slight margin. Granted, I misunderstood one of the Gunslinger's mechanics and probably should have beat Isaiah by a lot more. I'll update the standings as we continue to play throughout the weekend.
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