Tabletop Tuesday: “Dungeon Dice” by Potluck Games

Dungeon Dice from Potluck Games is intimidating at first, but once you get past its rough exterior, the players are presented with a fairly simple game of simple adventuring. The game itself has been out for nearly three years now, having launched in 2013 to fairly positive reviews. Only a couple of months ago did Potluck Games decide to upgrade their system and relaunch the game again via Kickstarter, this time with expansions and more. The game is built for 2-4 players, but the game is easily modifiable to groups of more than that. Potluck even included a 5-player expansion and using those rules, my group, for example, managed to squeeze out 6 players total and played with only a very minimal change in pacing. The game took a bit longer than when just my wife and I played, but that’s to be expected.

Before I delve into the mechanics of the game, I’d like to take a moment to focus on the quality itself. There is a metric ton of dice – okay, only about a pound or two – and with that many pieces, you’d expect low quality. Not true in the slightest. Each piece is engraved and of quite decent quality. In addition, the dice bags and play mats (reminiscent of a mouse pad) are tough and durable yet comfortable to work with as well. To be honest, I think that sums it up quite nice in only a few sentences. Potluck Games has brought quality to the table with Dungeon Dice.

In Dungeon Dice, players take turns drawing monster dice out of a bag and then defeat said monster by rolling their own dice and comparing the two dice sets. The totals, of course, change as players use abilities and attempt to either help or sabotage each other. With each victory, players earn more dice from loot bags filled with potions, weapons, artifacts, and more, all while racing to collect enough impressive dice to claim the throne, which is the ultimate goal of each player, via Fame. Using an impressive array of varying dice sets, players compete to collect more dice than their friends by battling monsters and looting dungeons. The game is a competitive all-dice game and there are no qualms about that. Players equip dice that represent weapons, drink potions with a dicey aftertaste, and kill monsters – you guessed it – made of dice.

There is a learning curve. I won’t deny that. The game, as I said before, is intimidating and can be downright overwhelming at times. Nearly all of the dice have unique abilities or combination of abilities and there has got to be well over 20+ icons represented on the dice. Each dice has something attached to it. Ultimately though that’s the only overwhelming part. Bargaining, on the other hand, was, at least for my group, crazy fun. It gets insane when you have five players, but it is so much fun, and when it comes to bargaining, anything goes. There’s no bargaining chips. There’s no limit. There is complete and total freedom when naming the terms of a deal and everyone gets involved since whatever the outcome may be will inevitably affect everyone at the table.

The buy-in for this game is heavy. Inquiring at my local board game store for a copy, I learned that the game is $60 USD, but if you’re a big board gamer, you may be used to seeing that price tag every now and again. Regardless, check out videos, look the game up online, and make the decision for yourself. Me? I will happily recommend Dungeon Dice to the each of you and give it 4 out of 5 Beazy Points. Thanks again for tuning into another Tabletop Tuesday.