Tuesday Reviewsday: Zombie Dice

Players: 2+  
Playtime: 5-10 minutes

Replay Value: 5/10 

Zombie Dice (another Steve Jackson game) is a quick and simple dice rolling game that is great for getting you in the gaming mood. You play as zombies. Hungry zombies. Each dice rolls dictates whether you collect brains for your winter stash, the humans run away, or you get shot.

At the start of your turn, you pull 3 dice out of the container and roll them. Each brain is worth one point. Footprints mean the person has run away. The shotgun blast is, well, as shot in the head. Don't worry you are a super zombie and can handle getting shot twice times, but the third time puts you on the ground.

It is possible to get shot three times on your first roll. It just makes you really super unlucky. Most of the time you'll get some combination of getting shot, maybe getting a brain or two and having to chase someone down. After rolling three dice you get to decided whether to end your turn and 'bank' your brains, or to draw some more dice and press your luck. If you decide to keep going you must re-roll your feet (since you're chasing those people down) plus drawing from the cup to roll a total of three dice.

There are three different coloured dice in the game. Green dice (I like to think of them as Grandma) only have 1 side depicting a shotgun blast, 2 sides depicting feet and 3 sides showing brains. Yellow dice (delinquent teens) have an even spread of two shots, two feet and two brains. Red dice (retired para-military guys?) have 3 shots, two feet and one brain. There are 13 dice in total, 6 are green, 4 yellow and 3 reds. 

Whilst the odds are in your favour (29 brains across 13 dice, but only 23 shots) it never feels like it. Almost every roll seems to get you shot unless you are as lucky as Freddie Wong. Reaching into the cup is always stressful, because you don't know what dice you will pull out. You have to chose whether you roll again or not before pulling out the dice. While you might think you're safe to go again you might reach into the cup and pull out three red dice, stacking the odds horribly against yourself.

The game is simple and yet so satisfying. While there is technically no interaction between players, you still get to dig at people, mocking them for getting shot by grandma or goading them into rolling more dice than they should.