Samurai Dice, Game Review

Hikaru

Hikaru stood alone with his weapon poised on the field of honor. Ayako was making his way carefully to where the two would meet. Hikaru was prepared, he knew this place. He knew where there was sure footing and where not to be allowed to be pushed back towards. He watched Ayako moving closer, searching with his eyes the ground and the other surroundings. Ayako would be a formidable opponent, which was never a question.

Thuderegg Productions is following up their samurai role-playing game (RPG), Kaigaku (link to review), with a Samurai Dice.

Samurai Dice is being described as a cross over between an RPG and a fast-paced dice game. It is a combat dice game where you ae using characters to help in the strategy and outcome of events. There are some other aspects that work as a crossover to the RPG Thunderegg has already published.

I was sent a link to try the introductory version of the game which has each player controlling a party of heroes. The goal is to defeat your enemies before the other players defeat their enemies.

You're not attacking the other players. I do see where house rules could be established to allow player versus player action. The rules are designed so enemy abilities activate randomly. This allows a certain element of "surprise" of not knowing what your enemy is going to do.

The heroes are controlled by the players and their abilities are decided on before the rolling of any dice. And, of course this gives an advantage to the heroes. This unbalancing is not a bad thing in this game because this is not about getting through the battle to see who wins, it is a race to see which player is the first to defeat all of the enemies.

The game can be played in rounds, or with everyone rolling their pool of five dice at the same time. The dice mechanic used is easily learned and makes the game easier to play with younger players.

In the promotion pack are a couple of cards depicting the artwork style being planned for Samurai Dice. It looks to be very similar to the artwork used in the RPG.

What sets this game apart is it is being designed as a compliment to Kaigaku, the developer's RPG. The characters not only fit into the genre and style, but use some of the same basic mechanics of building the dice game. This would allow the information on the cards to be complimentary to the RPG.

Ayako

The dice version also allows for hero advancement. This would allow for players to create a continuous game lasting between sessions if desired.

Samurai Dice also would make a good filler game while waiting for the gaming group to arrive. Setting the mood with the cards, even if they aren't being used in the role-playing.

The four on four version set into the promotional version only took 10–15 minutes. With the additional cards being considered and variants on rules a game could be easily adjusted to fit an available time slot. We also looked at the possibility that a game could be set up on a point system of tracking the number of opponents defeated. This would allow an open ended game that could be stopped at any point, be it a time limit or Samantha has arrived.

Samurai Dice is being developed by Jacob Ross and distributed by Thunderegg Productions. The version I looked at did not have estimates of time or number of players. However, I think both of these are adjustable. No age limit was given but I am thinking this would be a 10+ or 12+ game because of the decision making of which enemy to fight and when to use abilities.

Samurai Dice went up on Kickstarter the first of October 2017.

Hikaru stands alone, again. Now, his weapon was lowered and soiled. It was an honorable battle. Ayako laid on the ground while Hikaru paid his respect to the fallen warrior.

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