Blueprints

Blueprints is a fairly simple dice game where you don’t need to roll any particular number to win – instead, you represent architects using the dice as building materials.

Players begin the game with a randomly dealt blueprint that they hide behind a screen. These show where you can place you dice, and your blueprint asks for a specific structure: two dice here, one there, and so on. Sticking to your blueprint is good, but deviating from it can also reward, as we shall see.

The game plays over three rounds. and in each round players take turns selecting one die from a pool and adding it to their blueprint behind their screen, and after everyone has placed six dice the round is scored. The dice represent different building materials: green is recycled material, clear is glass, brown is wood and black is stone. Green scores exponentially – the more you have, the more points you get. Brown scores for the amount of dice its adjacent to. Black scores more for being higher up in your building, and clear simply scores the face-up number value on the die.

Your blueprint doesn’t mind which material goes where: as long as you stick to the blueprint you instantly score six points. Everyone totals up their scores and receives awards of first, second and third that are worth points at the end of the game. But you can also get points in other ways from Prizes – if you have four of the same number value, five of the same colour, one of every number value (1-6) or if you’ve built the tallest building – though this last prize requires you build at least five levels high!

So what you’re trying to do, ideally, is grab some of these prizes whilst either sticking to your blueprint (6 points is a LOT in this game) or scoring the most to get the most valuable building award. After the third round of building, everyone reveals their awards and scores are totaled. Most points wins.