Dice Masters

Dice Masters are a series of dice-rolling games that come in a variety of guises – there’s a Marvel set, a DC Comics set (above), Dungeons and Dragons, Yu-Gi-Oh! and so on.

The game sees players pitted against each other each with a team of fighters; in the above instance super-heroes or super-villains – or even a mix of both. The basic game comes with a deck of cards and a set of dice, and the game really functions via the dice; the cards are there to elaborate on what the dice represent.

At the start of the game, each player picks a team of characters and gets a set amount of dice they can add to them. Each character has different strengths, and even special moves they can bring to the table. Additionally both sides have eight sidekick dice that they put in a bag.

On a given turn, players roll four dice from their bag and then choose how to use them – the dice values are powers of four different kinds (fists, lightening bolts, shields and masks) and they can spend these powers to buy more dice – the specialist dice that are on their character cards, or some shared ‘action’ dice . They can also – given the right rolls – choose to move a sidekick or character die into battle, spending power to send them forward into an attack zone. When both players have characters in the attack zone the active player chooses which (if there is more than one) character they want to fight, and the fighting is simply an act of comparing attack strength to defensive strength. The beaten character (or both, if there is a tie) is removed from the attack zone (though it’s not out of the game and will return) and, if applicable, points are deducted from the losing player. Players start with 20 points each and when one side reaches zero points, they lose.

That’s the basic thrust of the game: it’s a luck-laced game of fighting that also contains some depth – in how you choose to spend your dice, and what characters you choose for your team – as how they work together can have a real bearing on the game’s outcome.