02-007 Zombie Dice (Horde Edition)

02-007
Zombie Dice (Horde Edition)

Released in 2010, Zombie Dice is a simple “push your luck” dice rolling game, published by Steve Jackson.

Steve Jackson is famous in creating role-playing and strategy games in science fiction themes. I first heard of Steve Jackson was from their Illuminati card game. Conspiracists said that the game, published in 1994, can predict future and has successfully predicted the 911 attack. Munchkin is another great hit from Steven Jackson and spurred a number of spin-offs. But as mentioned before, I am never a card game nerd. I have only heard of Steven Jackson but never owned any of their games, not until Zombie Dice.

Zombie Dice (Horde Edition)

Like other Steve Jackson games, Zombie Dice also has a controversial theme. You are not playing as a survivor, trying to escape from zombies. In the game, you are a zombie and you are hungry. You need to eat as much as human brains to win the game.

Zombie Dice Horde Edition contains the original Zombie Dice set, the Zombie Dice 2 “Double Feature” expansion pack, and the Zombie Dice 3 “School Bus” expansion pack. If you have not owned any Zombie Dice game before, Horde edition is the one you should look for. It also comes with a nicely made dice bag, some tokens and some scoring sheets. Otherwise, just look for the expansion packs will do. Other versions, like the Zombie Dice Deluxe, are just gimmicks.

Let me go through the original set and the expansion packs with you one by one.

Zombie Dice, the original set

The original Zombie Dice set contains 13 specialty marked dice. Each die represents a victim. Just as real humans, all victims have brains. They know how to run and they will fight back. And just like in real life, there are weaker people, moderate people and tougher people. These are represented by dice marked in green, yellow and red respectively.

On every die, there are brain (which means you catch them), feet (which mean your victim has escaped) and shotgun (which means the victim fights back). Depends on the power of your victim, dice maeked in green got more brains and less shotguns. Dice marked in red have more shotguns and less brains.

It is a game of luck. Every time, the player pulls out 3 dice and rolls. There will be a combinations of dice in different colours. A brain means 1 point. Getting 3 shotguns or more loses the round. The player then score nothing. Feet mean the victim has escaped and the player can choose to reroll.

So for example, after the first roll, if a player got 1 brain, 1 shotgun and 1 feet, he can choose to pull out 2 new dice from the bag and roll them together with the “feet” die in the previous roll. He then got a chance of getting more brains but also risking his life of getting a total of 3 shotguns and earn nothing in that round. Or, he can choose to stop and collect only 1 point.

The first player getting 13 brains ends the game. Other players have one more round to push their luck. Player with the most brains wins. Simple and easy.

Zombie Dice 2 “Double Feature” Expansion Pack

Zombie Dice 2 gives some twists to the game. In this expansion pack, 3 new dice are introduced, the two Heroes and the Santa Claus. Heroes include the Hunk and the Hottie. The Hunk got a double-shotgun icon, but if you eat his brain, you score double. The Hottie has two shotguns and three feet icons, making her fast AND dangerous. Santa Claus has three special gift icons – a helmet, an energy drink, and a double brain! Or, of course, you could eat Santa's brain. He will also run or shot you.

Zombie Dice 3 “School Bus” Expansion Pack

Zombie Dice 3 contains only 1 big yellow colour 12-sided die called the “School Bus” and some tokens for score keeping. Since the “School Bus” die will be rerolled in the same round, the tokens are used to keep track of any brains or shotguns received.

8 combinations of playing

If you own the Horde Edition or both expansion packs, there are 8 combinations of playing:

1. The original Zombie Dice;
2. “Big Summer Action Movie”, i.e. Original Zombie Dice + the Heroes;
3. “Santa Claus Meets the Zombies”, i.e. Original Zombie Dice + the Santa Claus;
4. “The Direct-to-Video Sequel”, i.e. Original Zombie Dice + the Heroes + the Santa Claus;
5. Original Zombie Dice + “School Bus”;
6. “Big Summer Action Movie” + “School Bus”;
7. “Santa Claus Meets the Zombies” + “School Bus”;
8. “The Direct-to-Video Sequel” + “School Bus”.

Zombie Dice 2 and Zombie Dice 3 are expansion packs. They cannot be played alone.

I tell you what. Kids don’t like to be survivors and just keep running. They love to be zombies and threaten others of eating their brains. They are all excited when I told them that I have ordered this game from Amazon. After it arrived, we played the game for almost every night for the first 2 weeks. But then, they got bored of the game.

The reason is, although the theme of the game is attractive to kids, the game play is too simple. In Zombie Dice, the only decision that a player can make after each roll is whether to go on or not. Compare to Farkel or Poker Dice, apart from deciding whether to go on or not after each roll, the player can also decide which dice to keep and which to reroll. There is not much of strategy in Zombie Dice. Now the game becomes another dust collector on my bookshelf. 

General Information

Player	2 to 8
Playing Time	10 - 20 mins
Age	10+
Year Released	2017
Designer	Steve Jackson
Publisher	Steve Jackson Games
Family	Dice Rolling, Push Your Luck
Score	6.8 (Board Game Geek)

Specifications

Dice size	Zombie Dice & Zombie Dice 2 – 16mm Zombie Dice 3 -
# of dice	Zombie Dice – 13 Zombie Dice 2 – 3 Zombie Dice 3 – 1
Faces	Zombie Dice & Zombie Dice 2 – 6 Zombie Dice 3 – 12
Details	The original Zombie Dice game contains 13 specialty marked d6 dice. In which 6 of them are marked in green, 4 of them are marked in yellow and 3 of them are marked in red. For the dice marked in green, three of the faces are marked with brain, two of the faces are marked with feet, and the remaining face is marked with shotgun. For the dice marked in yellow, there are two brains, two feet and two shotguns. Dice marked in red represent tough humans. They have shotguns on 3 of the faces, feet on 2 of the faces, and only one brain. Zombie Dice 2 contains 3 specialty marked d6 dice. In which one of them is marked in white, which represents the Hunk. Another die is marked in pink, which represents the Hottie. The third die is red and is the Santa Claus. The “Hunk” die contains 2 shotguns, 1 double shotgun, 2 feet and 1 double brain. The “Hottie” die contains 3 feet, 2 shotgun and 1 brain. The “Santa Claus” die contains 1 double brain, 1 brain, 1 “feet”, 1 "energy drink", 1 helmut and 1 shotgun.   Zombie Dice 3 contains only 1 yellow colour d12 die.  The first two faces are “Brain”. The remaining ten faces include “Double brain”, “Triple brain”, “Shotgun”, “Double shotgun”, 1 brain and 1 shotgun, 2 brains and 1 shotgun, “Stop Sign”, “Yield Sign”, “Dead End Sign” and “Run Over”.   There are also 10 Brains counters, 4 Shotgun counters, 1 Score pad and 1 Dice bag.

The game play

Where to buy?

Amazon.

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