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"Rolled Bones is a fast paced, dice
based, roll playing strategy adventure game where quick thinking and the
luck of the dice rule. As you draw dice from your Chaos Bag and bring them
into play you will find a huge assortment of characters and magic waiting
to bring your realm to victorious power! Archers, Goblins, Dragons and the
like, interact with Magical Spells like Hey You, Cup Runneth Over and Fist
of Removal to create glorious battles and exciting game play."
Rolled Bones utilizes a new technology to print full color images directly onto the die. If you want to pay a little extra you can even get glow-in-the-dark Rolled Bones. The dice themselves are of high quality and durable enough to survive the rigors of play. The artwork is not "Magic: the Gathering" quality but the style suits the game's fun loving fantasy theme well.
The standard starter set contains everything one person needs to play the game. At first the $34.99 set-up fee seemed a bit steep. But considering the average cost of a collectable die is $1.00 the price is more than reasonable.
Rolled Bones uses five different dice types. All Creature and Base dice have a special Power Side. These powers come into effect when the 5th side of that die is up. When these faces are in play, their power will overrule the general rules of the game to which they apply. Here is a brief look at the different dice types:
The Bones Die is appropriately a bone shaped six sided die.
Base Dice are needed to complete your Base in order to win. You need to build a Base of six dice and hold it for one turn to win the game.
Creature Dice are used to defend your forces and attack your opponent's. Each creature has a Power Side and some also include the ability to Band, First Strike, or Fly.
Magic Dice are some of the most
powerful and interesting dice in the game. They are used to bring special
effects into play and/or change features of game play.
Some Magic Dice have a Flash ability which allows you to play the die at
any time.
Item Dice imbue powers that remain in effect while sitting on its target. Item Dice act like permanent spells or special abilities.
Game play is simple and straightforward. Each player starts with six dice in their Bone Rack. You begin your turn by placing any Base Dice into play. You then repopulate your Base Rack by drawing a die randomly from your Chaos Bag and placing it anywhere on the rack. After your Bone Rack is filled with six dice you roll your Bone Die. The number rolled determines which die is brought into play.
You can then use your creatures to defend or attack. You defend your base by placing a creature on top of the Base Die. You can attack your opponent's creatures or base by rolling your Bone Die and adding it to your creature's face value. Your opponent retaliates by rolling a Bone Die and adding it to their base or creature's face value. The highest number kills the lowest number. Rolled Bones has a list of all the dice and complete rulebook posted on their website.
After one player has completed all of his actions play passes to the next player.
Simple right? Wait until you start mixing special abilities, items, and magic dice. Things can get pretty interesting when you Band with a creature that can attack your opponent's Back Door with a +6 Contortion magic die. There are only a few dice that are very powerful alone, but when you start mixing magic and creatures you can create some devastating combos. This leads to fast and furious game play with the balance of power swinging drastically each turn.
This is what makes a 2 player game exciting but it leaves out some of the strategy. I would recommend playing with three or more people if you're interested in tactics. A three player game becomes much more balanced since you can form alliances to take down a bigger opponent. Adding another player also adds about an hour of game time.
Number of players: 2+
Complexity: Easy
Average game time: 10-30 minutes for a 2 player game
Here is a list of the Starter Set's
contents:
1 Rulebook
1 Bone Rack
1 Chaos Bag
1 Bone Die
30 Rolled Bones dice
Bottom line:
If you're into complex strategy games you'd be better off playing one of
those games with a 100 page rulebook. If you are looking for a wild and
crazy game of dice rolling mayhem, Rolled Bones is THE game.
If you're a dice game enthusiast you might want to collect a set since Rolled Bones is the first game to utilize this new printing technology.
Written by
John Goodenough
(Posted 07-18-2001)