Dice Throne: Season One Rerolled - RFY / WFY
If you haven’t heard of Dice Throne yet, then you’re missing out. And if you haven’t played it yet, then you’ve not engaged with one of the most fun board games I’ve played in recent memory.
Designed by Nate Chatellier and Manny Trembley (who also did the artwork), it was initially published in 2018 by Roxley Games, who reworked the game and fulfilled a successful Kickstarter campaign for Dice Throne: Season One Rerolled and Dice Throne Adventures last year.
In the original release, there were six heroes in the big box, condensed into small plastic containers that included custom character dice, health and combat point dials, as well as all the character board and all of the applicable status tokens for each hero.
Now, it’s been bolstered by the inclusion of two new combatants and a retooled design that mimics that style of the Season Two box.
It’s a bigger box with all eight heroes in closed, portable containers that could allow you to just take them out of the box and carry them wherever you wanted.
It’s also just another excuse to fall in love with this dice-based dueling game. So with new clothes and a fresher style, let’s see what’s going on with Dice Throne.
Overview
Review copy provided by the publisher
What are you doing in Dice Throne? What do dice have to do with it? Why is there a throne?
Dice Throne is a dice game, but that doesn’t do it justice. It’s a card game, but that doesn’t fully describe what’s there. It’s an asymmetric hero battler where each character has custom dice and the combination of those dice will enable players to unleash offensive attacks and power up defensive maneuvers.
It’s a tactical card game where each deck has special cards to influence and empower the player’s hero. Whoever is left standing at the end wins.
Two to six players can enjoy Dice Throne, though the most likely player counts will be two and four, with 1v1 and 2v2 battles occurring at the table. Select a character from the eight heroes—Barbarian, Moon Elf, Shadow Thief, Pyromancer, Monk, Paladin, Ninja, and Treant—and then find the right path to victory while upgrading your hero and creating devastating dice combinations.
The Rerolled edition is a remastered version of Dice Throne: Season One and it adds two characters to the debut cast of six. The octet each possess a redesigned character board that folds and covers all of the other hero-specific components. And the storage trays mirror what was introduced in the Season Two battle chest.
Theme
For a thousand years, the Mad King has sat atop his high throne seeking a worthy challenger. Each year, he hosts a tournament of champions with the greatest prize a hero could ever want: The Throne.
Over a thousand tournaments, the Mad King has never lost. Heroes come from all corners of the globe, each with their own reasons for seeking supreme power. Will you be the one bold enough to take the throne?
Now, all things considered, this tournament doesn’t ever end. There is no Mad King to play against—only other champions who pose a threat to your success. But this tournament of champions will be enough to keep your attention, likely.
If you’re looking for some thematic immersion, though, then the heroes all feature distinct playstyles, action decks, and personalities that leap from the player boards and onto the table with custom dice that strike fear into the heart of any who dare confront them.
It’s a game where you don’t count the enemy out until their health dial is at “0” and the fight is over. Otherwise, an Ultimate attack or a stunning reversal of fortune is always in the cards.
Accessibility
Becca Scott can teach you how to play in less than 8 minutes, so it’s pretty accessible.
The Rerolled edition brings accessibility to another level, though, with each hero’s box tucked away inside the larger chest. Pull it out and you’ve got a trifold player board, five custom dice, an action deck full of cards for attack and defense, a hero reference sheet, status tokens for positive and negative combat influencers, and then the dials for tracking health and combat points.
It sets up in less than a minute and the rules are easily discernible.
Young players would be able to grasp the concept quickly and the variable player count means that it’s not just a two-player game (though I feel like it plays best at that count).
A game lasts between 20 and 40 minutes, but if you want to switch fighters in between each encounter, then all you have to do is pack the pieces away into the box and then pull out a different one. You can also take certain storage trays out and travel with them if you want a smaller footprint for more accessible play.
Gameplay
Each character plays differently, so there are eight different options for players to try out. If you add in the other eight heroes from Season Two, then there are 16 champions available.
The Barbarian is a straightforward fighter, with heavy hits and the stamina to keep swinging until the end.
The Moon Elf is a slippery opponent who tries to wear down her enemies while dodging attacks.
The Pyromancer lays it all on the line with potentially massive fire attacks. A glass cannon of sorts.
The Shadow Thief relies on debilitating poison attacks and the long game. The more time it takes to kill the thief, the more dangerous they become.
The Paladin is a stalwart soldier who will shrug off many attacks and try to use his righteous powers to smite his foes.
The Monk depends on balance and will channel his strength into offense or defense as the need arises.
The Ninja strikes from the shadows and evades getting hit just like the Moon Elf.
The Treant summons the support of the elemental spirits of the forest to aid its efforts against any who oppose the tree creature.
Dice Throne alternates player turns as each hero progresses through a series of phases—Upkeep, Income, Main, Offensive Roll, Targeting Roll, Defensive Roll, Main, and Discard.
Upkeep involves the resolution of status effects and passive abilities. Income rewards players with combat points (CP) and new cards. The Main phase, first and second, allow players to upgrade their abilities from the deck, gain CP, and prepare for their Offensive Roll phase and the upcoming attacks of their opponent. Offensive Roll is the process by which the hero launches an attack with three dice rolls (one initial roll and up to two re-rolls). Targeting Roll only occurs with more than two players and it determines who gets hit. Defensive Roll is the opportunity for the hero receiving damage to defend themselves. Discard manages the players’ hands at or under the maximum.
And that’s it. Fight until only one hero (or team) is left standing.
Each hero is unique, with a combination of offensive, passive, and defensive abilities. There is also an Ultimate attack that activates when players roll a 6 on all five of the dice.
The design of the player boards, hero leaflets, and cards are compact and thoughfully spaced for approachable gameplay.
Modes of Play
The most prevalent game mode is likely the two-player 1v1 game, but there are other ways to play Dice Throne.
For a full list, check out the game files from Roxley, but know that you can play it at 2v2, 3v3, and 2v2v2 in team games, and you can also play between 3-6 players in a King of the Hill style. It’s combat chaos, but also provides the opportunity to try the game with multiple champions at the same time.
Innovation
The first release of Dice Throne already implemented design choices that increased accessibility and replayability. The individual plastic inserts for the six heroes enabled players to quickly set up the game and switch between heroes without much impact on the gameplay.
The Rerolled remaster updated the contents to match what Roxley put out in Season Two. The smaller plastic inserts have been replaced with thinner, longer storage trays that fully close. And two more heroes provide even more replay value in the latest edition. The storage trays lay on their side in the bigger box but can easily be removed (and even transported separately).
While it’s not part of the Rerolled game itself, Roxley Games also created Dice Throne Adventures alongside the Season One remaster, and it’s a cooperative/solo campaign full of exploration, treasures, and epic fights with smaller minions and big bosses. So there are additional designs that take the ideas of Dice Throne and elevate them to new levels.
Pricing
Getting all of the Dice Throne heroes can be a pricey affair. Each season costs $90 for a box with eight characters. Acquiring all 16 would set you back $160. So, it’s more expensive than many games.
However, if you want to start small, Roxley does have smaller boxes with two heroes, which is all you need to get started. Those eight different box sets from the two seasons cost $25 each.
This means you could ease your way or get them all at once, depending on your preference as a player and as a consumer. To see all the options available, check out Roxley’s Dice Throne shop.