Zombies aren't known for their critical thinking skills, but in Zombie Dice, a fast-paced, risk-vs-reward dice-rolling game designed by Steve Jackson, you play a zombie who must balance its desire for human brains with its fear of getting blasted to necrotic bits by a shotgun.
The game comes with 13 specially marked dice. The dice have three kinds of markings: brains, shotgun blasts, and footprints. (Green dice have more brains, red dice have more shotgun blasts, yellow dice are in-between).
The rules are simple: two or more people can play. Everyone is a zombie. The dice represent humans. When it's your turn, pull three dice from the cardboard cup (without looking) and roll them. Set any brains to one side. Set any shotgun blasts to the other side. Footprints mean the human got away – keep those in front of you. Do you want to roll again? No problem. Just re-roll the footprints dice along with enough fresh dice from the cup so that you roll three dice. You can roll as many times as you like in an effort to eats lots of brains in your turn (my record is 11 juicy brains in one turn), but if you end up accumulating three shotgun blasts, you lose all your brain points for that turn and the next player-zombie gets its turn. When one player gets 13 points, play continues until the round is finished and whoever has the most points wins.
Roll #1: 2 footprints and 1 shotgun blast. Set the blast die to the side, draw one die from the cup and roll again.
Roll #2: 2 brains and 1 footprint. Set the brains to the side. You can end your turn now with 2 brain points or press your luck and roll again. I choose to roll again!
Roll #3: 2 footprints and 1 blast. Now I have 2 blasts. It is risky to roll again. But I'm a hungry, not-too-bright zombie so I choose to roll again.
Roll #3: 2 footprints and 1 blast. Argh! I've been killed by three shotgun blasts and my score for this turn is zero!
Over at my house, we are switching off between Tenzi (reviewed here) and Zombie Dice.
