Every day, we dice with death, hell I get behind the wheel of a car and drive fifty miles on the M4, each way, if that’s not dangerous, what is?
Let’s face it the old adage actually works, you never feel more alive than when you’re close to death. Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but that doesn’t actually mean I want to go jump out of plane (though at this point I should admit that I have actually done that from 2500 feet - Scary!).
It’s also a truism that literature and gaming works better for most of us when there is an element of danger, the potential of death involved. That’s why things like Call or Duty, Halo, and Battlefield are so successful. (I do wonder how Battlefield 1 will do when it’s the ninth in series, but there you are, numbering conventions huh?) But what happens when the power goes off?
Ok, the power might not be about to go out, this isn’t the 1970s after all, but there are times and places where you can’t take the power let alone the Playstation (or another console you may prefer). What about when there are a number of others in the house that you want to take time with, but who can’t figure out the controller?
Well there are a million and one games that can fill that space. Here’s one of them.
Zombie Dice.
This is one of the simplest games that I’ve found. It doesn’t take ages to play, but it’s simple, understandable, fun and involves no skill whatsoever so anyone of any age can play it. Despite the name there’s nothing actually that bad about this so there’s no need to fear.
The set up is easy - there isn’t any. Just get around a table or on the floor, or wherever you can get together.
The premise is well known. The zombies have risen. You are a zombie and you want brains! If you get 13 of them, you win.
So how do you do this? You roll the dice - see no skill involved, all luck.
The dice have three symbols, brains, shotgun explosion and footprints. Brains give you one point, shotgun explosions are bad and the footprints allow you to re-roll that particular dice. After rolling three dice you can decide to score your brains or try your luck be re-rolling any footprints and enough dice from the pot to make it three. But if you get three shotguns, you’re dead, you lose your brains and your turn is over, otherwise you keep rolling until you decide otherwise. To win, keep track of the number of brains you have won without dying until someone reaches 13 brains.
The game has 13 dice. Six green, four yellow and three red. The green are most likely to give you brains, the red most likely to kill you.
Because you are rolling dice, you can do anything from roll three shotguns straight off and be out immediately, or you could be lucky, get three brains and just keep going till you get thirteen brains in a single go - my max so far has been ten.
It’s simple, it’s fun, and you really can do this with all the family. There are expansion packs and alternative titles with the same mechanics, meaning there are loads of variations. So why don’t you go dicing with the dead?
Gail Williams lives in her own private dungeon populated with all the weird and the wonderful she can imagine. Some of it’s very weird, and the odd bits and pieces are a bit wonderful. Well okay, she lives in Swansea with her husband and daughter. And the world’s most demanding cat. To find out more about Gail, check out www.gailbwilliams.co.uk - Dare you!
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