Over the past few years, Roxley's Dice Throne has taken the tabletop gaming world by storm with its mix of incredible artwork, interesting cast of characters, and solid player vs. player gameplay. With sixteen different characters to choose from, each with their own special moves and upgrades, Dice Throne can accommodate one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three, or free-for-all play. With Dice Throne Adventures' recent release, this changes by pitting players against the game in an adventure against the Mad King and his corrupted adventurers.
Described as "Yahtzee meets Magic: The Gathering," Dice Throne has players rolling five dice to activate one of several abilities on their character board. These abilities can be offensive, defensive, or supportive, dealing damage and status conditions to opponents or buffing friendly characters. Each of the sixteen characters plays differently, though they are perfectly balanced against one another. In Dice Throne Adventures, this balance is tossed on its head a bit, pitting players against powerful foes that require teamwork to take down. While the shift from competitive to cooperative is a major change for the series, the overall gameplay remains largely the same.
Competitive
Dice Throne's sixteen characters are spread across two Seasons, each self-contained and not requiring one to play the other. In fact, all players need to play Dice Throne is a character for each player, and they are good to go. Season 1's initial release came in a single box with six characters. The later released Dice Throne Season 1: Rerolled addition two new additional characters with the option to buy all eight in a BattleChest or two-character packs. Dice Throne Season 2 was available from the start in an eight-character BattleChest or two-character packs. Dice Throne's goal is to be the last person or team standing, trading blows back and forth with opponents while using cards and special abilities to mitigate the luck of dice and buff/debuff characters.
The Yahtzee-like rolling mechanic made the game instantly familiar to most players, and the simple rules, fast gameplay, and varied characters made the game an instant hit. The ability to purchase everything up front or in bits and pieces makes it easy for many different players to fit the game into their budget. The competitive nature lends itself well to tournaments and convention play.
Cooperative
Dice Throne Adventures is the third game in the Dice Throne series, flipping the series on its head and delivering a cooperative dungeon crawl experience. The core mechanics of how the game plays stay the same, but an added layer of tile movement, enemy AI, and loot adds extra depth not found in the previous games. The Mad King, which has gathered all these heroes to fight, now has to contend with them banding together to stop his tyranny, and he has unleashed his monsters and corrupted adventurers to stop them.
Playable solo, or with up to four players, Dice Throne Adventurers contains a campaign of connected games as players travel from the Crimson Sands all the way to the Mad King's throne room. Characters will earn permanent upgrades, whether they win or lose, that persist until the final confrontation with the Mad King. There is even secret sealed content for players to open once the Mad King is defeated for the first time.
Dice Throne Adventures is available now.