Gang of Dice - First Play!

23rd July 2023

It's a Sunday and we're logged into Board Game Arena for some gaming.

The life of a mafioso underling is a bit of a tricky one. You want to impress 'The Don' but just not too much in this push-your-luck dice game about a retiring mob boss looking for a replacement.

Will Gang of Dice be an 'offer you can't refuse' or 'just strictly business'?

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Caveat: We've only ever played this game digitally.

What's in a game?

• Dice: The game comes with 36 dice. These are for the most part normal six-siders, only the '6' has been replaced with an icon that represents 'no value'.
• Screens: In the physical copy, there's a screen for each player.
• Tokens: These are 'gangster tokens' are stylised coins which display a '3' on one side and are used to represent.... well, gangsters.
• Warning cards: There are 2 types of warning card; explosive and bomb, which are obviously indicated by an explosion or bomb image on the front of the card. The front of each card also depicts various dice related icons and symbols which are that card's requirements for dice rolls.
  Finally, cards will display a light or dark side on the back.
  What's the difference between these types, more on that below.

The physical version of the game has illustrations on the screens and the tokens but that's just about for artwork.
The dice are black with white pips; fitting colours for a mafia themed game.

All the warning cards feature icons of symbols along with dice or values. Most are fairly self-evident but a couple will require clarification from the rule book. It's nothing too complicated.

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How's it play?
Set up

• Players: Give each player a screen.
  Dice: Give each player 9-12 dice depending on player count.
  Tokens: Also give each player 9-12 tokens dependant on player count. Then put 6 tokens aside, these will be used in the final rounds of the game.
• Warning cards: Sort the cards into their 2 types according to colour on the back of the cards, shuffle each into a face-down deck and remove 3 from each deck.
  Next, place the light coloured cards on to the dark, thus creating a 12 card face-down deck where the last cards to be revealed will be the dark coloured ones.
• First player: Determine a starting player.

On to play
Gang of Dice is played over 12 rounds and players will face a different warning cards in each one. A warning card is essentially a restriction that players do not want to break. They will be attempting to roll their dice with the aim of getting the highest numbers possible without going over or breaking the restriction (I.e., going bust.).
Gang of Dice uses a typical turn order with the active player acting before play progresses to the player on their left.

• Reveal card: Flip over the topmost card from the deck and this will reveal the warning for that round.
  A warning card will be contain something like 'don't roll 7 or higher' or 'don't roll identical numbers', etc.
  Whether the card is an explosive or bomb card will also affect play as described below.
• Active player: The active player must next make some decisions, keeping in mind what is on the current warning card.
  • ​Choose number of dice: The active player must choose how many dice they want to roll, this must be at least 1 die and will not change throughout their turn.
  • Roll the dice: The active player now rolls their chosen number of dice and compares how well they did in relation to the warning card.
  • Rerolls: If the active player is unhappy with the result, they may choose to reroll any number of the dice they initially rolled. Then after that, if they choose, they may reroll any number of their dice 2nd time.
  • Check results: Once the active player has finished rolling, they should compare the result against the warning card.
    Bomb: If the active player's final result has crossed the threshold of the warning card (E.g., if the warning card stated 'don't roll 7 or higher' and the final result was a 9.) then the active player has failed! They are out of contention for winning the round.
    Explosion: How this type of warning card works is a little different. If the result of any of the active player's rolls fails the warning card, then the active player immediately fails! This can occur during any of the rolls and consequently makes explosion warning cards a more risky proposition.
    Contender: If the active player's final result has not failed, then they are in contention to win the round.
  • Next player: Once the active player has resolved their dice, play progresses to the player on their left who becomes the active player and begins their dice rolls against the warning card.
• End of round: Once all players have completed their turn, the following occurs.
  Declare winner: From among the contenders who did not fail the task, whoever has the highest score wins the round and their prize for winning is to collect all dice used by all players for that round.
  All failed: If all players failed, then all the dice used in current round are added to the prize for the subsequent round.
• Next round: Once the winner of a round has been determined, the following occurs.
  New first player: Whoever won the last round becomes the first player for the following round.
  Reveal new warning card: A new warning card is flipped.
• Final rounds: Once the first 9 rounds have been completed, a slight change to the rules occur.
  10th round: Whoever wins the 10th round, also wins a token (From the 6 tokens set aside during setup.).
  11th round: The winner of this round also wins 2 tokens from the tokens.
  12th round: You guessed it, whoever wins the final round gets the last 3 tokens.
• Additional rules:
  Out of dice: If a player runs out of dice, they can 'buy' dice from their opponents by paying for them with tokens. Each token spent this way earns the spender 3 dice.
  Out of tokens: If a player is out of dice and tokens, then they are eliminated from the game!

Endgame
Once the 12th round is over, so is the game!
Players now calculate their finishing scores.
Each die is worth 1 victory point (VP) while each token is worth 3VPs.

Points are tallied, highest score wins.

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Overall
In Gang of Dice, dice represent gangsters and players are trying to gather the biggest gang to become the new boss. It sort of fits but is also a little abstract.

Gang of Dice is a pretty straightforward push-your-luck dice game with a core mechanic that's been used many times in other games. That's not a bad thing, it just means experienced players will be on familiar ground.

Where the game does add something is in the use of warning cards to change objectives every round, players will have to think about how many dice to use in response and have to balance the need to get a higher score with avoiding going bust: Get a result that's too low and a player has a smaller chance to win the round but too high and they go bust. It forces the player to make meaningful decisions both with dice selection and choosing to do rerolls or not.
Add to this the risk of going bust while using too many dice means potentially gifting even more of them to other players. There's definitely some swingy scoring going on here. Watching what other players ahead in the turn order are doing and what results they get is important and may make players change their approach.
Explosive warning cards also up the ante a little more so to speak. Players will need to be much more careful with how they take risks here as a single roll can wreck their chances of a win.
Finally, the last 3 rounds increase the stakes, as players can also earn tokens. E.g., round 12 will earn the winner 3 tokens which are work 9VPs. Things can potentially change quite a lot in these last 3 rounds and I feel it serves as a bit of a catch-up mechanic.

So I think Gang of Dice is solid mechanically. The problem I have with it is that it's just a bit average, I feel its unique points don't do enough to differentiate it from other games that provide a similar experience but t in a better way. There are other games of this type that I prefer.

Where Gang of Dice is strong is in its relative simplicity. The rules-light gameplay and accessible theme would be suitable for younger players or non-dedicated gamers. If you're looking for a push-your-luck dice game, this one does nothing wrong and I imagine would be a good crossover game.
For me though, it would not be my first choice.