Ninja Dice review

Greenbrier Games | Dice game | £15.99 | 2-5 players | 30 minutes | www.greenbriergames.com 

If you judge your tabletop gaming choices on the box alone, then it’s certainly likely that Ninja Dice will attract your attention (that’s certainly how we originally discovered it). The reason is that Ninja Dice comes in a little cloth box that resembles a cartoon ninja and looks great on your gaming shelf. Luckily though, the box is just the beginning as this is a fun little push your luck dice game that’s great as a warm up before playing something more in-depth.

In the game you play as a ninja who is trying to get into a house and steal some treasure without getting caught. To represent the break-in there are three different sets of dice: six House dice, five Skill dice and four Threat dice. An opposing player rolls the House dice to show the obstacles the ninja must overcome, e.g people who live in the house or guards, while the active player rolls the Skill dice to try and beat the obstacles. So players can sneak past a guard by rolling a stealth icon, for example, or roll a lock pick to undo a lock.

However, the other element that comes into the play are the Threat Dice rolled by the other players waiting for their turn. These four dice have an hourglass, arrow and block icon on. Each time the active player rolls their Skill dice the four Threat dice are rolled too. If all four Threat dice show an hourglass then the active player’s turn comes to an end, so active players must decide how far they want to push on as the number of hourglasses increases. Plus, if another player rolls an arrow on the Threat dice that points towards one of the active player’s Skill dice, then they actually steal treasure from them. It’s a cool mechanic that keeps everyone engaged with the action.

Buy your copy here.

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