Upcoming games in 2010: Zombie Dice

Steve Jackson Games, the company behind Munchkin and GURPS is rolling out more products this year that look to keep with the company’s tendency for fun and quirky games. One of the games that they are publishing this year hearken back to some of the earliest form of gaming known to man: simply rolling dice.

Zombie Dice ties into the cult-phenomenon revolving around zombies. At its core, the game is extremely simple: you roll three dice and score points, reroll, or get closer to losing the game based on what side comes up. The website has a demo of the game that goes through what a standard turn would be like.

To summarize the mechanics, you roll 3 of the custom game dice. If you roll a brain, you set it aside as a potential point. If you roll a shotgun blast, you set it aside (accumulate three and your turn is over). If you roll a footprint, that die will be rerolled if you decide to keep going. At this point, you can stop and score points for the brains, or choose to roll more dice to get a chance at more points (it takes 13 to win). This process is repeated until either you stop and score the dice that came up as brains, or have your turn ended forcefully due to three shotgun blasts—which also means you get no points for the round.

As there is no splitting of any materials, the game can be played just as easily with 2 people as with 200. It may not become a staple that is always played in most groups, but it could be something for gamers to pull out if they just want to relax over some drinks and conversation. Game contents include 13 custom game dice, and a custom dice cup. The game should retail around $13 and an average game should last 10-20 minutes. It's currently in print and will hit shelves this March.