Tabletop Quick Picks

Tabletop Quick Picks is an article series where I highlight a great tabletop game that takes less than 30 minutes to play. I quickly explain the rules of the game and then give my opinion and recommendation for the game. A lot of games in this category will fall into the filler game category but a lot of these games are great games to show to people just getting into the hobby.                         

Zombie Dice, by Steven Jackson games, is a quick 5 to 15-minute game that can be played with as many people as you would like, the more people who play the longer the game takes. In Zombie Dice you play as a zombie and your goal is to get 21 points before everyone else; in order to do this you roll dice. On your turn you pull three dice from the cup and roll them, there are three results you can get: Brains, Shotguns, or foot prints. If you roll brains, you move all the brain dice to in front of you so you can keep track of how many you have eaten this round. If you roll shotguns, you move those dice in front of you as well. If you roll the foot prints you set those dice to the side. If you have less than three shotguns in front of you, you get to decide if you stop and score 1 point per brain or do you push your luck and roll three more dice. If you decide to push your luck you take any foot print dice rolled and then add a number of dice to equal three dice to be rolled. You continue this until you either stop and score points or get three shotguns. If ever you have all the dice out of the cup you make note of the number of brains in front of you and then return all dice to the cup. Play continues like this until one player has 21 or more points at this point play continues until it reaches the player who first scored 21 or more points. After that you add up the points and the player with the most wins.

Zombie Dice is a fun quick light game that can be a great filler game in between long gaming sessions or to play while you wait for everyone to show up for game night. I highly recommend Zombie Dice because it is easy to learn, easy to play, and because it is so quick to play a game it can be brought to the table as a filler game or to quickly show to someone new to the hobby and not overwhelm them.