Die of the Dead Review - with Tom Vasel

Tom Vasel takes a look at a day of the dead themed dice rolling game!

Intro 0:00
Overview 1:06
Final Thoughts 6:13

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[bonmacp]

I played this for the first time at a board game meetup this past week. There were five of us, and it was a new game to all of us. We laughed a lot, and enjoyed it so much we played it again immediately a second time through. Was it random? Sure. (It’s a dice game - not some strategic puzzly brain-burner, ya know!) We had lots of fun and lots of laughs. It worked for us, and I’d be happy to play it again. I can see how it would be less fun at lower player counts, so I recommend playing it at the higher player count of 4 or 5.

[sdhokie]

The caskets should be placed with the skull side UP with the shallower lid on the table. There is also the 'strategic' version as explained in the rulebook where you play with all caskets open. I have only played once with 4 players with the caskets closed and did not enjoy the randomness either. I think I might teach the game moving forward with caskets open to remove the randomness and introduce strategy. It was also difficult for the players to remember when to use the bonus tokens; there should be more structure with that. Unfortunately the game did fall a little flat as you said but I do want to give it another try with everyone being able to see the dice in the caskets.

[benjaminspears]

I first thought that the staircase was like a mini tumbling dice feature where you roll them down to land on a certain spot.

[darinlagarry]

I agree that this game is a bit too random. The playing with open caskets is a good idea. For me though I plan to hang onto it for the unique theme and low weight.

[Nemspy]

For us it wasn’t so much the randomness that bothered us. It was the fact that the limited number of move options, plus the simplicity of the special power tokens meant that our endgame devolved into a tug-of-war stalemate where we each just kept scuppering the other’s attempts to keep a casket where we wanted it so we could roll and end the game.

I feel like the two-player game has the biggest potential to break in this way.

[christopherleary]

I also noticed Tom had the caskets upside down. So far we played two games of three players and I enjoyed it despite not winning either time. Being a dice game the randomness didn't bother me and there are some ways to mitigate it. Although we played with caskets closed and I haven't played with them open, my guess is playing with them open makes the randomness more emphasized since players no longer need to remember how many dice are in which location. For now I'd rate this a 7 using BGG (Good - usually willing to play).

[ESCTom]

Yea I was really disappointed with this. The game looks pretty, but the gameplay isn’t great. None of my group likes it so it’s going to be hard to get a second game in - but I’ll try it with the open casket rule.

Also I don’t get why the dice colours were so dully coloured. They could have gone for bright dice like in rajas of the Ganges and I think it would have looked even better.

[nogoodscallywag]

@abner anaya: It's ironic you are complaining about cultural appropriation when you obviously know nothing of Mexican culture. My co-worker, a Mexican born in Mexico, was delighted to see this game. I even asked her what she thought about the art and theme and she said that is exactly what this day is about- her family goes to the cemeteries and there is color literally everywhere. Perhaps you should not be so quick to be offended on others' behalf without having full knowledge of what you're even talking about.

[sewaprolo]

This game reeks of cultural appropriation all over. Hate it.