Once upon a time, some human fingers found a group of tiny, cube-like rocks piled up in some dusty crevice of a quite dark cave. Fred Flintstone didn’t invent dice games, but one of our early ancestors did—dice have been around since before recorded history swung about.
But you didn’t come here for a history of humankind’s longest association with gaming. You came here to find out what the best dice games are, and you’re in the right place!
Dice games are notoriously difficult to categorize, because top dice games often use dice as one of several mechanisms. That means you’ll see the best dice board games include a wide variety of themes. Honestly, that’s all right by us- the more options you have, the better, we reckon!
Roll with it!
Our Top Picks – Best Dice Games
Best Dice Game Overall: Roll Player
Step into the world of Roll Player and get a fully immersive RPG board game experience complete with clever dice tricks and character customization. This is the best dice game around for a reason.
Best Dice Game for Families: Sushi Roll
Sushi Roll is exactly what it looks like- a whole lot of fun. Create delicious combinations from a conveyor belt full of drool-inducing colorful sushi dice. The player with the most eye-watering combinations wins!
Most Heart-Pumping Dice Game: Flatline
As head of a prestigious emergency room, you perform triage aboard a starship in the middle of space. Place as many life-saving dice as you can in a minute, or your patients will be in danger!
Most Creative Use of Customizable Dice: Dice Forge
Customize your dice by snapping on and off unique dice faces in Dice Forge, but keep gaining glory- you want to impress the gods and snag a coveted seat in heaven, after all!
Best Dice Game with a Strategic Balancing Act: Troyes
In medieval France, nothing is as it seems. Balance the needs of the military, juggle agricultural interests and please the clergy in Troyes and you’ll become master of the whole city!
Table of Contents
Our Top 10 Best Dice Games
Work together to escape a crumbling temple!
Players: 1-5 // Game time: 10 minutes // Age: 8+ // Difficulty: Easy
Publisher: Queen Games
Three decades ago, a movie about a white pseudo-archaeologist stealing shining cultural artifacts hidden deep in foreboding (and crumbling) temples hit theaters everywhere.
Forget all the buzz about the next Indiana Jones film and pick up Escape: The Curse of the Temple. You and your gaming crew will become a group of Indiana Joneses, with bags full of pilfered gems and riches.
Of course, a’la Indiana Jones, nothing is as it seems. The temple is crumbling to your feet before your very eyes, and you’ve gotta escape! Your dice hold the key to your success.
On a single die, you’ll see five symbols- a cursed mask, golden mask, red torch, blue key or green adventurer. All symbols either curse or help you, allow you to enter rooms, pick up treasure, activate powerful gems or help you move from room to room. Sometimes your party will need to split up to explore possible exits, or work together to reveal hidden gems.
What makes Escape one of the best dice games to play is its clever use of Real Time Strategy. You’re in a time crunch! Players have only ten minutes accompanied by a very thematic soundtrack full of spooky noises. If foreboding music ain’t up your alley, don’t play this game with the soundtrack- just use the included sand timer or an app to keep track of time (like we did). All players roll and take actions at the same time, making it quite a mad scramble to, well, escape the curse!
If you’re not back in the safe room by the end of the countdown, you lose a die! If you lose all of your dice, game over for you.
Just remember… leave no person behind. All players have to escape in order to win!
Escape: The Curse of the Temple is one of the best dice games because it’s chaotic, snappy and thoroughly satisfying as a cooperative dice board game full of tricks up its sleeve. It’s perfect for your next family reunion or picnic- everyone will be clamoring around the picnic table, trying to join in on the next game!
Who This Game is For
If you’re not a fan of cooperative games or get really stressed out when you have time constraints, this game is not for you. Escape is definitely for the dice fans out there- the dice are so well integrated into the game that they really serve as a homage to its theme. Hang on, is that temple cru— ah, it totally is- ah, erm, it’s time for us to roll on!
Buy Escape: The Curse of the Temple on Amazon
Pros
- Incredibly thematic game
- High replayability score due to modular tiles
- Great for families, friends, gamer groups- everyone
- Dice are not an afterthought
Cons
- Too stressful for some
- Not for people who have a tough time making quick decisions
- The solo experience isn’t as rewarding
- Requires a good deal of collaboration
There are a couple of different editions of Escape: The Curse of the Temple. You can try the excellent base version (this is the one we played). If you know you’re gonna love this game, or you think your family will, definitely step up to the Big Box, 2nd Edition version– it wraps up the base game along with eight expansion modules (including three of the four expansions we mention below, Illusions, Quest, Traps) and plenty of goodies you’ll enjoy.
There are four great expansions for this dice game. Your best chance to get the first three expansions (Illusions, Quest, Traps) is to buy the Big Box, 2nd Edition version, since all the individual expansions are tough to find separately.
The fourth expansion, the Escape Queenie Box, is a great value, as it includes six expansions- our favorite one is The Cursed Gems. Start with the base game or the Big Box of Escape and work your way up!
Players: 2-4 // Game time: 60 minutes // Age: 10+ // Difficulty: Easy
Publisher: Asmodee
North America, 1803.
You are part of an intrepid team of adventurers led by the well-known duo of Meriweather Lewis and William Clark. For three years, you cut through the North American content, departing from St. Louis and working your way through bitter winter storms up through modern day Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, climbing through the mountains of Montana and Idaho, rafting down the Columbia River in Washington and finally establishing Fort Clatsop, not far from modern day Portland in Oregon.
That’s a whole lot of exploring for just a three year period- and in Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark, your goal is to discover and record as much as you can throughout your journey!
Befriend the Sioux, Blackfeet, Shoshone and Nez Perce tribes (some friendly, and some wary) by playing Tribe cards. The more tribes you encounter, the more discovery points you’ll accumulate! To gain access to these cards, however, you need to explore. Naturally, this is where your dice come in!
When you open up the Discoveries game box, you’ll notice that there are different kinds of dice, each with their own purpose. Journal, Negotiate, Walk and Ride dice symbols are all options you can roll, and certain combinations will allow you to jump onto a horse and ride off, take a hike, or mount a mountain expedition!
The dice you place in your action area will allow you to explore, depending on your dice values. You can also change the values of your current dice roll, so you’re not stuck with a bad dice roll! If a particular action doesn’t strike your fancy, no worries- you can change your plans. Dice can be used on the game board itself, or you can be sneaky and use dice that are in your co-adventurers’ action areas. There are a lot of possibilities here, all in keeping with the story and theme.
Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark is one of the best dice games with a historical twist you’ll find. The best thing about this game is the inclusion of Discovery Cards, which we love- you can identify and record plants, mammals, birds and fish! We only wish there were more Discovery cards in the game- it’d be fun to discover everything the actual band of adventurers were able to see during their journey.
Who This Game is For
One of the advantages of Discoveries is that it’s easy to teach and learn. You’ll come back to this game for its story, theme and quick gameplay- most of our plays went up to about 45 minutes or so, and it’s perfect for a wide range of player ages. If you love exploration, natural history and adventuring, this is going to be a light, fun dice game for you.
Buy Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis & Clark on Amazon
Pros
- Terrific look and theme
- Parallels historical events- learn about them!
- Good balance between luck and strategy
- Depicts Native American tribes in a positive light
Cons
- Takes more time to teach new players
- Games are a bit long with larger groups
- Too dependent on luck
- Tribe cards can be unbalanced
We love the theme of Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark, and often bring it out for a fun light game. We wish that there was an expansion available for Discoveries, but there’s a silver lining! A larger, meatier game exists in Lewis & Clark: The Expedition. If you love the idea of following Lewis & Clark on a grand adventure (and are willing to forego dice), check that one out!
Players: // Game time: 25-45 minutes // Age: 10+ // Difficulty: Easy
Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
In space, the lack of gravity doesn’t mean it’s all light-hearted fun- sometimes there are grave injuries from flying space debris, module malfunctions that explode, or hazardous gases that slowly rob you of your precious oxygen!
Flatline is one of the best dice games because it plonks you onto a stellar spaceship and lets you and up to four other players manage an emergency room full of cadets!
It’s a race against time, as you need to place all the dice you roll and achieve medical miracles with your co-workers. All of this has to happen within a space of one minute each round. Flatline is a high-voltage, no-holds-barred look at space and all the dangers it presents.
The best dice games use dice to propel the story or theme forward, instead of relying on them as an afterthought. That’s certainly true for this special take on a sci-fi emergency room mashup. You’re a medical professional aboard a starship headed for regions unknown, so what you’re doing is anything but old-fashioned.
Your dice are similarly advanced- instead of the ol’ pips you usually find on six-sided dice, you have a series of futuristic symbols you’ll have to match up to the modular game board. There are different modules and cards that you add or remove from the game board, depending on what you unlock- no game is exactly the same!
Flatline is incredibly creative in its use of cards, components and the game board itself. Everything feels high-quality, well-thought out and enhances the gameplay in clever ways. As you gain more experience, you’ll likely advance to the title of Chief Medical Officer and help shape the flow of the entire game. Another player will snag an “internship,” where they’ll sort and redistribute dice. The goal of the game is essentially to treat all your patients before you run out of time!
We loved the fact that there was plenty of time to do some stuff before and after the one-minute “speed-burst” triage intervals, so we could stand back and discuss what worked and what didn’t. Just being able to stop and look at the beautiful dice and the game board itself is extremely satisfying. We love the push and pull effect of Flatline for that reason.
Who This Game is For
If you enjoy well-balanced top dice board games with a thematic twist, Flatline is for you. If you think that the ten minutes of quick scrambling you get in Escape is a bit too much, you’ll love the delicate balance between tension and introspection you find here. Flatline is the best dice game for young families, roomies and space fans!
Pros
- Terrific look and feel
- Well designed dice integrate nicely with the story
- Balance between quick moments and downtime is great
- Works well for different levels of experience
Cons
- Real time decisions can induce too much stress
- Takes time to memorize the symbol meanings
- Random events can remove dice before your first turn
- Timed rounds can easily scare players off
Players: // Game time: 20 minutes // Age: 6+ // Difficulty: Easy
Publisher: Gamewright
In Sushi Roll, a brand-new sushi place is in town, complete with several conveyor belts full of delicious-looking sushi dice!
Tempura… sashimi… nigiri… wasabi… puddings! What will you choose?!
You’ll have one chance to pick up the die you want, then pass the rest of the dice to the next player! The whole idea is to mix dice into mouth-watering combinations that score you points- because the person with the most points wins it all!
Sushi Roll is one of the best dice games out there for families with young kids- kids as young as six years old can absolutely play this game- and win. Part of the award-winning Sushi Go! family of games, this version replaces sushi cards with lovely colorful sushi dice that are a pleasure to roll.
At the beginning of any turn, all players pick up dice on their conveyor belt and roll! The player with the red conveyor belt that turn chooses a die first and decides whether or not to make use of the Menu and Chopsticks options!
With the Menu option, you choose however many dice you want to reroll, and ta-da, you’ve got a new combo. We love the Chopsticks feature, which allows you to “swap” any die on your belt for any die you see on someone else’s conveyor belt! The element of surprise can throw your planning off, or it can be a blessing in disguise- you never know. The only limitation, really, is how many Menu or Chopsticks tokens you have to spend.
The die you choose to keep will be placed onto your individual game board, ready for you to make combos. We loved plopping nigiri dice atop wasabi dice for a fun combo, but that’s not the most complicated combo you can create- maki rolls, special nigiri (egg, salmon, squid), dumplings, tempura, sashimi, puddings… so many options!
The trick is remembering that the conveyor belts move at the end of each turn, so there’s a great balance between waiting for the dice to swing your way or leaping at opportunities even if they’re not right in front of you. Our only regret is that we didn’t order a massive sushi platter to eat while playing Sushi Roll. It’s that kind of game!
Who This Game is For
Folks looking for a light-hearted game full of rollicking fun. Sushi Roll feels more luck-based than other top dice games on this list, largely because it’s a lighter sort of game- you’re really going along for the ride. You can reroll your dice, and often that’s gonna be a smart strategic decision, but heavy strategic decisions aren’t par for the course here. Just lean back, have a great time playing Sushi Roll, and don’t think too hard!
Buy Sushi Roll on Amazon
Pros
- Great for kids and families
- Quick game play that’s easy to teach
- Terrific-looking custom dice
- Creative combos = kawaii
Cons
- Not enough strategic depth
- Theme might not appeal to everybody
- Needs more complex moves like Menu and Chopsticks
- Not great for two players- better for larger groups
Players: 2-4 // Game time: 60-90 minutes // Age: 10+ // Difficulty: Medium
Publisher: Grey Fox Games
All we know about the Vikings nowadays is that they loved sailing ships, braiding long blond hair and eating big turkey drumsticks.
Here’s your chance to leap into the Uggs of a Viking- or whatever they wore?
In Champions of Midgard, you travel to a besieged Viking city on the coast. The imperiled town is being attacked by trolls, draugr and other magical beasts that appear in Norse mythology. Using a unique blend of worker placement and dice rolling, you transform into a mighty leader of a Viking clan ready to save the day!
Champions of Midgard is one of the best dice games in our library because it offers a wide variety of strategies to accomplish your end goal, which is to earn the title of Jarl, a bona-fide champion of Midgard!
Becoming the Jarl is no easy feat- you’ve got to rake in heaps of glory, which you do through the course of the game.
Well-designed custom dice come into play as you send your formidable warriors off to help defend your neighbors from ruin, sail across mighty seas in order to defeat enormous monsters and uncover plunder- their success will add to the glory of your name! If your warriors drag their broken bodies home in defeat, you’ll lose glory and be blamed for your failures- in the form of twenty-eight Blame tokens!
Valuable resources like food, wood and coins are allocated to special actions. Smart management of your resources will allow you to craft magical runes that give your clan superior benefits, build imposing longships that carry you across great watery expanses, and help feed your hungry clanspeople.
Champions of Midgard is great for gamers who are ready to take their dice-rolling skills to the next level. All of the Viking leaders have their own special abilities, making strategic decisions even more interesting. The player with the most Glory at the end of eight rounds wins this nail-biter!
Who This Game is For
Fans of Lords of Waterdeep or Raiders of the North Sea will enjoy this top dice game. The game board definitely looks similar to Lords of Waterdeep, but the theme is completely different. Champions of Midgard is an accessible game that uses dice, worker placement and resources to deliver an experience that you’ll come back to, time after time. Inexperienced board gamers may need just a little more time to learn Midgard, but they’ll get the hang of it quickly!
Buy Champions of Midgard on Amazon
Pros
- Great Viking theme
- Many different paths to victory
- Dice add tension to the game
- Easy to teach and learn
Cons
- Doesn’t include a way to mitigate bad luck
- In later rounds, game shifts to a “race to this space” feel
- Beserker and Shield dice make it too easy to win in combat
- There’s almost too much to do
One of the most universally beloved strategic board games ever is also one of the best dice games you’ll ever play, bar none.
Welcome to the Burgundy region of medieval France, where you are an aristocrat fighting for control of a small realm. Where you see fabulous riches, others see depleted fields and eroding gravel. Armed with the knowledge of how to best harness the power of the local river network, you dream of ways you can ferry your valuable silverlings from your tiny silver mines.
The Castles of Burgundy is a planning game, yes, but there’s a certain limit to how much you can plan in a game with this many dice! The top dice games out there always have an aura of uncertainty around them- dice rolls can be fickle, and you can never rely on the dice gods to give you what you need.
Luckily, Stefan Feld, a renowned board game designer, created The Castles of Burgundy with the idea that there are many things you can control. You can control where you place settlement tiles into your realm, reaping rewards from placed tiles. You can also control the flow of goods by selling them off, as the board is overflowing with them when you begin. Depending on the dice you roll, you can also control where you place goods. Using worker tiles, you can even change the value of your die roll, helping you increase your options and improve your chances of winning!
The Castles of Burgundy allows two to four players to duke it out by expanding settlements, building powerful castles, trading with other players, mining silver and increasing knowledge gleaned from travellers crisscrossing the land, across five phases with five rounds each.
Looks are deceptive- it might seem like there’s a lot to keep track of, but gameplay moves along at a structured and incredibly smooth pace, allowing you to develop a whole checklist of strategies to try. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins!
Who This Game is For
Castles has undeniable appeal. It’s the perfect game for date night or for a friend hangout. Players who want more interaction with others will need to look elsewhere- you’re basically doing your own thing here. Be patient: The Castles of Burgundy can seem overwhelming to casual gamers. If you feel it might be a mite advanced for your group, The Castles of Tuscany introduces players to the rules in a more user-friendly way.
Buy The Castles of Burgundy on Amazon
Pros
- Excellent use of dice
- Variety of ways to win
- Building your empire is fun
- Decisions are complex
Cons
- Too dependent on luck
- Design may seem dated to some
- More difficult to learn for inexperienced gamers
- Dry thematic approach
With an expansion that allows for solo play, there’s nothing The Castles of Burgundy can’t do. Want to play Castles competitively? Check- that’s the standard way to play this game. There are other options, too- cooperative play is possible with the Teams Expansion, pairing four players in teams and allowing teams to either win or lose the game together.
Players: 2-5 // Game time: 45 minutes // Age: 12+ // Difficulty: Medium
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Roll for the Galaxy is a spacefaring worker placement twist on the popular Race for the Galaxy series. The first dice game to really take custom dice with their own symbols and use them as stand-ins for workers (explorers, developers, settlers, producers and shippers), it popularized a mechanic- known as dice placement- that can be found in today’s top dice games.
When you pop open the box lid, you’ll notice that there’s a whole lotta dice in there.
How could someone make a game this good with this many dice?
What makes Roll for the Galaxy different from other top dice games is the thematic integration of the dice. The multi-colored dice come in five distinct color groups, each with five different symbols. The dice are gorgeous, and they’re elemental to the game itself.
You place dice on certain spots on a small strip and choose a phase, out of five total phases (explore, develop, settle, produce and ship). Each phase has its own advantage, but you can only play one at a time! This strategic crunch makes this game one of the best dice games you’ll find, because the dice are how you move through the game. You do this in secret, behind a foldable screen that blocks the view of your opponents.
When everyone’s done placing their dice, the screens are removed and chosen phases are revealed. After you’ve placed your dice, you use them to 1) scout, 2) build developments, 3) settle worlds, 4) produce goods or 5) ship goods.
The tension is there- will you draft the dice you want? The secrecy and player interaction are both there- some moves are undercover and yet others are out in the open. The game ends when one player expands their territory to cover twelve developments or worlds, or when the whole group runs out of their shared pool of victory points from the general supply. The player with the most victory points wins!
Roll for the Galaxy moves along quickly with simultaneous play, as everyone will make decisions at the same time. The tempo and flow of the game is akin to a sure footed mustang out in the plain, ready to buck- then slowing down to a nice trot the next moment.
Who This Game is For
Roll for the Galaxy is definitely for more experienced board game players. Top dice games don’t always require experience, but this one can easily overwhelm when you pour all of the dice onto the table. Eyes are likely to bug out! If you enjoy a strategic challenge with a good dose of luck, this is the perfect game for you. It’s going to be a permanent addition to your shelf!
Buy Roll for the Galaxy on Amazon
Pros
- Brillant layers of strategic dice placement
- Excellent balance between territory expansion and resource management
- Full-featured space world full of its own foibles
- Replayability is high- you want to master the game
Cons
- Can easily overwhelm new players
- Takes two to three playthroughs to truly “get” the game
- Theme is slightly antiseptic- while it’s deep, it can also read as a bit generic
- There’s no backstory for any of the races you see on the game tiles
Roll for the Galaxy is part of a bigger ecosystem that includes a good number of games, all taking place in the same universe. If you think you’ll love the game, but want an easier transition, try Jump Drive. It’s a card game, yes, but it’ll introduce you to the symbolism and terminology used across the universe. If you want to squeeze every drop out of RFTG, try Roll for the Galaxy: Ambition expansion– it gives you 20 objective tiles, 21 starting tiles and two new dice types you’ve never seen before!
Players: 2-4 // Game time: 45 minutes // Age: 8+ // Difficulty: Easy
Publisher: Asmodee
Over your morning matcha, you look over the want ads in your local newspaper. Your eyes immediately jump to an irresistible job offering- a seat in heaven! Is this legit, you ask yourself- and keep on reading.
‘Cos you know you’re a bona-fide hero and you’ll fit right in with the gods, but apparently you’ve gotta prove your worth. Courage? Check. Wits? Oh, yeah. Welcome to Dice Forge.
Dice Forge is one of our top picks for the best dice games because of its novel use of divine dice. The greatest thing since sliced bread, they’re dice with removable faces that you can swap in and out for other faces!
The hype is real here, though- it’s not a gimmick in any shape or form. You essentially upgrade your dice to make them super powerful as you progress throughout the game. Do the new faces cost a bit of coin? They sure do, but they’re worth it. With the upgrades, you’ll be able to gain access to resources you need, battle against mythical beasts to gain street cred (in the form of glory points) and impress the gods!
You’ll spend a bit o’ gold and some sun or moon shards to help you increase the likelihood of successfully performing a “Heroic Feat,” giving you a path to glory- and victory. You’ll collect reinforcement effects that allow you to reroll, pick up a special die face or swap gold for glory points. Your goal throughout the whole game is to win a tournament full of other heroes also trying to impress the powers that be.
Dice Forge does a great job of blending a medium-light difficulty game with amazingly polished components and providing all of this in an affordable box with great organization. It’s quite a Heroic Feat- and for the price alone, you simply can’t afford to not try this top dice game!
Who This Game is For
Dice Forge excels at everything it sets out to be- it’s a quick and furious dice game for a great variety of players, from youngsters all the way to grandparents! There’s no waiting around for other players to finish their turn here- everyone rolls their dice at the same time! Games speed along at a snappy pace, allowing you to finish up at the 45 minute mark. If you’re a player who appreciates customizable dice in a game full of strategy, you’re going to love Dice Forge.
Buy Dice Forge on Amazon
The popularity of Dice Forge translates into an incredible appetite for various expansions. The best of them all is Dice Forge: Rebellion, which includes 120 Heroic Feat cards along with brand-new die faces. It also includes two modules (Labryinth of the Goddess and Revolt of the Titans) that allow you to play with alternative setups and new mechanics.
If the theme of Dice Forge doesn’t appeal to you straightaway and you need more difficulty, try Seasons, another dice based game by the same designer, Régis Bonnessée. We’re fans of Seasons as well!
Players: 2-4 // Game time: 90 minutes // Age: 10+ // Difficulty: Advanced
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Take a step back into the past and leap into the world of 15th century France. Instead of building castles, you’re focused on the needs of the people- the citizens of the town of Troyes!
A puppetmaster pulls the strings, and that’s exactly who you are. Your character has secret goals no one else needs to know about- complete those goals for more points! Throughout the whole dice game, you pull certain strings, controlling different groups of people using both dice (twenty-four in total) and activity or event cards.
Start the game with workers that you can place in three distinct areas on the main game board. Decide where they go- the Count’s Palace (red, associated with the military), City Hall (yellow, focused on agriculture) or the Bishopric (white, all about religion). The number of red, yellow and white dice depends on how many workers you allocate to each area. Your cards also represent the three military, civil and religious regions on the game boards.
What’s so interesting about Troyes is that as you play, you need to balance all three interests in a way that allows your workers to work towards advancing the interests of the city itself. Your workers can build the cathedral (the real one took 400 years to complete), combat misfortune, enter business dealings or do anything you don’t want to be associated with out in the open.
Without careful planning, your random dice rolls might throw a monkey wrench into everything you’ve been slaving to accomplish! Gaining influence lets you reroll one of your dice, hire citizens, change up to 3 dice to a different value- and even steal another player’s dice! Whoah!
We especially enjoy the event cards in Troyes, which allow you to manipulate your dice and use them to gain influence. The order events happen in also make a difference- some events are easier to handle in the beginning, others are harder!
Our favorite element of Troyes is its replayability. There are infinite possibilities in play- you’ll never uncover all of the activity or event cards throughout a single game. Who said dice rolling was a brainless activity? Not us!
Who This Game is For
Troyes is the perfect balance between strategy and luck. It takes the unpredictableness of dice games and completely turns that onto its head. If you’re a player who really relishes hard decision making and mapping out a winning strategy, there’s not a single dice game we’d recommend more than this one. If you prefer to keep your dice games light and breezy, look elsewhere.
Pros
- Dripping with theme
- Delicious strategic thinking
- Competitive, but not too “take that”
- Influence allows you to change dice rolls for the better
Cons
- Takes time to teach and master
- Requires brain energy to map out your turns
- May be too intensive for younger players
- Not for players who take a long time to make decisions
The Ladies of Troyes is an expansion that adds a terrific layer of depth to the base game- but it’s crazy-hard to find! We recommend skipping this expansion for now due to the cost. There’s plenty to experience in the Troyes base game.
Players: 1-4 // Game time: 60-90 minutes // Age: 10+ // Difficulty: Easy
Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Your homeland of Nalos is under attack from a host of dark forces. Nefarious trolls, cross-eyed goblins, cunning elves and numerous other baddies are overrunning the realm.
Who does everyone turn to in this hour of need?
Naturally, you.
As potentially the greatest adventurer in the universe, living or dead, roll up your sleeves and get your epic quest on!
Roll Player is the best dice game that has a heavy focus on role-playing. From the moment you open up the box, you’ve gotta create your character using a combination of different cards. The cards you place on your character sheet will give your character a class and a backstory, in addition to various traits.
Using character attributes like Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, you will toil through battles leveraging your strengths. With dice you roll throughout the game, you can improve your Attributes by changing a die roll from 1 to 6, or exchanging dice placement among several other choices! The game ends when all players have filled out their attribute rows on their individual character sheets- but you only win if you have the most reputation!
We found the Alignment Cards to be one of the most interesting aspects of this top dice game. Roll Player uses Alignment cards to track your character’s evolving moral perspective. Throughout the game, you’ll encounter many situations where black and white is subjective. Navigating moral quicksand, you’ll make quick decisions that will help you gain your footing or stumble down a slippery slope! Market cards also allow you to gain weapons, armors, traits or skills, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Finding a balance between gaining attributes, changing your moral perspective, gathering helpful resources on the market, working towards boosting your Reputation status and staying true to your humble beginnings- that’s all in play here in one of the best dice games of all time.
For a game to make it onto this list of the best dice games, it has to be unique. And boy, does Roll Player deliver an unique experience you won’t find anywhere else. While there’s a lot to unpack, every experience is so unique you’ll immediately want to play again. You have six classes and sixteen different backstory cards to combine, so you can play as a completely different character every time you open the box!
Who This Game is For
You’ll love Roll Player if you like taking on the role of a character who might be completely different than you are in real life. Some players even take their Roll Player characters and bring them into their Dungeons & Dragons games! Creative decisions and dice placements will make you think differently about what you can do with a couple of dice- and isn’t that the hallmark of the best dice games? This game is great for developing relationships with other players at your table- we’ve spent many hours reminiscing about our Roll Player shenanigans with our co-players!
Buy Roll Player on Amazon
Pros
- Brings role playing games to a bigger audience
- Creative character customization
- Changing where you place your dice helps mitigate bad rolls
- Has longevity and replayability due to multiple card combos
Cons
- If you’re new to role playing, the system takes more time to learn
- Fantasy theme may not be a good match for all players
- Largely dependent on dice so luck is a major factor
- Difficulty level will be too light for die-hard RPG fans
Here are some great expansions for Roll Player:
Roll Player: Monsters and Minions – Allows you to expand your gaming party to include five players. New classes, background, market cards and races are also included, along with combat and boost dice, experience cubes and honor / wound tokens.
Roll Player: Fiends and Familiars – Our absolute favorite. Add substantial depth to your character via a bond with an animal Familiar. New monsters and fiends add more flavor as well. One caveat, though- this expansion requires both the base game and the Monsters and Minions expansion. Is it worth it? Yes. Look for a deal, though.
That’s A Wrap!
Yahtzee is far from the only dice game on the market right now. There are so many dice games available nowadays! There are hair-raising real-time dice games (Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Flatline), dice games with a historical flair (Discoveries: The Journals of Lewis and Clark, The Castles of Burgundy, Troyes), flat-out fun dice games for the entire family (Sushi Roll, Champions of Midgard, Dice Forge, Escape again) and dice games that create worlds (Roll Player, Roll for the Galaxy).
If you’re looking for the best roll-and-write games with dice out there, we’ve got you covered. Check out our guide to the best roll and write games, full of innovative games you’ll love!
Pick up two to three of the best dice games we recommend here, and you’re off to a terrific start! Here are the games that almost made our list:
Honorable Mentions: Light and Nimble Dice Games for the Family
 | Can’t Stop – Complete three out of eleven columns but remember- if you can’t move one of the runners, everything you worked for during your turn is gone! Terrific “press your luck” dice game that gets you rolling and rolling. |
 | Dice Throne – “Battle Yahtzee” in a nutshell. Pick a side to play as- there are tons of choices, but we like the Gunslighter vs. Samurai version. Roll custom dice to duke it out in this quick-to-learn battle that scales up to four players. |
 | King of Tokyo – Home to Godzilla, Tokyo has plenty of other monsters fighting each other for the dubious title of “King of Tokyo!” This game has gorgeous large dice that you’ll want to roll forever. Perfect for a bit of light hearted fun with everyone, ages six to 104! |
 | Noctiluca– Dive into the shimmery depths of underwater cerulean pools, where you search for special noctiluca. Fill your jars full of noctiluca and you’ll pick up points in this charming dice-filled adventure! |
 | Space Base – Terrific space-themed dice game that lets you build out your own space chart with dice and cards. Some call it advanced “Space Machi Koro,” only better. If you master this one, you can master any other dice game! |
 | Quantum– Futuristic ship management game. Every die is the equivalent of a spaceship with certain strengths and weaknesses. The idea is to populate as many planets as possible, so the race is on! |
 | Shelfie Stacker – Adorable shelf-management game from up-and-coming publisher Arkus Games and Shem Phillips, designer of Noctiluca. Find the optimal shelf placement for your burgeoning collection of board games, using customized dice printed with different shelf configurations! Only available via Kickstarter, this one might become available widely if you register your interest with the publisher today! |
Honorable Mentions: Competitive Dice Games
 | Brew– The artwork will pull you right into this engrossing game about bringing back balance to the forest and restoring the natural cycle of things. As a mystic, you use magic dice to add balance to the universe. This game is gorgeous and is geared more towards competitive play. |
 | Seasons– You’re a magical wizard competing to be the best sorcerer in all of the land, but you have to roll dice that give you special abilities depending on which season it is! Terrific strategy and terrific luck collide here in this top dice game. |
 | Too Many Bones – Incredible dice builder role-playing game with the most dice we’ve ever seen in our lives. We wrote about this game in our roundup of the 10 best RPG board games, calling it a “transcendent masterpiece.” The only reason it’s not on our list of best dice games is the steep price of entry- it’s about $129.95 (USD) for the game itself. Wait for a price drop. |
Honorable Mentions: Thematic Dice Games with Strategy
 | Bora Bora – Recruit skilled tribal craftspeople to build huts, fish the seas, create unique jewelry, perform maintenance and worship the gods. Stefan Feld, the designer of The Castles of Burgundy, created this great thematic game with simultaneous dice rolls! |
 | Lorenzo il Magnifico – Travel back to Florence during the time of the Renaissance with the goal of achieving magnificence in this dice game full of clever moves. |
 | Kingsburg– A simpler take on the dice game of Troyes, this dice game is all about manipulating the system to your advantage in medieval times! |
 | Rajas of the Ganges – A gorgeously designed thematic dice game that envelopes you in the world of the Ganges. Instead of riding elephants to the finish line, you roll dice and place workers to gain power and influence, balancing fame and riches! |
 | The Voyages of Marco Polo – Chase after untold riches as Marco Polo, the intrepid Silk Road trader. Your dice are also your workers, allowing you to discover new cities and manage resources. There are even secret cities you’ll need to discover! We recommend picking up a used copy, due to this controversy. |
Header Photo Credit: Dice and Mice! cc