“YAHTZEE: Dungeons & Dragons with Dice Tower” is a new Yahtzee product from USAOPOLY and Wizards of the Coast. Yahtzee is the most popular dice game in the world, with around 50 million Yahtzee games sold each year.
What’s in the Box?
This is a specialized Dungeons and Dragons themed version of Yahtzee.
The box contains:
- 1 Dungeons and Dragon (D&D) themed Dice Tower
- 5 D&D themed dice
- 1 pad of Scoresheets (25 two-sided sheets)
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 small pencil
The dice tower is 4 inches tall, and 3 inches wide on all four sides. Two sides of the dice tower feature the official Dungeons and Dragons logo. The dice are dropped into the top of the dice tower, and hit a few hidden platforms inside before rolling out the front of the dice tower. Dice Towers can help prevent cheating in dice rolling games and can also help keep “rolling dice” away from destroying game setups in a variety of games other than Yahtzee.
The D&D dice are standard six-sided dice and feature the following artwork:
- 1 is a Dragon
- 2 is an Owl Bear
- 3 is a Gelatinous Cube
- 4 is a Mimic
- 5 is a Mind Flayer
- 6 is a Beholder
How does YAHTZEE: Dungeons & Dragons play?
This version of Yahtzee plays like the original version of Yahtzee. There are no rule changes whatsoever. So if you know how to play Yahtzee, you know how to play D&D Yahtzee.
For those that don’t know how to play Yahtzee, it’s a game you should have in your repertoire. One, because it is a classic game, that many other popular games are based on. And two, because it’s still fun!
Here are the simple rules of Yahtzee. Yahtzee is played over 13 rounds of dice rolling. Each player gets one turn per round to roll the dice up to three times and score a category. You have to fill in one empty box in the column under your name each turn. Highest total score wins.
YOUR 1ST ROLL – Roll all 5 dice. If you get the exact combo you want, mark your score card right away. Otherwise, continue with your 2nd roll.
YOUR 2ND ROLL – Set aside any ‘keepers’ and re-roll the rest. Hate them all? Re-roll them all! If you get the exact combo you need, mark your score card. Otherwise, continue with your 3rd roll.
YOUR 3RD AND FINAL ROLL – If you still haven’t nailed a combo, or just want to maximize your score: Roll some or all of your dice (as above), even any ‘keepers’ you might have set aside from the first roll. You must enter a score at the end of this roll, whether or not you like your dice. If your roll doesn’t suit any of your empty boxes, you have to enter a ZERO somewhere.
Likes, Dislikes and Final Thoughts for “YAHTZEE: Dungeons & Dragons – Dice Tower “
Likes:
- The Dice tower is very well made. It is not flimsy. The plastic is solid. It will easily allow rolling of standard sized d4 through d20 dice for any game.
- Easy to learn – Yahtzee is extremely easy to learn. Young and old family members alike will pick up the gist of the game very quickly.
- Travel friendly – The box for this game is only 4″ x 5″ x 6″, so it can be packed up quickly. And if you want, you can leave the dice tower at home and put the dice and scorepad into a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag and easily toss the game in a travel bag. Everything you need is in the box, even a golf pencil.
- Great Rulebook – Yahtzee was trademarked in the 1950’s. The makers have had over 50 years to fine-tune the rulebook, and it explains the game thoroughly.
- Themed Dice – The dice have a fun D&D theme to them. The mimic die is my favorite. The dice are well-made with rounded-corners.
- Themed Scoresheets – The Scoresheets show both the numbers on the dice and characters on the dice.
Dislikes:
- The D&D dice have very small numbers on them. For old timers like me, it can take an extra bit of time to figure out an Owl Bear is a 2. But this is very minor quibble.
- I wish there was a simple dice tray with this this. It’s nice to have the dice drop out of the Dice Tower, and stay within the bounds of the dice tray. You can find inexpensive folding dice trays if you really want one.
Final Thoughts
I think this package is wonderful for anyone looking for a Dice Tower and Yahtzee. For a retail price of around $29, you get a full version of Yahtzee and a pretty nice Dice Tower. If you are a board game family, and do not have a Dice Tower, this is fantastic. There are many times a Dice Tower can come in handy.
If you do not need a Dice Tower, and want to simply play Yahtzee, you can find the classic version for less money. But it won’t be nearly as awesome as this package. 😉
USAOpoly has several themed versions of Yahtzee available on their website if you want to check them out, including: Naruto, Spam, Cup O Noodles, and National Parks.