Iceman's Board Game Topic (Rankings, Reviews, Sessions, Discussion)

18. Dice Forge
Expansions Played: None

This is an easy game to talk about, because it's fun for some very simple and obvious reasons but held back from excellence for reasons that are equally clear. As the name implies, this is a dice chucker through and through, with a rarely-seen gimmick in that you'll be repeatedly removing the actual faces on your dice to replace them with better ones.

That's it. That's Dice Forge. On every turn, every player rolls their dice to get the resources shown on them, and the active player has the choice of spending those resources to either upgrade their dice or buy a card. These cards provide victory points, special recurring effects, or even more die faces. I've basically just taught you how to play the entire game; all you'd need to learn when you sit down is iconography and a couple special edge rules. There's a hilariously pasted-on fantasy theme, but frankly, all that does is make for some flowery and unnecessary terminology for certain actions even if the art is fun and colorful for what it is.

Really, this is a fun twist on engine building where the dice themselves are the engines. It's wonderfully tactile - popping the faces on and off never gets old, and it's pretty easy unless you're my best friend, who for some reason really struggles with the necessary fine motor skills and usually resorts to using a fork. Dice upgrading isn't a terribly unique mechanic in board games, but I'm not aware of many other examples that let you physically do it in this way. It makes things extra customizable, and the novelty doesn't hurt. The game is also marginally less dependent on luck than you might think - I have a weirdly high win rate despite famously having lifelong poor fortune in dice rolling of any kind. You have to be closely tuned in to the game arc, because at a certain point you have to stop focusing on upgrades almost entirely. Knowing when to make that choice is usually the key to victory, and it doesn't necessarily come at the same time in each game.

As far as drawbacks? Well, for the light filler game that it is, it's a bit of a table hog, and the setup and teardown is annoying not just for the glaring reasons but because getting all the cards in their proper places is annoying, especially if you don't have the full complement of players (in which case you have to remove some). Once you do have it all set to go, though, it's quite snappy - 10 rounds that don't take very long due to the fact that you don't have to make many brain-burning choices. Playing multiple sessions back to back is very doable if you're inclined.

Dice Forge isn't any kind of masterpiece, but its memorable gimmick and super easy gameplay make it an ideal "beer and pretzels" game (or "soda and pretzels" in my group's case, given that none of us really drink). I don't like to play it too often because it does get repetitive, but I think it accomplishes its goals pretty much perfectly.

Collection Status and Future Outlook: Owned by me. This is in the running for the most frequently played game in my group, and while I definitely think it's hit the table more than it's maybe deserved to over the years, I've never gotten tired of it to the point that I'd expect it to lose its spot in this ranking. I'd like to pick up the expansion eventually to see if it might get a bit of a boost; don't think that's impossible.