[Ad – Gifted Products] Every Monday we go to Geek Retreat and play a new board game! This time, we played another Dog Man game – Dog Man: Big Jim Begins Dice Game. Unlike Dog Man: The Card Game, this game is all about rolling dice! Dog Man, if you didn’t know, is a very popular book character, who’s had a number of board games and even a movie. Robin absolutely loves reading Dog Man books, and so we always keep an eye out for board games and card games that match. Dog Man: Big Jim Begins Dice Game is a simple, children’s game all about rolling dice and spending them.
Inside the box, there are dice, cards, and a little dice rolling cup. Basically, everyone gets two cards in front of them to start with. These cards have one to three spaces for dice. Then, one by one, each player will roll the cup of dice. Once the dice hit the table, everyone races to grab the dice they need to fitful their cards. When a die is placed onto a card, you are unable to put it back into the dice roll until the end of the round. Rounds end in Dog Man: Big Jim Begins Dice Game when everyone has had a go at rolling the dice cup.
At the end of a round, any cards that have been completed are banked, with the dice returning to the cup. Any cards that had no dice need to be discarded. You can also discard any cards with dice on them that aren’t complete, adding the dice back into the dice cup. Everyone then draws up so they have two cards, and a new round begins! Robin, being such a big Dog Man fan, knew all the scenes on the various cards and found them to be a lot of fun.
We did feel that there needed to be more dice in Dog Man: Big Jim Begins Dice Game. There were just enough for a four player game, but often we ended up with just one die that was being rolled. If there were more dice, and the amount of dice changed with the number of people, that would feel much better. This is especially true as it’s a kids game and neither Robin nor Amelia wanted to get rid of cards that had a die on them, even if there were two other dice needed. There are some special dice, like the Dog Man badge, which can be used as a wild card and the Roll-a-rama side that has everyone racing to grab the cup, so that the first person can get first choice on the next roll. It’s fun, but just needs some more dice.