Racket Dice is a two-player bluffing promotable-dice game with a racket sports theme. You play in a series of hands. The stakes of each hand is determined in a bluffing sequence before the bid starts. After each hand, the winner spends what they must and claims their points, both players recover some lost resources, and a new hand begins. The number of sides on the die indicates how good they are in five increments (d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12 is the best). Players start low but upgrade these skills during the game. Upgrades involve sacrifice, requiring players to choose the right moment to advance a skill. The three skills are unique and lead to different playstyles. A specialist in hitting makes more hand-winning plays. The agility player builds their energy stockpile for later advantage. The stamina specialist wins long points with very high numbers.
‘False bid’ tokens allow a player to lie about their dice and win a hand for nothing, so long as they’re not caught in the process. You can ‘lie’ in Liar’s Dice and not know for sure whether you’re lying. You can ‘bluff’ in Poker without knowing you have the low hand. But a false bid in Racket Dice is objectively false. It’s a test of nerves. It’s great when a game makes your heart race.
This game works because it creates asymmetrical situations. Players build divergent strengths among various commodities on their way to victory: energy, skills, points, etc. Players make decisions that can be rightfully called ‘strategic’ even in the context of a quick dice game.
Racket Dice is two games in one, on either side of the board. Squash Dice is the basic game; Tennis Dice is quicker and has a few extra rules. Recommendation from the designer is starting with squash in order to learn the basics, and using the advanced rules (‘false bid’ tokens) as soon as possible.
.png)
