Review: Outlander: Destiny Dice Game

I received the Outlander: Destiny Dice Game from Toy Vault way back in February.  For many reasons, I did not break open the game until the end of March.  I waited to play it with a fellow Outlander fan and friend, someone who would work with me to figure it all out.

I was naive enough to think this would be a simple game and would be easy to figure out.  We spent about an hour trying to understand how to play, then started playing and realized we were not playing the correct way.  I should say that I don’t play dice games, other than your basic board games, so if you are a conniseur of dice games, you will probably have an easier time figuring it all out.

The game is for at least two players and up to four players.  Everything relies on the six dice that have the faces of eight of the Outlander characters in different ratios (Dougal, Laoghaire, Geillis, Claire, Black Jack, Jamie, Murtagh, and Jenny).  Each character in a roll of dice has an effect on the points you will get for a certain roll.  Thank god for the cheat sheet cards that each player can hold on to which shows how points are determined.  The box that holds the game also has a quick guide to what you can do with each character in a roll.

The cards are a little more complicated, and honestly, I was so confused on getting scores and what how you moved your player peg that we did not really mess with playing any of the cards.  A card is drawn in the beginning and that determines how many points each player is awarded at the end of one round.

The inner numbers on the board are for rounds, and the outer numbers are for who wins the entire game.  Whoever has the most points at the end of a round proceeds to use the numbers on the card drawn at the beggining to determine how far you move on the outer numbers.  Whichever player makes it past 40 on the outer ring, wins the game.

The game goes really fast, especially with two people.  This is after you figure the whole game out and stop constantly referencing the rules and examples provided in the rule book.  This would be a longer game and a bit more interesting with four players.  The hard part is convicing people to play with you and go through the hour plus of learning how to play.

I will say, I would love to play with four players and see how interesting it gets.  Maybe I will bring it along to SDCC and subject The Outlander Podcast to learning how to play.

If you can get past the learning curve for the game and maybe successfully use the cards as a playing technique, you may find this game enjoyable.  This game is another merchandise opportunity that tries to expand on what is available to the Outlander fandom.  Maybe we could have an Outlander Monopoly next?

You can purchase your own Outlander Destiny Dice game through Amazon.

If you have any questions about the game, please let me know! (I may or may not be able to answer them.)

And be aware that a cat may ruin your game. . .

Source: Outlander TV News