Dice Forge Board Game Review

By: IllusionAre you tired of being a plain old mortal? Does the simplicity of Earth life got you feeling blue? Do you want to impress the Gods and earn a place among them? Well come and join me in earning gold, and sacrificing it to please to Gods and earn a place in heaven by playing “Dice Forge”!Dice Forge is a 2-4 player dice rolling / dice forging game by Regis Bonnessee and Libellud Games. Dice Forge is recommended for anyone 10 and over and the box claims it takes about 45 minutes.How to playIn Dice Forge, each player is given a character sheet and cubes used to track each players gold, sun shards, moon shards, and glory points. Players are also each given 2 customizable dice. Each die face is able to be unattached from the die and replaced by new die faces that players earn throughout the game.On each players turn, all players get to roll their dice and take the rolled resources (gold, sun shards, moon shards, or glory points). Then the active player gets to either; use their gold to replace one side of a die with a die face from the communal die face pool, or use their sun and moon shards to take a divine blessing card, which can be used for certain actions on later turns.The upgraded die faces can give players more gold, or resources on later turns, and can even give players glory points each time they roll, and that face is revealed. Divine blessing cards can give players more rolls than other players, allow players to steal resources from other players, or even give players a higher limit to the amount of resources they can attain.After 10 rounds are played, glory points are totaled up and whoever has the most is the winner.My thoughtsMy initial interest in this game came from the idea of upgrading my dice as the game progresses. This is a fun mechanic, and I also really enjoyed the look of the game.The art in this game is beautiful. The colors are bright, I love the theme, and the box really shines on the shelf. I am not really surprised by this, considering this is the same company that brought us “Dixit”, another game with fantastic art. The components of the game are also stunning.The box feels great, the dice are study and of great quality, and when the game is set up it is very attractive. The insert inside the box is also really functional when storing the game and during gameplay. The box is actually part of the board during gameplay, which I think is really cool.Gameplay is really easy, and Dice Forge would be a great game to use for non gamers. Gameplay is also very engaging because everybody rolls dice on every player's turn. This really minimizes down time and keeps players from looking at their phones.Gameplay isn’t bad in any way, but unfortunately it just isn’t very exciting either. When I play, I keep waiting for the game to get more exciting, and it just never comes.Rolling on everyone's is really nice, and it's exciting to get a bunch of one resource in a single turn, but using my resources to get cards just feels really lackluster. The game also ends abruptly, and even when I have won the game, I don't feel like I accomplish very much.I think the game suffers from a lack of strategy. Rolling dice and gaining resources is the main meat of the game, and the only choices players get to make is what to spend their resources on. Having such a high level of luck involved with such little strategy really unbalances the strategy / luck ratio that I think makes up a solid game. There is also very minimal player interaction.The theme also really falls short in Dice Forge. Don’t get me wrong, I love the theme of the game, but the theme really adds very little to the game, and in the end, this is more of an abstract game.I would really love to see this theme brought out in another game. Maybe a Dice Forge Legacy game? Where dice evolve over time, and players go through some sort of story, and use their dice to fight creatures? That is something I would be interested in, but unfortunately, at this point, the theme feels very disconnected from the game.To ConcludeDice Forge is a game I could definitely bring out for new gamers, or if I attended a convention due to its amazing art work and table presence. I will definitely keep it in my collection since the game looks great on the shelf, and the idea of forging dice is really innovative.Unfortunately it is hard to recommend this game for any reason other than that. The game is, frankly, boring, offers little player interaction, and I don’t see myself playing it very often.If you’re looking for a game to help introduce players to the board gaming hobby, this game will do, but there are definitely better options out there. We can also all hope for an expansion in the future.Play on boys and girls.