Charidice

• Designer: Jurgen Adams 
• Publisher: NSV
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 min
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Take points, give points: Both can lead to success in Charidice. Charidice puts your generosity to the test. Donate your dice – don’t keep all the points for yourself.  If you’ve been particularly charitable, you’ll be awarded a valuable bonus at the end of the game.

To set up, each player gets a scoring sheet and a pen.  On a turn, roll the six dice up to three times. Each die features the numbers 1-6 in six colors, and after you stop rolling, you score either all of the dice of one color (as long as you have at least four dice of that color) or one die of each color.  This score is recorded in the first column of your score sheet.  

Get certain combinations — such as a straight of 4-6 numbers in the first case or a 4- to 6-of-a-kind in the latter — to score bonus points.  The reminder for these bonuses is found at the bottom of your sheet in the yellow area.  You conveniently record your bonus score in the yellow second column.

Whatever you don’t score gets scored by the player to your left, with 5s and 6s scoring double for them. The player to your left records it in his green third column and you write the same number in the fourth column (as a way to track how many points you gave away).

Once during the game, before your right-hand neighbor takes their third roll, you can ask them for “the greatest of gifts”, and whatever they give you that turn is doubled.  Both the giver and receiver mark a double score when this happens.

The game is complete after the seventh round.  Each player sums up the scores in their first three columns.  Then, whoever has given away the most points receives 20 points at game’s end, with the bonus rising to 30 points if they gave away 60+ points.  The player with the most points wins.  There is no tiebreaker,

My thoughts on the game

Charidice is a new take on the roll-three-times genre of dice games. Not only are you trying to make the best combination for yourself, but you’re also leaving points for the next player.  Do you want to try to limit how many points the next player gets? Maybe.  After all, the player with the most points wins.  Of course, the nice bonus for giving away the most points might make it worthwhile to hand over a bunch of 5s and 6s…

There is an interesting bit of strategy around the “Greatest of Gifts” call.  Sometimes the receiving player will do it if it looks like they’re going to get a nice payoff.  Of course, the luck of the dice always have their say, and sometimes the best plans don’t work out!

As with most NSV games, the game is easy to teach and accessible to all.  The rules can easily be explained with a sample turn.  Does it feel like some of the other recent NSV roll-and-writes?  Sure.  But, there’s a reason I have a drawer in my game room filled with games such as Qwinto, Qwixx, Splitter, Knaster, Twenty-One, Silver and Gold and more.  They know they’ve got a good thing, and these little games continue to please.  None of them are admittedly world beaters, but each offers a slightly different take on the genre, and when you pull a different one out each time you need a filler, you’re reminded of the wonderful diversity that NSV provides you in this small niche.  

For me, they are the “Adlung Games” of the 2020s.  I go to Essen every year, I know I’m going to stop at their booth and pick up their games. Small boxes, small prices, usually lots of fun.  It’s enough to keep me coming back annually to see what they have to offer.  Even if I don’t care for the game, it’s always worth the look.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Simon W, Dale
• Neutral.  John P
• Not for me…