Dice Realms, a new, innovative twist on “dice customization,” is the latest game from Tom Lehmann, designer of Race for the Galaxy.

In Dice Realms, each player rules a small realm, represented by two customizable dice. The removable die faces allow for the strategic improvement of farming, mining, defense, upgrades, and more. Each round, the players simultaneously roll their dice to collect grain, victory points, and coins. Then, they must decide how to upgrade their die faces to improve their realms. But the players must be careful; each round, the Fate Die is rolled, and fate can be fickle.

The future of your realm is in your hands: Will it thrive or merely survive?

Game features:

• 18 customizable dice with more than 650 individual dice faces
• Hundreds of hours of gameplay with more than 320,000 unique starting setups
• 3 Custom-made dice trays make setup and cleanup a snap!
• Easy to learn rules and quick, simultaneous gameplay

Each game is different as during setup, players draw five tiles (from a bag of 35) to determine which extra die faces will be available beyond the five standard lines of faces: victory, farming, commerce, defense, and upgrades. Each player begins with two identical dice and can gain more dice during play, in addition to upgrading their starting dice.

Play is mostly simultaneous. To begin, players roll their dice, with one player rolling the Fate die. If Winter appears on the Fate die, all players must pay 1 grain for each die they own or collect a -2 point "misery" chip for each grain they can't pay. Players may then re-roll one die for free, and they can invest in re-roll and "set a die" tokens (that allow you to choose the die face result) for further control. If a re-rolled die shows a re-roll icon, you do power shown on the die and then re-roll it.

Players then resolve attacks, starting with any on the Fate die (that hit all players), and then going clockwise from that player, with each player's attack affecting all their rivals. Each shield showing on your dice lets you ignore one attack. Successful attacks can cost players grain, the use of a die for a turn, or the loss of a die face, with that face being replaced with a "destroyed" face (which can be later rebuilt).

Players then collect the victory points (VPs), grain, and coins shown on their die faces, with coins being used to purchase re-roll tokens and set-a-die tokens, repair any destroyed die faces, buy a new die -- which also costs 2 grain -- or acquire upgrades. You can save at most 1 coin in your treasury from round to round.

Upgrades are the heart of the game. Players receive upgrades from upgrade symbols showing or by spending coins. Die faces have 1, 2, or 4 dots on them. To change from a 1 to a 4 in the same color — such as from a yellow face collecting 2 grain to the 4-dot version that collects 4 grain and 2 coins — costs three upgrades, whereas changing from one face to a different color face at the same level costs just one upgrade.

If during a round any player needs to use a 10 VP token, a -10 misery token, or a 10 grain token (because all of the smaller value tokens have been used), then the game ends after finishing that round; otherwise, the player with the Fate die passes it clockwise to the next player and a new round begins. When the game ends, players tally their points earned, both on the VP tokens and on the upgraded die faces, with 2-dot faces being worth 1 VP and 4-dot faces being worth 2 VP. Whoever has the most VPs wins.

With 18 dice, more than 650 plastic die faces in 72 types, and 35 tiles that provide more than 320,000 unique starting set-ups and challenges, Dice Realms offers lots of variety and replayability.

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