This is a preview using a porotype copy provided for free by the publisher, Comet Games. The fact that I got the game does not affect my opinion. I'm not that cheap.
Bye Bye Dice is from Comet games, a small independent UK publisher I am quickly becoming a big fan of. They make games full of charm and personality. Bye Bye Dice will be their second game when it comes to Kickstarter April 2022. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays.
Set Up
Find the Token card and one My Turn card for each player. Give the My turn card to each person around the table and lay the Token card face up by the side. Then take the rest of the cards and place them face down and give them a good tornado shuffle. Give the dice to the first player and you are ready to go.
How to Play
The first player will now start the game by rolling the dice. If they roll a six they can start flipping over cards. If they don't roll a six they will pass the dice to the player to their left. If you roll a six you can flip one card at a time. You are looking for a card with a one on it. If you find that card, place it face up in front of you. If you don't, place the card back, face down and flip another card. You can keep going until the next person rolls a six and takes over your spot at the table. You are looking to build up a run of one to eight with the final Winner card. The first person to do this wins the game.
You will notice there are lots of different colours on the card backs. For a harder game, you need to get all your numbers in the same colour. For a simpler game, you can use any colour and also reduce some of the numbers, taking out the higher cards, and making the race a first to five, or six, of whatever works for you.
As soon as someone completes their set with the final Winner card, they win the game. This can happen within minutes, or depending on the roll of the dice and the rules you are playing, can take a little longer. But either way it will be frantic!
Some of the cards have special powers. They will either help or hinder you. Everyone starts with a My Turn card. This can be played at any time to take over at the table and start flipping cards without rolling a six. There are more My Turn cards in the deck.
The Steel Any Card lets you take a card from another person. They will then need to replace that card when it is their turn before they can carry on their their sequence. For example, if another player has a One and Two and you take their One, they need to take another One of their next turn, rather than carrying on from Two.
The blank card works as a wild and can replace any number you need. There is also a card with a hand on that if you flip over, means you have to stop flipping and join the rest of the players rolling the dice. The most entertaining card is the Bye Bye Dice card, which means you can throw the dice away to stop the other players from being able to roll it! You can house rule this however you set fit, big throw, small throw. In the room. Within view. Whatever works for your group. But it's hilarious either way and I am all in for it!
The cards are all very bright and easily marked. You will be able to see what they are quite quickly. I am unsure how easy this will be for players who have colour blindness though. They may need to consider different style fonts or backgrounds for the final copy. I am not an expert here and this is just a prototype version
Is it Fun
If you like real-time games then you may well love this. If not, it may be a little stressful for you! I love it as it reminds me of a game I played each birthday when I was a child. We had to roll a dice, and if we rolled a six, we could start putting on layer upon layer of winter clothing. When done with the clothes, and this included thick winter gloves, you could then start eating a chocolate bar, but you had to use a knife and fork to do so! At any point, if another player rolled a six, they would rip the clothes off you, start putting them on themselves, and take over eating. Or at least trying to! It was a real treat for me, and a lovely memory. And this game takes me right back to that feeling. I may introduce a chocolate bar to this game! Just for nostalgia sake of course.
For young children and families, this is a great game. Perfect for a young children's party vibe, the same that my old family chocolate bar game was used for. When it arrived in our house my kids wanted to play it non-stop all evening. And this was without the chocolate bar expansion!
The game is quite simple, and there is not much strategy to it. Although you can place the cards back wherever you like, and try to remember where you placed certain numbers and cards. But this is mainly about acting and moving fast. A true race game. If you enjoy that kind of tension, pressure and the frantic nature of a game it creates, this well could be for you.
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