Dicey Curves – “Combos”

Dicey Curves is my new game due out August 2011 via TheGameCrafter.com.  It is a dice-driven car racing game, where the track is constructed from a deck of cards.

The game has players trying to put together “combos” in order to move their cars from spot-to-spot on the track and to get past the combo gateways in the curves.  A combo is any combination of dice that are of the same value, or are in-a-row (such as a 1-2-3 straight).  The combo types are named after the number of dice used to make up the combo — “singles” are individual dice that are not combined with any other dice; “doubles” are any 2-dice combo; “triples” are 3-dice combos; “quads” are 4-dice combos; and “pentas” are 5-dice combos.

On straight-aways, players can only play a single combo to move their cars forward the number of spots equal to the number of dice in the combo.  So, making a “triple” will let you move your car forward 3 spots.  In the corners, players need to make a combo equal to the number shown on the gateway marker (such as a 5-dice combo — a “penta” — needed for the Dice Curves card shown above).

It might seem difficult to get a 5-dice combo when rolling just 5 dice … but the “exploding dice” (ability to add up to 5 more dice) and some of the actions available through the control chips (“add-a-die”, and “reroll dice”, for example) gives players a chance to coax the dice into the combos needed.