Dice Upon a Time is a family adventure game which guides the players into the magical world of the fairytales by Brothers Grimm. The players assume the roles of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Puss in Boots, Tom Thumb, Rapunzel, the Bremen Town Musicians and many more popular folk heroes to complete quests and gather Adventure Points.
During our adventures, we walk through familiar places, meet famous magical friends, use legendary items, even utilize our heroes’ unique abilities to plan our journey. Story cards may influence our trip by helping, challenging or putting a curse on us.
The game is based on special dice which are placed on the board – or upon each other – to move along, or simply to block other players’ paths. Each player has 5 dice, most of which with special sides. These dice are used in each chapter: we roll them, then place them one-by-one on the board, depending on where do we plan to go.
The rules are simple and are easy to learn, so even children can play the game. On the other hand, it provides a variety of opportunities wide enough to satisfy more experienced players as well. The rulebook contains a cooperative mode as well, so the players can face the game’s challenges together.
Strengths
- unique dice stacking mechanism
- sandbox – players can roam anywhere
- decreasable random factor
- limitation of others – adjustable to personal taste
- popular, well-known theme of fairytales
- easy to learn family game
Info
| Designer | István Szauer |
| Artwork (final) | Matteo Tosin |
| Publisher | Korona Games |
| Release date | 2020 December |
Designer’s note
The first draft of the game had the working title ‘Hungarian Folktales – The Dice Game’. The aim of the development was to create a board game worthy of the Hungarian Folktales franchise, based on mechanisms familiar to the players of Hungarian Folktales – The Board Game but still innovative. Finally the publisher decided to target the international audience by adapting it to the world of the famous tales by Brothers Grimm – which lead to a successful Kickstarter campaign and an even more successful introduction at Essen Spiel.