The fate of the Marvel Universe lies in your hands in Marvel Dice Throne, a new game from The Op. This new game launches with three options, each playable right out of the box with the ability to mix and match characters from different sets. Aimed at ages 8 and up and for 2-6 players, the game offers super-powered fun for families and friends.
The Op has taken into consideration ease of storage with this game, with everything you need for each character housed inside their own tray. Each character features a hero board, hero leaflet, status effect tokens, deck of cards, health tracker, combat points tracker, and dice (some characters also have a companion, like Thor’s hammer Mjolnir).
The object of the game is to knock out your opponents by reducing their health status to zero. A fairly simple goal, but achieving it requires you to learn about the skills and abilities of the character you’ve chosen. There is a difficulty rating for each character, so it’s recommended to start with one of the easier ones (Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Miles Morales: Spider-Man are each a level 2 out of 5). It would also be best to start with a 2 player game your first time to keep things simple, as the rules change slightly when adding more players.
Thankfully, instructions are included on your character board and leaflet. And ultimately it’s up a role of the dice to determine what happens. Symbols on different squares match up to possible die outcomes, which determine what kind of damage you can inflict, or what type of defense you can take against a foe’s attack. Cards in your hand also help in a variety of ways.
When you or your oponnent is attacked, damage is inflicted which is then subtracted from their health tracker. Obvously, you don’t want yours to go down to zero, but another important tracker is for your combat points. These are essentially currency that can be spent to upgrade your character with cards that enter your hand. They have a cost to play them, but are a worthwhile investment. The photo above shows Scarlet Witch’s standard board, while the image below shows all of the possible upgrade cards in play.
Every aspect of the game is themed to each character, including the symbols on the dice and artwork on the cards. The artwork for the game is in its own original, distinct style.
Each deck of cards also comes with a cheat sheet card that lists all of the actions a player can take on their turn on one side, the other providing a color code for when certain cards can be played. Cards with a red border, for example, can be played at any time, even during another player’s turn, while blue cards can be played before you roll the dice on your turn. Players start with 4 cards in their hand and can pick up an additional card at the start of their turn, but can’t hold more than 6 at a time. Unwanted cards can also be sold in exchange for combat points, a helpful option if you want to upgrade more abilities (players also receive 1 combat point automatically at the start of their turn).
The other exciting thing about Marvel Dice Throne is that this is only the beginning. The game starts with an awesome lineup of 8 characters if you collect all of the sets, but there’s certainly room for more. The instruction booklet also lists this as “Version 1.0,” meaning new characters have the potential to affect the rules of play.
If you’re interested in trying out Marvel Dice Throne, my recommendation is to start with the 2-Hero Box containing Captain Marvel and Black Panther, both of whom are on the easier side of the difficulty scale (2/6). Each 2-Hero Box retails for $29.99 and the other configuration is Black Widow (3/6) and Doctor Strange (4/6). But if you have a need for more players or simply want to have more options then the 4-Hero Box is another good place to start at $49.99. It comes with Scarlet Witch (4/6), Thor (3/6), Loki (4/6), and Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2/6).
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