Las Vegas Royale: A Twist on the Classic Dice Game

Roll the dice and take a gamble. Will you shoot for higher rewards, or play it safe and hope to avoid the competition?

Las Vegas Royale includes both the classic Vegas Dice Game (with a few minor but clever changes) as well as advanced rules to mix things up!

Gameplay

A dice tray is placed in the center of the table and the casino tiles are placed around it. There are six casinos, numbered one through six. At the beginning of each round, you deal six sets of two cards from the money card deck. The money cards have values of $30,000 to $100,000. You place the two cards with the highest combined value at the number six casino, the second most valuable at the number five casino, and so on down the line until there are two cards at each casino. Each player takes eight dice of their player color (seven are normal sized, one is extra large) and two chips. In the basic rules, the game then begins.

On your turn you roll all your dice into the dice tray. You then select one number you rolled and place all the dice of that number on the corresponding casino, and retrieve your remaining dice (these are the dice you will roll on your next turn) and play passes to the player on your left. On your turn you may pay one chip after you roll to avoid having to place any dice that turn. Players keep taking turns until they run out of dice. Not all players will necessarily run out at the same time.

Once all players have run out dice, each casino is checked. The player with the most dice at that casino takes the money card with the highest value, while the runner up takes the second card, and any remaining players with dice on that casino get nothing. When players tie, their dice are removed from the casino and are out of the running for first or second place for that casino tile. The big dice count as two when calculating who has the most dice present at a casino.

After each casino has paid out, players take back their dice and are given another two chips at the start of the next round. The game ends after three rounds, and players count up their money card values and add an additional $10,000 for each chip they still have. The player with the most points wins.

The advanced ‘royale’ rules play much the same, except that at the beginning of each round three special tiles are placed on the one, two, and three casinos. There are eight tiles in all, with both sides featuring a unique special ability. Players randomly select three at the start of each round (replacing any from previous rounds). Typically, when you place one or more dice in a casino with an ability tile, that ability activates. The abilities are varied and include things such as allowing you to place grey dice on a casino in an attempt to block other players from having the most or second most dice present in that casino at the end of the round or offering ways to score extra money cards at the end of the round. Some ability tiles are passive, such as "bad luck" — at the end of he round, the player (or players) with the least number of dice in that casino must pay $50,000 to the bank.

Review

Las Vegas Royale is a light dice game with great presentation that is easy to teach, and has a fun scoring system. As you play there is a lot of watching other players and making your choices based off of where they go and which casinos are becoming crowded. The basic rule set is great for new gamers and is really easy to jump into. The rules are largely intuitive, while the advanced rules add variety.

If you are familiar with the original Vegas Dice Game, you will notice a few differences in the base rules, such as the chips and the inclusion of the large dice. Both of these add just a little bit more depth and areas for decision making. The components themselves are also a little fancier, with the casino tiles particularly being a nice set piece — however, the box is larger and the game loses some portability.

The advanced rules are easy to add to the game, while you still have the choice to play without. The number of advanced tiles is impressive and it’s intriguing to see the different ways they interact and how they affect play and player choice.

If you enjoy dice games or you enjoyed the original Vegas Dice Game and would like to take it to another level, Las Vegas Royale is a great game with a nice balance between luck and choice, with solid player interaction.

Pros: Good additions to the basic rules while the advances rules add variety

Cons: Less portable than it’s predecessor

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.