Roll Fast and Fill Your Shop in Mischief in Diagon Alley

All the shops have had their inventories jumbled together! Race each other to collect your items back in your shop and get rid of the ones that don’t belong.

Mischief in Diagon Alley is a real-time dice game published by The Op that plays in 10-15 minutes and is designed for 3-5 players.

Gameplay

Each player takes a shop board. Each shop is associated with one specific item type. This is the item that belongs in your shop and that you are trying to collect. The cobblestone street board is placed in the center of the table and each player takes three dice. Each player takes a set number of item tokens of each item type except the one associated with their board, and places them on their shops. All remaining tiles are placed on the cobblestone street.

The game is played simultaneously and in real-time. You do not have to wait for another player to complete their turn. The goal is to move as quickly as possible. To play the game, you take your three dice and roll them. One die gives you an item type (or a wild which can serve as any item), a direction, and a number one through three. If the item is not the one you are trying to collect, then this tells you which item and the maximum number of it that you can move off of your board and in what direction (left, right, or to the cobblestone board). When moving items to another player, you place them on his board. If the item is the one you are trying to collect, then the dice are telling you how many you can take and move to your board and from which direction.

When a player only has his required item type on his game board he shouts "mischief managed" and the round ends. The player who ended the round gets three points, then everyone scores one point for each of the item token that they were collecting, present on their board, and lose one point for each token on their board that was not their item. If the total is over zero, they take the point tokens for what they scored. If the total was below zero, they do not lose any points collected in previous rounds. You then set up for a new round. The first player to eleven points wins the game.

Review

Mischief in Diagon Alley is fast, it’s fun, it’s lightweight, and it’s easy to learn. The mechanics are straightforward, and the game itself is played quickly. When tokens start flying and moving quickly around the play area, it’s silly-fun excitement.

The skill lies in acting quickly: rolling those dice, processing the information, and moving what needs to be moved as fast and as smoothly as you can so that you can instantly go again. There is a little bit of visually checking, when a wild comes up, how your opponents are doing and where it’s best to grab tiles from or send tiles to. But for the most part, this is less a game about the choices you make and more about how quickly you can execute your actions.

In general, the components are quite good quality with the item tokens being quite thick and sturdy, excellent for a game in which they will get plenty of wear and tear. The same can also be said for the shop boards that are quite sturdy and large. The only component that could have been improved are the dice, which are quite small.

Mischief in Diagon Alley doesn’t do a lot new — there are other very similar dice games out there, such as Mickey and Friends Food Fight by the same publisher. But between the component quality and the theme, this is a fun one that’s going to appeal to plenty of players and is well worth checking out.

Pros: Thick tiles, easy to learn and teach

Cons: Dice are quite small

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