LAMA Dice is an upcoming spin-off of the card game by Lost Cities creator
Alpaca copy.
Try to score the lowest points possible in LAMA Dice, an upcoming spin-off of the card game by Reiner Knizia - the creator of Lost Cities.
A dice-rolling game for two to six players, LAMA Dice challenges competitors to get rid of as many cards as they can to avoid scoring points. A row of cards numbered one to six - as well as a single llama card - are laid out in the middle of the table. Each player is also dealt their own row of cards that can be numbered between one and six, or be llamas.
On each player's turn, they can choose to roll three dice in the hopes that they match the numbers shown on the cards in their row or roll three llamas. Any matching cards are removed from a player’s row, whilst rolling three llamas allows a player to discard a single point token from their total score.
However, should a player’s roll fail to match any of the cards in their row - or they do not roll three llamas - they must take a matching card from the row in the middle of the table and add it to their own display. If a dice roll does not match any cards in the current player’s row or any of the cards in the middle, they must take all the cards from the middle and end the round. Alternatively, players can choose to quit the round on their turn, collecting all the cards from their row into a pile.
The beginner board game then has players adding up their total score for the round by tallying up all the numbered cards by their point value, adding 10 points for every llama card. Players continue this process until someone has collected 40 points or more, with the player holding the fewest total points named the winner.
The original LAMA is a card game that has players trying to get rid of their cards by playing them. The deck is comprised of cards numbered from one to six, as well as llama cards, with competitors needing to either play a card matching the one on the top of the discard pile or one numbered higher.
Should a six be on the top of the discard pile, players can choose to either play a six or a llama. Whenever a llama is on top, then players can lay another llama or a one on top of that. Players can choose to quit the round on their turn, with the round ending the moment a player successfully discards their entire hand or once all players have quit the round. Points are then tallied - with each llama card counting as 10 - and the game ends when a player reaches 40 or more points.
LAMA was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres award - arguably the most prestigious accolade in the tabletop industry - when it released in 2019.
Other than LAMA Dice and the original LAMA, Knizia is known for designing a large collection of titles including the Lord of the Rings co-op board game and civilisation-building title Tigris & Euphrates.
LAMA Dice is being published by Amigo, the studio responsible for releasing LAMA alongside several other card games such as social deduction game Saboteur and 6 Nimmit!
According to BoardGameGeek, LAMA Dice is set to be released sometime this month, the retail price is yet to be confirmed.