Episode 202: Too Many Bones

Too Many bones designed by Josh and Adam Carlson and published by Chip Theory games is co-op dice chucking adventure game for 1-4 players.  Now Too Many Bones have too many rules to discuss here, so I am going to give you gist of play.  Each player plays as a Gearloc (represented by poker chips), with their own mat and set of unique dice and stats that they can level and obtain while progressing through the game.  Each Gearloc comes with their own two sided “this is how play me” guide and it chalked full of explanations, suggestions, and iconography.  I highly suggest you look over this before your first play as every gearloc plays significantly differently. The main stats you are working with Health (represented by poker chips) dexterity (which dictates how many dice you can roll on your turn) attack (which is the max amount of attack dice you can roll in combat) and defense  (which is the max amount of defense dice you can roll during combat.).  Also on your player boards are unique dice that you can obtain as you level. To complete the set up you need to pick a Tyrant, which will tell you what type of monsters (represented by poker chips) you could run into, how many cards to dump into the encounter deck, and how many progress points you need before you can even think about taking him on.  Once the encounter deck is constructed you can begin.  Each day you flip an encounter which gives you some type of choice and usually (but not always) ends in a battle.  When a battle occurs you must calculate the battle que points by multiplying the day you are on with the amount of gearlocs you are playing.  (for example, if you are day 3 and you are playing 4 gearlocs, you have 12 BPs). Which means the longer you go, the harder the battles will get.  Monsters comes in 3 values, 20, 5 and 1.  Taking the highest value monster from your BPs, you figure out what monsters you will be up against, in the 12 point example, you would get 2 5s and 2 1s. Once monsters are placed on the battle board and initiatives are rolled, you are ready to fight.   On your turn you roll you dex value worth of dice.  Attack dice do damage, defense dice give you shield, and your unique gearloc dice do everything…I mean everything.  Every die is different.  Once you win or lose the battle you might get training points, which you can use to increase your stats or acquire new dice. At one point when you get enough progress points you can take on the tyrant you beat him you win, if you reach your day allotment, you lose.  This of course was just a tasting of the rules.  Now lets get back to the table and find out what the Pegs thought of Too Many Bones.