Batman the Animated Series Dice Game Rules

Anybody knows Sherlock Holmes, the world'due south greatest detective, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lately I've been reading the Raffles short stories by E.W. Horning—Conan Doyle'due south brother-in-police. Instead of a detective, Raffles is a gentleman infiltrator, essentially Sherlock Holmes' opposite. Reading them is the closest I've come up to feeling similar I've discovered new, authentic Holmes adventures. If the original Sherlock Holmes stories are the Bible, the Raffles stories are the apocrypha.

Only like the typical Holmes story formula of an impossible to solve case, a Raffles story typically centers around an impossibly difficult theft. And, just as the Holmes stories are written from the point of view of Dr. Watson, the Raffles stories are written from the indicate of view of Bunny—Raffles' devoted, practically sycophantic sidekick.

Raffles shares many characteristics of Holmes—intelligence, courage, penchant for disguises—but puts them all to use as a criminal. Y'all wouldn't say that Raffles is evil, necessarily. He tends to steal from morally dubious characters. Still, Raffles is a bad man. In one story, he plots a murder, partially to protect his criminal identity, simply partially but for the thrill of secretly knowing that he'due south committed the most heinous crime possible.

The stories were plain quite famous and scandalous at the fourth dimension, although as Sherlock Holmes has only grown more than popular, Raffles fame hasn't kept pace.

If a gentleman burglar was legitimately scandalous to Victorian audiences, how much have things changed? Fiction virtually criminal exploits doesn't exactly conduct a stigma today.

In fact, you're no longer limited to simply reading about burgling every bit yous relax in the parlor in your smoking jacket. If you want to experience like a burglar, plenty of board games permit you conduct out your own daring heists. Which brings me to another game based on Batman: The Animated Serial…

Batman: The Animated Series Die Game

I can't see the Batman: The Animated Series logo without hearing the theme in my head. Dunn dun dun dunn dun dunnnn…

Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game is a game for two to iv players from Steve Jackson Games where you take on the role of one of 4 DC Comics villains. Your goal is to steal as much coin as possible without getting defenseless by Batman. Each turn, yous pull dice out of a cup, trying to coil every bit many coin numberless as you can. You can stop at any time, keeping any money you lot've rolled, or you tin can keep rolling—simply if you roll 3 Bat-symbols, your turn ends and you get nothing. The winner is the person with the most coin at the end of the game.

Each dice has 6 sides, ii of which are alarm symbols. Whenever you roll an alarm, you can choose to re-roll information technology. Bluish dice have more money bags, gray dice are every bit balanced, and yellow dice have more than Bat-symbols, then you can tell past the colour of an alarm how risky it is to re-roll.

The game is a slightly redesigned version of Steve Jackon'southward Zombie Die . The main differences are this version has less dice (ten instead 13) simply adds villain characters with unique abilities. For example, Catwoman scores double for any blue money bags, and Riddler gets an extra die on his first curl.

Zombie Die 2.0?

I came into this game with cypher cognition about how to play information technology or Zombie Die. Unfortunately, after reading the rules, I still felt every bit blind every bit Batman in the episode "Blind equally a Bat." I had to look up how to play Zombie Die to understand what was going on here. Part of what'southward confusing is the rules attempt to explain the special characters before explaining how to play the game. Too, the explanation of what to do on your turn tells you what to do and so specifically that you don't get a general thought of what a plough is like.

I'd always shied away from Zombie Dice considering I find the zombie on the game'southward artwork agonizing—and non in a good way. However, Zombie Die is an ingeniously designed game. You're a zombie. You want to gyre brains. Yous don't want to roll gunshots because that'southward similar you got shot. And, if roll footsteps, it's like your victim ran away: you get to chase them down and re-roll. Green die take more than brains, yellow dice are balanced evenly, and reddish die accept more gunshots.

This translates directly into the Batman: The Blithe Serial Dice Game. Money numberless are similar brains; alarms are like footsteps; and Bat-symbols are like gunshots.

Except… does this actually brand as much sense as Zombie Dice?

In Zombie Dice, a stride icon for re-rolling works perfectly because a footstep icon doesn't expect inherently good or bad.

Here, the symbol for re-roll is an alarm. Technically, that checks out. You're a super criminal and the dice are like buildings that yous're breaking into. You want to find money numberless, you lot don't want to find Batman, and if y'all but set off the warning, you don't care.

But… it's pretty firmly established in the man encephalon that setting off alarms is a really, really bad thing. If you're a criminal breaking into a identify, you don't actually want to set off the alarm. When you're playing, you lot roll the die, and your firsthand reaction is, "Oh no, I gear up off the alarm! Oh await, alarms aren't the bad affair. Batman is the bad affair? But Batman is skilful? Oh expect, that's right, I'one thousand bad. I'm Poison Ivy. I don't want Batman to show upwards. I mean, I probably do, because I probably want to buss him with my poisonous lipstick. But, no, actually I don't."

In that location's an extra cognitive hoop y'all have to jump through to call back which icons are practiced and which icons are bad.

Ane question: where are nosotros breaking into that actually keeps their coin in bags like this? Scrooge McDuck's business firm?

Related to that, the colors in Zombie Dice make total sense: dark-green dice are good, yellow dice are meh, and red dice are bad. Every auto commuter, if not literally every single human being existence, understands that green, yellow, and cherry mean go, caution, and end.

Here, the die are blue, gray, and yellow. Those are the colors of Batman's suit, but they don't have the same innate simplicity. Bluish, gray, and xanthous aren't hard-wired into your hidden. It always takes a moment to call up which colors are expert and which are bad.

On the other hand, that's all assuming that you're not color blind. For most forms of color blindness, blueish and yellow are really easier to distinguish than ruddy and greenish. Plus… maybe it would just be weird to accept dark-green, yellow, and cherry-red dice in a Batman game?

Components

The game ends once someone gets at least xxx points and everyone has had an equal number of turns. However, the game doesn't include a manner to runway those points. Yous have to either use a piece of newspaper, or come up with some other way (Batcomputer?). It would be absurd if at that place were tokens. Then again, for a 4 player game, you'd need potentially over 120 tokens, so information technology'due south pretty obvious why they're not included. One affair to consider is using poker chips or money pieces from a different game.

Too, the game is a loving cup full of dice, but you don't actually use the loving cup to scroll the dice. On your turn, you reach into the cup, pull out dice randomly, and whorl them. Getting the exact amount of dice you need out of the loving cup can be problematic.

Proceed in mind, this is not a bag, it's a cup. It's rigid. And we're talking the size of cup you lot go when you order fresh squeezed juice at a restaurant: it's non generous. Unless y'all take weird suction cup fingers, you'll probably end upward trying to tip it over and catch the dice without looking at what color they are (considering that would be cheating). Except, of course, yous end up dropping a bunch of them because you tin can't look at them.

Villains

The inherent problem with creating a grapheme-driven, muli-histrion game about Batman is there's but one Batman. Sure, maybe the other players could be Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing, but if you want a wildly diverse array of thespian characters, y'all have to make the villains into the protagonists of the game.

Batman: The Animated Serial Die Game embraces this, casting the players equally Joker, Catwoman, Poisonous substance Ivy, and Riddler. Each of the villains has an interesting power that is reasonably tailored to that villain's personality, and none of them seem clearly more than powerful than the others.

If you want, it'southward easy to pretend that Invisible Man guy from the "See No Evil" episode is another one of the villains here.

A fifth villain, Mr. Freeze, exists every bit a promo menu. Information technology looks similar the easiest mode to obtain this promo is to gild the game direct from Steve Jackson Games' Warehouse 23 online store. Unfortunately, the Mr. Freeze villain is a bill of fare instead of a token similar the other villains and then you can't mix them all together and draw ane randomly. However, Mr. Freeze's power is pretty intriguing since it enables you to run out of dice faster, which gets you more than points.

Concluding thoughts

The Batman: The Blithe Series Dice Game continues the tendency from Batman Fluxx of putting the blithe Batman license on a pre-existing popular game. In that case, it was Fluxx. Here, it is Zombie Dice.

Batman Fluxx is a clear improvement over ordinary Fluxx. Here, I'm a bit more than conflicted.

Yous can't say that the Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game is worse than Zombie Dice, right? Because they're basically the exact same game. But… it'due south kinda worse because information technology doesn't have the aforementioned intuitive clarity. Then once again, it's definitely better because it's got Batman and villains with evil superpowers.

Steve Jackson Games recently announced Zombie Die Horde Edition , which includes a score pad for tracking your score and a die bag instead of a dice loving cup. This fixes two of my biggest complaints virtually the Batman: The Animated Series version. The Horde Edition besides includes two expansions.

This is a tough phone call! If I didn't have any version of the game, I would find myself pretty tempted past the Horde Edition. And however, the things I didn't like about the Batman version were pretty minor, and the nostalgic describe of Batman: The Animated Serial is undeniably potent.

When I first heard they were making a dice game based on Batman: The Animated Series, it instantly striking my wish list. Then, the very start time I played, on my very kickoff roll, I got three Bat-symbols: an immediate bust. I'm not holding that against it, though. The Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game is fun, and I think information technology's the best version of Zombie Die if yous're a Batman fan.

If you lot're anything similar me, y'all have a really hard time figuring out what other people are thinking. Too, you lot probably tend to project your own thoughts and feelings onto other people, when in reality their minds are filled with totally different ideas. Your subjective personhood makes information technology really difficult to shop for other people for the holidays because you can never actually know if y'all're getting them something they desire or not!

Don't worry! I've come up to your recuse and made a gift guide for 2016. You can use this to find the perfect gift for anyone in your life this year.

Annotation: Some of my own biases may have influenced the selections.

For the die game fan

Null makes a improve gift for a dice game fan this Christmas than the new Batman: The Animated Serial Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the husband

I'm a married man, and if in that location's anything I remember would make a great gift, information technology's Batman: The Blithe Serial Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the wife

If your wife is anything like my wife, she is willing to watch Batman: The Blithe Series with y'all. Y'all tin take that aspect of your relationship to the side by side level by getting her Batman: The Blithe Series Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the kids

Kids dearest Batman. That'due south why there have been so many animated series near Batman. But only 1 has achieved the critical acclaim of Batman: The Animated Series. You tin can bring the joy of Batman: The Blithe Series to your kids (or anyone else'south kids) this vacation season with Batman: The Animated Serial Die Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the Batman fan

Cypher would make a Batman fan happier than getting a nifty Batman game as a gift. I would propose Batman: The Animated Serial Die Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the Marvel Comics fan

This person is clearly misguided. You can help them meet the calorie-free by getting them Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the cat lover

If there's anyone who loves cats, it's Catwoman—a crazy cat lady from DC Comics' Batman. This twelvemonth, you can get the perfect gift for the catwoman (or catman) in your life by getting them Batman: The Animated Series Die Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the dog lover

You know who doesn't have a domestic dog? Batman from Batman: The Blithe Series. He is too decorated fighting criminal offence to take Ace the Bat-Hound for a walk! Y'all can go along the canis familiaris lover in your life busy this vacation season with Batman: The Blithe Series Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the millennial

If there's annihilation that millennials remember fondly, it's sitting in forepart of the Boob tube watching the episode of Batman: The Animated Serial where young Bruce Wayne sits in front of the TV watching The Greyness Ghost! Appeal to their sense of nostalgia and help them stave off the specter of middle age by getting them Batman: The Animated Series Die Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the grandparent

Grandparents are one-time enough to remember what life was like before Batman: The Animated Serial. They'll appreciate your assistance in getting past the memory of those awful times if you lot get them Batman: The Blithe Series Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games!

For the whole family

Nothing brings the family together like the story of a millionaire who thinks he's above the law every bit he drives around in a fancy automobile and punches a agglomeration of misguided social outcasts! Gloat that around your kitchen table this Christmas season with Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game from Steve Jackson Games!

Those are my recommendations for this yr. Hopefully this gift guide will help yous equally you're making your holiday purchasing decisions! Exist sure to share it with anyone in your life who'southward struggling with gift ideas!