Contents
1 Overview
Zombie Dice is a push-your-luck dice game for 2 to 99 players published by Steve Jackson Games. You are a zombie trying to eat as many brains as possible without getting shotgunned three times. Each turn, pull 3 dice from the cup and roll. Brains score; footprints let you re-roll; blasts (shotgun shots) accumulate. Get 3 blasts and your turn ends with zero points. Stop before 3 blasts and bank your brains. First to 13 brains wins.
Zombie Dice is the perfect filler game -- it takes 30 seconds to explain, fits in a shirt pocket, plays in 15 to 20 minutes, and works for any group size. One of the bestselling dice games ever made.
2 Components
- 13 dice (6 green, 4 yellow, 3 red)
- 1 cup (for drawing dice)
- Score pad (optional -- or use any paper)
3 Setup
Put all 13 dice in the cup. Shakeshake. Youngest player goes first. That's it.
4 Gameplay
- Without looking, randomly pull 3 dice from the cup.
- Roll all 3.
- Set aside results:
- Brain: You ate a brain! Set it aside (scored for this turn).
- Shotgun Blast: You were shot! Set it aside (counts against you).
- Footprints: The human got away. Set die aside to potentially re-roll.
- Now decide: Stop and bank your brains (add to your total score), OR Continue and roll again.
- If you continue: pull enough new dice from the cup to bring your active dice count back to 3 (using any footprint dice plus new dice from the cup). If the cup empties, put all non-active dice (banked brains and shotgun blasts stay set aside) back in and continue.
- If you accumulate 3 shotgun blasts at any point: your turn ends immediately and you score zero brains this turn (all brains rolled this turn are lost).
5 The Three Dice Colors
| Color | Brains | Blasts | Footprints | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 3 faces | 1 face | 2 faces | Easy human (lots of brains) |
| Yellow | 2 faces | 2 faces | 2 faces | Average human |
| Red | 1 face | 3 faces | 2 faces | Dangerous human (mostly blasts) |
Red dice are extremely dangerous. If you pull several reds from the cup, the risk of getting blasted rapidly increases. The die color distribution matters -- tracking which colors remain in the cup is critical to good play.
6 Winning
When a player reaches 13 or more brains, all other players get one final turn to try to beat that score. The player with the most brains after everyone has had that final turn wins. Ties are broken by a sudden-death roll-off.
7 Push-Your-Luck Strategy
Track Remaining Dice
There are 13 dice total: 6 green (safe), 4 yellow (neutral), 3 red (dangerous). As dice get used each turn, the cup empties toward the riskier dice. If you've already pulled 5 green dice and 3 yellow dice, the cup has a high concentration of red dice remaining. This is your primary decision input.
The 2-Blast Threshold
With 2 blasts showing, consider very carefully before rolling again. If the cup has mostly red dice remaining, the probability of getting a 3rd blast is high. With 2 blasts and a cup full of red dice, most experienced players stop.
Footprints Are Free Information
If you roll footprints on green dice, those are worth re-rolling (likely brain). If you roll footprints on red dice, those are dangerous to re-roll. Identify the color of your footprint dice before deciding to continue.
Late Game Aggression
If the leader is at 11 brains and you're at 4, conservative play won't win. Sometimes you need to accept high risk to catch up. Push-your-luck games reward calculated aggression when behind.