This is a complicated category to try and synthesize together, given that I’m trying to loosely connect roll-and-write games and push-your-luck board games to find something that works for everyone. Your roll-and-write board games are going to involve planning, setup, and finding combos as you roll dice for a specific goal, be it Railroad Ink‘s route construction, Cartographers‘ map-making, or Sonora‘s desert exploration. Push-your-luck board games are going to take things to the next level, as Cubitos challenges you to race with a hand full of weird dice-shaped characters or Moonrollers tasks you with creating the ideal space crew. Then there are just some all-around great dice games, like Intrepid‘s exciting collaborative space-station experience or Strike‘s hilarious dice-chucking combat. Dice games cover a wide variety of types, themes, and experiences!

I think this is really a genre for players who are comfortable with luck and what it can lead to, and finding games that challenge your notions of luck, force you to work with the luck you have, or let you control your luck to some degree can be a fun challenge. Plus, I know plenty of people that prefer games with a little luck, so that they can take a bit of the pressure off of themselves. Did the game not go well? Blame the dice. I know I have. But given the surge of roll-and-write games of the last few years, it can be difficult to cut through all of that and find some worth diving into. I’ve got my favorites, though, so hopefully that will help!