Danger! Danger! Dinosaur
Danger! Danger! Dinosaur Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Sort & Shuffle The Cards
A. Separate the two main decks & shuffle each deck independently.
- Game Deck: 33 cards.
- Secret Deck: 18 cards.
B. Place the double-sided Mammoth Bone card, Family Member card, & the three Highest Color Score Bonus cards aside for a moment.
2. Set Up The Game Wheel
In Danger! Danger! Dinosaur, the playing cards are arranged in a wheel as illustrated below. This is called the Game Wheel. The inner most portion of the wheel is called the Jungle. This is where players will roll dice!
- A1-A5. In a semicircle, deal five stacks of cards from the Game Deck face down. Each of the five stacks must contain a number of cards equal to the total number of players in the game.
- 2P = 5 stacks of 2 cards
- 3P = 5 stacks of 3 cards
- 4P = 5 stacks of 4 cards
- 5P = 5 stacks of 5 cards
- 6P = 5 stacks of 6 cards
- B. Place the Mammoth Bone card here. On top of the card, place a number of mammoth bone tokens equal to two times the number of players in the game.
- 2P = 4 mammoth bones
- 3P = 6 mammoth bones
- 4P = 8 mammoth bones
- 5P = 10 mammoth bones
- 6P = 12 mammoth bones
- C1-C3. In a semicircle, deal three stacks of cards from the Secret Deck face down. Each of these three stacks must contain a number of cards equal to the total number of players in the game.
- 2P = 3 stacks of 2 cards
- 3P = 3 stacks of 3 cards
- 4P = 3 stacks of 4 cards
- 5P = 3 stacks of 5 cards
- 6P = 3 stacks of 6 cards
- D. Place the Family Member card here. On top of the card, place a number of family member tokens equal to three times the total number of players in the game.
The Jungle: Place 5 exploration dice here!
3. Preparing For Play
- A1-A5. Flip the top card of each of the five stacks of Game cards, and place them on top of their respective stack. Cascade the cards, as illustrated, so players can see that cards remain in the stacks, face-down, behind the top card.
- B. Each player takes one mammoth bone token from the Mammoth Bone card, and places it in front of them for future use.
- C1-C3. Flip the top card of each of the three stacks of Secret cards, and place them on top of their respective stack. Again, cascade the cards as illustrated so players can see that cards remain in the stacks, face-down, behind the top card.
- D. Players decide upon a starting player by any desired method. Once determined, the starting player begins his/her turn.
4. Turn Sequence
A player's turn occurs in the following sequence:
- A. The player may spend Mammoth Bone tokens to earn Bone Artifact cards and/or the player may "retire" Family Member tokens to earn Retirement cards.
- B. The player rolls their exploration dice (5 dice +1 additional die for each Active Family Member in their possession, with a maximum of 7 exploration dice). Up to three rerolls may be attempted by adding dinosaur dice to each subsequent reroll. Rerolling is completely optional! At any point, if a player rolls a dinosaur, their turn is a bust (see section 6 for details).
- C. The player announces that he/she is finished rolling, and then spends their dice to claim Big Idea cards, Tool Bonus cards, Mammoth Bone tokens, and/or Family Member tokens.
- D. The player must flip over new cards to replace any cards claimed on their turn. If no more cards remain in a given stack, then a space is left where the stack once was. The player passes the dice to the player to their left.
5. Game Overview
In an effort to earn the most victory points by the end of the game, the players take turns rolling exploration dice (the white dice) in the Jungle (center of the game wheel). There are a number of ways to use your dice to earn victory points throughout the game. The following chart outlines the three main strategies for converting dice rolls into victory points.
Note: it is possible to earn multiple cards and tokens on a single turn.
On a turn, a player rolls their exploration dice in an attempt to match their dice to the various cards offered by the Game Wheel. In order to secure a card or token, the player must pay all of the card's cost.
Each card has an associated cost and reward. A card's cost is illustrated in the lower portion of the card, whereas a card's reward is indicated in the upper portion of the card.
A. Big Idea Cards and Tool Bonus Cards
- Big Ideas!
- Spend dice to claim Big Idea cards. Once purchased, these cards are taken and placed face-up in front of the player for scoring at the end of the game.
- Worth 5, 10, or 15 victory points.
- Earn the highest red, blue, or green score to earn 25 bonus points at the end of the game.
- Tool Bonus!
- Permanently attaches to and doubles the value of exactly one Big Idea card of like color (slide behind card).
- A Big Idea card can only be doubled by exactly one Tool Bonus card.
- When Earning A Tool Bonus:
- I. If a player does not already possess a like colored Big Idea card, then the card is kept by the player (face up) until a like colored Big Idea card is earned later in the game. The Tool Bonus card automatically attaches to the first like colored Big Idea card earned by the player.
- II. If a player has one like colored Big Idea card already in his/her possession, then the Tool Bonus card automatically attaches to that card.
- III. If a player has multiple like colored Big Idea cards in their possession, then the player may choose which Big Idea card to attach the Tool Bonus card to.
- Combine Cards Face Up! (Tool Bonus cards are combined with Big Idea cards face up.)
B. Mammoth Bones
- Mammoth Bone tokens are very useful to players in two distinct ways:
- I. Mammoth Bones can save players from Dinosaurs!
- AND/OR
- II. Mammoth Bones can be "crafted" into Bone Artifact cards.
- Bone Artifact Card Sets:
- Bone Artifact cards are scored in sets of 1, 2, or 3.
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- One Bone Artifact Card is worth five points.
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- Two Bone Artifact Cards are worth fifteen points as a set.
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- Three Bone Artifact Cards are worth thirty points as a set.
- Multiple sets may be earned during the game.
C. Family Members
- I. Family Members give a player additional exploration dice to roll on their turn(s).
- Base 5 + 1 Family Member = 6 exploration dice.
- Base 5 + 2 Family Members = 7 exploration dice.
- Base 5 + 3 Family Members = 7 exploration dice.
- Maximum number of family member tokens a player can earn during a game is three.
- Maximum number of exploration dice a player may roll on a turn is seven.
- II. Family Members may be retired for victory points!
- Active vs. Retired
- Active family members are standing up, and provide the player with additional exploration dice (up to 7).
- Family Members may be retired to earn Retirement cards; these tokens are laid down and no longer provide additional exploration dice.
- Active vs. Retired
6. The Danger! Danger! Dice System
The Danger! Danger! system is a four phase, press your luck dice engine that will have players testing the limits of their good fortune! The system works as follows:
The player rolls all of their exploration dice at once (players begin the game with five exploration dice). After rolling, the player has two choices:
- A. The player may choose to stop rolling and spend their resources, if possible, to claim cards and/or tokens, thus ending their turn.
- B. Or, if the player chooses, they may reroll any/or all exploration dice from the previous roll +1 Dinosaur Die. After rolling, the player has the same two choices again:
- A. The player may choose to stop rolling and spend their resources, if possible, to claim cards and/or tokens, thus ending their turn.
- B. Or, if the player chooses, they may reroll any/or all exploration dice from the previous roll(s) +2 Dinosaur Dice. After rerolling, the player has the same two choices again:
- A. The player may choose to stop rolling and spend their resources, if possible, to claim cards and/or tokens, thus ending their turn.
- B. Or, if the player chooses, they may reroll any/or all exploration dice from the previous roll(s) +3 Dinosaur Dice. At this point, the player MUST stop rolling. They may spend their dice, if possible, to claim cards and/or tokens, thus ending their turn.
DANGER! DANGER! DINOSAUR
When rerolling, if at any point a player rolls a Dinosaur (red die), then their turn is a BUST! No cards or tokens may be claimed this turn. No further rerolls may be attempted. The player's turn is over, unless...
If a player has one or two Mammoth Bone(s) in their possession, they may sacrifice one/two Mammoth Bones to negate one/two rolled Dinosaurs. If a player rolls three Dinosaurs on a reroll, their turn is a definite BUST (because a player can only possess a maximum of two Mammoth Bones at any given time). If a Dinosaur is rolled, and no Mammoth Bones are sacrificed, then the players turn ends, and play passes to the left.
- When rolling a dinosaur, if the player has a Mammoth Bone(s) in their possession, they may choose to sacrifice the mammoth bone(s) to negate the dinosaur(s). When negating a dinosaur(s), the player simply returns the mammoth bone(s) to the mammoth bone card and flips the dinosaur dice to a blank side, thus indicating that the dinosaur has been negated. The player continues their turn, as normal.
- On a player's turn, exploration dice that cannot be matched to the cards on offer may go to waste.
- Tool Bonus cards must be attached to a card by the end of the game or it has no value.
Note: Earned Game cards are kept by the player face up. Earned Secret cards are kept by the player face down until they are revealed during end game.
7. End Game
The game immediately ends when one of the following two events occurs:
- A. All Game card stacks have been depleted.
- B. All Secret card stacks have been depleted.
Once the game ends, the players reveal any earned Secret cards. Next, the players each count up their color score (using Big Idea cards, Tool Bonus cards, and Retirement cards), and compare. A bonus of 25 points is awarded to the player with the highest blue, green, and red score! Once the Highest Color Score Bonus cards have been awarded, the players add up their total final scores and compare. The player with the highest total score wins the game! In the case of a tie, the player with the most points from retirement cards claims victory! If a tie remains, the players must replay Danger! Danger! Dinosaur!
Note: If players are tied for highest color score bonus, then no one is awarded the points for that color card.
Dice Faces
The exploration dice have the following faces: Food, Water, Fire, Idea/Tech, Labor, and 1/2 Mammoth Bone. The Dinosaur die is a separate red die.
Dice & Bones Party Game Variant
- DICE & BONES PARTY GAME RULES: At the beginning of the game the players decide upon a victory condition (i.e. the players decide how many points to play to...5, 10, etc). The first player to earn that amount of victory points, wins the game!
- Variant Notes & Setup: This version of the game utilizes all ten dice and two mammoth bone tokens per player. Each player starts the game with one Mammoth Bone token in their possession. The remaining bones are placed on the table in a reserve pile for future earning (bones are only used to negate dinosaurs). In this version of the game all seven exploration dice are rolled throughout the game, and players use the same 4 phase, press your luck, dice system (including negation of Dinosaurs with Mammoth Bones, as described).
- Earning Basic Needs: In this version of the game, the players must earn 1 Food, 1 Water, & 1 Fire as a passgate for earning victory points, and/or Mammoth Bones on a turn. Basic needs do not offer points.
- Earning Victory Points: Each Idea is worth one point (at the end of a player's turn, no points are earned unless the player has met their basic needs).
- Earning Mammoth Bones: Two half Mammoth Bones will earn a player one Mammoth Bone token. At the end of a player's turn, no Mammoth Bone Tokens are earned unless the player has met their basic needs (a player may only possess two Mammoth Bone tokens at a time).
- Labor: Two labor may be spent as one food, one water, or one fire!