Dice Alias Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Next Round
• End of the Game
• Explaining Words
• Mistakes

Contents

• Game board
• Bowl for the dice
• 7 letter dice and 1 blank die (the Joker)
• 19 category discs
• 8 pawns
• 8 coloured markers

Goal of the Game

Get your pawn to the finish field. All players compete for this at the same time, but only the player who gets there first wins the game.

Setup

1. Carefully remove the category discs and the coloured markers from the board. (The removed arrow is not needed in the game and can be thrown away.)
2. Place the board, with the bowl, on the table.
3. Turn the category discs text side down, mix them, and then place them in a stack next to the board.
4. Each player chooses a pawn colour and takes a marker of the same colour.
5. Players place their pawns on start field 1 and put their coloured markers in front of them. The letter dice are handed to the youngest player, and the blank die, the Joker, is put into the bowl.
6. Now you can start the game!

Gameplay

1. Any player turns over the top category disc. It sets the category for the current round.
2. The player who has the dice drops them into the bowl. Now all players try to form a word from the letters that have been drawn.
   • If the word belongs to the category in force for the round, the player gets additional points!
   • [Translator's note: the printed callout says "additional points", but the game has no points track. The category bonus in step 4 below is the two-field pawn movement, and that is how it is applied in this translation.]
   • Each letter die may be used only once. The Joker stands in for any letter and may also be used only once.
   • Words must be in their basic form (as in a dictionary) and have at least 4 letters.
   • From the dice shown in the illustration you can form the word "sonda" (probe) or "nosić" (to carry), but not "atut" (trump), because that would require using the Joker twice.
3. The player who is first to find a word shouts "ALIAS" and reserves the right to explain it. They do this under the usual rules of Alias (see Explaining Words), and all other players try to guess the word.
4. When someone guesses the word:
   • The player who explained it and the player who guessed it each move their pawn one field toward the finish. Note: any number of pawns may stand on the same field.
   • IF the word matches the category of the current round, the player who explained it moves their pawn two fields forward.
5. After that, all players except the one who explained the previous word try to come up with another word, using the same set of letters. When someone finds one, they call "ALIAS", etc.

Next Round

• If nobody comes up with a new word for about 30 seconds, the players take the dice out of the bowl. The current category disc goes to the bottom of the stack, and the players turn over the next one, which sets the new category. The dice are thrown by the person sitting to the left of the person who threw in the previous round.
• In the new round, all players may again try to come up with words.

End of the Game

The game ends when the first player reaches field 2, the finish field. That player is the winner!

Explaining Words

Before the game starts, the players should agree whether they allow proper names, colloquial words, or dialect expressions.

The word being explained may not be contained, wholly or in part, in the hint. For example, when explaining the word "mysz" (mouse), you may not say "is a character from the Mickey Mouse cartoons" [translated from "jest bohaterem bajki Myszka Miki"], but you may say "one of the species of rodent".

Players may use opposites. One of the easiest ways to explain the word "duży" (big) is to say "the opposite of small" ("przeciwieństwo do mały").

Unless the players agree otherwise, words from foreign languages may not be used.

Mistakes

If the player explaining the word makes a mistake (for example, uses part of the word that is the puzzle), their pawn is moved back one field, and the invented word does not count. The round ends, and the players reveal a new category disc, replacing the previous one. The next player throws the dice into the bowl and the game continues.