Gather ’round, inmates: Nargash the goblin invites you to join the best gambling ring in Kulbak Prison: time to roll them bones!
What Is Emerald Skulls?
Emerald Skulls is a dice gambling game for 1 to 6 players (up to 8 with the Kickstarter mini-expansion), ages 14 and up, and takes about 30 to 45 minutes to play. It’s currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with a pledge level of $20 for a copy of the game, or $28 to include the 7/8 player expansion. Although the box says 14 and up, you could play this with younger kids (I have!); the advanced betting cards can get a little tricky, but the standard betting cards don’t require quite as much math.
Emerald Skulls was designed by Steven Dast and published by Thunderworks Games, with illustrations by Diego Sá.
New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer.
Emerald Skulls Components
Note: My review is based on a prototype copy, so it is subject to change and may not reflect final component quality.
Here’s what comes in the box:
- Skull board
- 4 Standard Betting cards
- 12 Advanced Betting cards (4 each Jackpot, Side, and Out cards)
- 10 Opposition Cards (for solo game)
- 6 Player Aid cards
- 7 Dice
- 12 Betting markers
- 24 Reroll cubes
- 84 Gear tokens (in 1, 5, and 10 denominations)
Kickstarter backers will also be able to get a 7–8 player expansion, metal gears, and other exclusives that won’t be in the retail edition.
The box lid doubles as a dice rolling tray with an interior illustration: it’s a nice touch, particularly if your table doesn’t have a playmat, though it can make it a little harder for people across the table to see all of your dice.
The board illustration is made to look like a stitched-together piece of cloth with various patches sewn on for the central skull and some of the player references. There are some icons for the gears and reroll cubes supply near the bottom sides, but we found that it can be hard to make room for all of the betting cards (especially using the advanced cards) if you put the supplies there.
The dice are custom six-sided dice, showing stylized tally marks for the numbers 1 through 5, and a skull for the 6. The reroll cubes are small plastic green cubes: we figured they’re probably supposed to be boogers since they’re associated with the skull’s nose and the icon for them looks slimy.
The betting markers are rectangular wooden tokens, painted with a color and a player icon, about the size of a domino, but despite being pretty simple, they do make a pretty satisfying “clack!” when you stack them, and over the course of the game players are often racing to slap them down on to their bets.
The large player aid cards include a turn sequence on one side, and then a list of the “outs” on the other side. The top corner also includes the player color and icon so you can remember who’s who once all the betting tokens have been placed.
How to Play Emerald Skulls
You can download a copy of the rulebook here.
The Goal
The goal of the game is to amass the most gears, both by rolling dice well and by betting correctly on other players’ rolls.
Setup
Set up the skull board in the center, with the betting cards to the side, and a supply of gears and reroll cubes nearby. The supply of gears is based on the player count. Give each player the two betting tokens of their color as well as a player aid card.
Gameplay
Players will take turns being the Tumbler, who rolls the dice, and everyone else may place bets.
First, the Tumbler decides how many dice to roll for the turn: you get 3 for free, but may pay gears to roll up to 7 dice.
Players may place bets next to the betting cards before each roll, and bets are placed in real time rather than in turn order, so act quickly! Betting tokens are stacked on top of each other, with the earliest bets at the bottom of the stack, which will pay out the most if that outcome occurs. You may place both of your bets on the same location, in which case you’ll earn two of the payouts listed. (Some cards have two payouts and some have three—there may only be as many bets as there are payouts.)
After each roll, the Tumbler may choose any number of dice showing the same value, and place them onto the corresponding space on the skull board, but there are some restrictions. You may only place dice of the same or higher value as the highest die already placed; for instance, if you have already placed a 3-value die (on the nose), then you may not place any more 1-value or 2-value dice. Skulls are wild and may be counted as any value.
There is no limit to the number of 1s, 2s, and 3s (which represent bottom teeth, top teeth, and noses—for some reason goblins can have any number of noses, I suppose). There is a maximum of two 4s (the eyes) and one 5 (the emerald in the forehead).
Each time, after rolling but before placing dice, the Tumbler may choose to reroll in two ways: spend a reroll cube to take a die from the supply (if any) and then reroll all of the unplaced dice, or pick your nose. If you have any 3 dice already placed on the nose, you may place your betting token next to the nose, retrieve one 3 die, and then reroll all of the unplaced dice. Note that you may only pick your nose twice (once for each betting token), and you may not retrieve skull dice for this.
After each placement, check if the Tumbler is “out.” There are five possible outs:
- Bust Out: the Tumbler was unable to place any dice legally from this roll
- Chicken Out: there are dice remaining, but the Tumbler decides not to roll again
- Gem Out: the Tumbler placed a die in the 5 slot (but has dice remaining)
- Run Out: the Tumbler placed all of their dice (but did not fill the 5 slot)
- Double Out: the Tumbler placed all of their dice, including one in the 5 slot
Each of these possibilities has different payouts (with Bust Out paying the Tumbler nothing), shown on the sides of the skull board. If you placed the gem, you will get paid for all of the dice, but if you didn’t, you will get paid only for the non-skull dice you placed. Higher values generally pay more, and the 3s give you reroll cubes.
The Tumbler gets paid first, and then the bets are paid out in the numerical order of the betting cards, with the earliest bets in each stack paying out first. The standard bets include two cards that encompass all five “out” possibilities, so at least one of those results will get paid. The other two cards include some jackpots (the purple sections), which can provide bigger payouts for both the Tumbler and the bettors. For instance, “Mad Nagarsh” pays out if the Tumbler reaches Gem Out and has only placed skull dice on the board; if that occurs, the Tumbler may choose the jackpot payout (5 gears per skull placed) instead of the payout shown on the board. Other jackpots include “Grim Grin” (Run Out with only teeth placed) and Emerald Skull (Double Out with a full skull: 3 teeth, 1 nose, 2 eyes, and 1 gem).
After paying out all the bets, players retrieve their betting tokens, the dice are passed to the next player, and a new round begins.
Game End
If the supply of gears runs out, even in the middle of paying out bets, the game ends immediately (and nobody else gets paid). The player with the most gears wins!
Advanced Betting Cards
The advanced betting cards are more complex, and allow you to bet against outcomes. Each of the advanced betting cards has two sides—many of them have a green “kicker” bet that offers an additional, spicier outcome. The number of cards used is based on the player count, but you’ll have some number of Jackpot (purple), Side bet (green), and Out (tan) cards.
One of the big differences in the advanced cards is that some payouts are affected by the number of opposing bets (indicated by the arrow icons). For example, the “Incessant Picker” shown above is a bet about how many times the Tumbler will pick their nose. If you’re the first to bet they’ll pick twice and they do, you get paid 6 gears, plus an additional gear for every opposing betting token on the other two options. (You can’t bet against yourself to increase your payouts.)
Some payouts require at least one opposing bet. “Tumbler’s Triumph” is a bet that the Tumbler will not bust—but the first payout is 3 gears times the number of opposing bets. So if nobody bets that the Tumbler will bust, then you get paid nothing even if you’re right!
Solo Mode
If you find yourself in solitary, don’t worry—you can still play against Vrax and Kur the Red, two gang leaders in the prison. Shuffle the opposition cards and give Vrax and Kur each 40 gears, with 80 gears in the supply.
Each round, after you’ve decided how many dice to roll, reveal the next opposition card and place Vrax and Kur’s betting tokens on the indicated spaces. Then roll as usual, and collect payouts.
The game ends when either the supply of gears runs out (as usual), or you’ve resolved the last opposition card. Your goal is to have the most gears when the game ends.
Why You Should Play Emerald Skulls
Dice rolling! Press your luck! Betting on your opponent’s downfall! Emerald Skulls has it all!
I’ve always loved press-your-luck games: that temptation to just go one more time to see if you can score just a bit more before you quit… and then either you score the big payout or you bust and lose it all. I suppose it tickles the same part of my lizard brain that fuels gambling, though at least in a board game it’s not costing me actual money, right? And, of course, the feel and the clatter of rolling dice is always a fun way to experience that risk.
Emerald Skulls is a little more meaty than some dice games in terms of what you’re trying to roll: instead of busting because you rolled three shotguns or foxes (Zombie Dice and Chicken!, respectively), you bust when you can’t place any dice on your roll. And what controls that is based on how risky you’ve been in previous rolls, because placing higher on the skull has a bigger payout, but makes it more likely that you won’t roll high enough the next time. The thing is, you’ve always got at least a 1/3 chance that you won’t bust, because a 5 or a skull can be placed on the top tier, and then you’re done and you can’t take any additional risks. The more dice you have remaining, the less likely it is you won’t roll anything that matches—and 33% sounds pretty good, right? You’d think so—which is why I’m placing my bet on “Bust Out” when it’s your turn!
But in addition to climbing this ladder on the board, I like that there are optional jackpots that the Tumbler can go for. If you’ve got a lot of dice and you roll a lot of low numbers, you could go for the Grim Grin, getting 3 gears per die for just teeth (which usually pay out only 1 or 2 each). Another crowd favorite has been Mad Nargash, if you can Gem Out with only skulls placed—you earn 5 gears per die placed, and in this case it doesn’t matter if you run out of dice or not, so it allows some flexibility in how far you want to keep pushing your luck.
You want to roll even more dice? That’ll cost you, and keep in mind that you’re spending points to do so. Is it worth ten points to roll all seven dice? Maybe, if you can cash out with a big jackpot, but if you bust or only get a middling result, then you may have spent more than you earned.
Okay, so it’s a fun press-your-luck dice game—we’ve seen a lot of those before, right? What really takes Emerald Skulls to the next level is the betting mechanism. Not only do you get to take turns trying to score big while rolling dice, but you’re also engaged and active during other players’ turns as well. That one friend who plays it safe and just goes for a quick payout? Maybe place a bet that they’ll Gem Out—a quick way to finish your turn without using up all your dice. The other one who just can’t help taking all the risks? Definitely go for a bust—or even “Pick n’ Bust” if you feel they’re extra reckless this turn. Think somebody is going for a big jackpot? You can root for them, and get a little something for your trouble if they succeed.
Since the betting portion is in real-time, players have to make their decisions quickly. Bet wrong, and you get nothing. Bet late, and you don’t get paid as much even if you’re right. That tension between getting there fast and getting to the right place is a great part of the game, with players hovering around the cards to see what everyone else is going to do.
The advanced betting cards look pretty confusing at first and it can feel a little overwhelming looking at all the options when the game starts, but pretty soon you learn to see the patterns of how they work. What I like about these is the way that payouts are affected by the number of opposing bettors—if you go against the flow, you could get a much bigger payout! The advanced cards also offer more interesting outcomes, and let you bet for or against certain outcomes, making for more granular choices.
I’ve tried Emerald Skulls at different player counts, and although you can play with just two players, it’s a lot more interesting with at least three (and the more the better). With just two, you’re the only bettor so it’s very much a head-to-head Tumbler-vs-bettor contest. If you can cash out with even just a small payout while giving the bettor nothing, then that’s enough. With more players though, the others are betting against each other, which means that sometimes the Tumbler is not only deciding on their own payout, but also thinking about which bettor they’d rather get paid as well. If you know that one player will earn 10 for your “Pick n’ Bust” but the other will only get 5 if you Chicken Out, that can influence whether you take your next roll or not. Figuring out how to thread the needle to earn as much as possible as the Tumbler while paying out the fewest bets is a key tactic, and becomes much harder if there are more bettors. I’m really excited about the idea of going up to 8 players—it sounds chaotic and terrific!
The solo mode is decent, in that it simulates a 3-player game, so you do get a little more of that tension as the Tumbler, trying to balance the amount that the two rivals will get paid. But you only play as the Tumbler, never the bettor, so it kind of feels like only half of the game. I think it can make for a good practice in learning how to be Tumbler and seeing the options, but I’ll always prefer playing against other people (particularly so I can make my own bets, too).
If you love dice and gambling games, Emerald Skulls is a fantastic press-your-luck game that really shines at high player counts. For more information or to make a pledge, visit the Emerald Skulls Kickstarter page!
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Disclosure: GeekDad was loaned a prototype of this game for review purposes.
