I love rolling dice. There’s something about chucking a bunch of dice and then making something out of whatever the results are that feels puzzly in satisfying way. I never played games competitively beyond my kitchen table until a friend of mine taught me a collectible dice game in 2015. That lit a fire in me that has exploded into an honest interest in just about any game that involves dice. When I was given the opportunity to review a new game about to hit Kickstarter that involved dice chucking, I had to say yes!
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner is the latest project from 25th Century Games, and it has a lot to love. This family weight game uses a familiar roll plus 2 rerolls mechanism with asymmetric player powers and loads of player interaction. These combine with special action cards that can be purchased and played to make for, pardon me, a clucking good time.
The game is set up with 15 Chicken Tokens per player in the Chicken Coup and a Fox Card Market of 3 cards regardless of player count. Finally, the final space on the Bark Track is determined (20 for 2 players, 30 for 3 players, and 40 for 4 players). Players use their roll and 2 rerolls (per turn) to collect Chicken Tokens from the Coup (worth 1 point at game’s end), cook those Chickens (making them worth 2 points instead), collect Foxes (to buy special action cards), or roll Hounds (which accumulate collectively among all players to progress the Bark Track, triggering the end of the game).
As players collect Chicken Tokens, they put them in their bag. As they cook them, they take them out of their bag. This is important because some of the actions on the Fox Cards involve trading bags, all players passing bags to the left or right, or even stealing Chickens from other players bags. This means players must balance the tension of wanting to collect more Chickens, cook those Chickens, roll Foxes to buy useful Fox Cards, or roll for Hounds to trigger the end of the game. Speaking of the end of the game it ends in one of 2 ways: the final space on the Bark Track is reached, or the final Chicken is collected.
This is a game that has had my family howling. You see, some of my favorite fox cards are “Chicken Dance Party” and “Cluck Off.” The player that buys these cards gets to judge a chicken impersonation contest of all the other players. This is probably my favorite part of this game. If it was impersonating any other animal, I would be strongly opposed. But watching my children impersonate chickens is hysterical, and doing so myself gives me the opportunity to reference one of my favorite television shows, Arrested Development. For those who are unfamiliar with Arrested Development, the show centers on the Bluth family who hilariously struggle with life and each other, but also each have a unique, cringe-worthy chicken impersonation. Playing with my family, we are just a bunch of goofy awkward chicken wannabes. But playing with some college buddies, the game becomes an absolute cavalcade of Bluth impersonations and Arrested Development references (with or without the Chicken Dance Party or Cluck Off cards being played).
The copy I was provided to review is not a final production copy, but there is nothing wrong with the components as they are, and 25th Century’s previous print runs should give backers plenty of confidence that the cards with stand up to shuffling just fine. I riffle shuffle, and haven’t seen any obvious signs of wear and tear with this or previous 25th Century publications. The art is perfect! It’s just cartoony enough to keep the slaughter of 15 Chickens per player light-hearted without being cheesy. The asymmetric player power cards all personify Foxes and give them names. Some puns are better than others, but this should provide a few laughs even as the game setup and rules explanation take place. Speaking of rules, the simple rules for this game can be can be explained and learned in just 5-6 minutes. Your play-group or family can literally sit down and start playing right away. The last thing I want to mention in my “pros” section is the Bark Track. I think this is a simple, elegant part of the design that I want to draw attention to. Tracking the total number of Hounds rolled for game end is a great way to move the game forward. Preventing rerolls of Hounds though is such a perfect way to add an element of press your luck. There’s nothing inherently wrong or punitive for rolling Hounds – in fact if you roll enough of them you get a benefit or can apply a negative effect to another player. But when players are balancing the tension of trying to collect more Chicken Tokens, cook more Chickens, or collect another Fox to buy that one card with the awesome power, the threat of losing a die for the next roll is a perfect addition. I want to call this out, because I think in a relatively simple game like this, it’s a clear indication of the skill and care that went into the design process.
Like any dice game, players will not have complete control over the outcome as they might with other strategy games. But that’s part of the fun for a game of this weight and style. The player powers vary widely from collecting extra chickens based on what you or other players roll, to stealing chickens from other players, or discounts on fox cards. In the games I’ve played, some of them have definitely felt a little imbalanced, but again, a game of this style and weight can deal with slightly imbalanced player powers. Some of the challenge may be in learning how to not help other players benefit from their player power.
I will give a shot to just about any game that lets me roll lots of dice. But Winner Winner Chicken Dinner brings much more to the table. The game is super easy to teach and learn, it has a very clever secondary end game condition, and it also provides an opportunity to break out into countless Arrested Development references. That may be play-group specific, and perhaps unintentional, but for me helps tip the scales for this game. If you’re looking for a family weight, easy entry point, dice chucking game with a side of the Bluth Company, Winner Winner Chicken Dinner fits the bill.
Caw-Ca-Caw-Ca-Caw-Ca-Cheers!
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