Dice Miner: a three-dwarf variant

I’ve been enjoying the new Dice Miner game from Atlas, designed by Joshua DeBonis and Nikola Risteki.

 

We’ve mostly played great three and four-player games. Our two-player games have also been good, but we haven’t played entirely by the rules. For two-player games, I’ve got a variant.

In two-player games, don’t play with the same dwarf the entire game. Instead, each player draws three random dwarf tiles at the start of the game and shows them to their opponent. Each player secretly chooses which dwarf they’ll play in the first, second, and third rounds, stacking their tiles in order. At the start of each round, before pouring out the mountain dice, players reveal which dwarf they’re playing that round.

You end up playing dwarves that don’t get chosen as often when players can choose from the entire pool. You also get to figure out new strategies, because the order of your characters can influence the dice you want to acquire.

The same rules should work for three and four-player games, though we haven’t tried that yet.

With three or four-players, you could also treat the three tiles you’ve drawn as part of a draft. Everyone chooses a dwarf and passes the remaining tiles to the left. In a three-player game, people could start with 4 tiles, so they’re still making a choice for their third tile.

Our godson's Scout, Treasurer, and Brewer
somehow finessed my Warlock, Alchemist, and Elder Dragon