Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (although I love the cute, creative side rather than the scary and horror side). And today I have the Ditch the Witch dice game that is perfect for Halloween and any time you want to get witchy. With the Wicked movie being so popular now this game is a good fit for any Wicked movie night or party.
You probably already know that we love a good Halloween dice game – Whacky Putt Halloween, Bat Dice, Witch’s Brew, BOO and Grim Reaper are just some of the games we’ve created around the holiday. So when I saw someone else also must love them the way I do, I knew I had to give it a try.
The nice people over at Dice Emporium were kind enough to send me a copy of Ditch the Witch for me to try out. Now I get to tell you how to play, the game variations, how to win and whether or not you should add it to your Family Game Shelf. Let’s get to it.
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The Ditch the Witches Game
The Ditch the Witch game is a cute Halloween themed game. You can get it either through the Dice Emporium’s web site. Use the code FSG10 to get 10% off until June 30, 2026. You can also get a copy on Amazon (Canadian here).
It features 6 large orange dice that have a witch, pumpkin, cat, bat, spider and ghost on them. It also comes with four black 12 sided dice that has the numbers 0 to 10 on them with the last face having a witch on it. Last, there is a purple decision die. We’ll get to that later.
The object of the game is to be the first player to ditch their witches and give their opponents 11 witches each. So this is a last person standing kind of game.
Playing Ditch the Witch
To start the game, all players set their black witch die to the 0 and they decide who will play first.
Now you roll all of the orange dice and see what you get. You set all the witches aside. You can now choose to stop or you can reroll the remaining dice. If you haven’t rolled any witches, your turn is over. If you have decided to reroll, do so and see what else comes up. You set any new witches and add them to the existing witches. You can now decide to stop or reroll any remaining dice.
When you choose to stop, you can then get to roll the purple decision dice. This dice has the directions right, left, choose and self. This will tell you where the witch points will go. If you roll left, then the player on your left gets the points. The same with a “right” roll. If you’re lucky, and roll “choose” then you get to choose the player who will end up with the witches. But if you roll “self” then you will take the witches.
The player who receives the witches will move their black die up the number of witches that they receive. For example if you have rolled three witches and the decision dice read right then the player to you right will add three witches to their black dice.
But what happens if you’ve rerolled and didn’t roll a witch? In this case, you will get all the witches that you have already rolled. For example, if you rolled two witches and then rerolled the remaining four dice and rolled no witches, you will need to add two witches to your black dice.
Three Witches
When you roll a total of three or more witches on your turn, you can choose to subtract that number of witches from your black dice. You will not roll the purple dice on this turn. You can also only subtract to 0, that is you can’t have a “bank” of witches or negative number of witches.
11 Witches
When your black reaches 11 witches, you are out of the game.
Winning Ditch the Witch
To win this game, you will need to be the last player with witches left on your black die. All other players will have been eliminated.
Game Variations
This game comes with a game variation that gives the other characters on the dice special powers.
Ghosts. When you roll any amount of ghosts on any turn, you can reroll them as part of that turn.
Bats. When you roll four or more bats on your first roll, you will then get to reroll any of the dice once and then get to choose who any witches go to.
Black cats. If you roll four or more cats on your first roll, you get to wipe out all of your witches and turn your black dice back to the 0.
Spiders. When you roll four or more spiders on your first roll, you will reroll all the dice and take any witches you roll for yourself.
Pumpkins. When you roll four or more pumpkins on your first roll, you get to pass the dice to any player that you choose. That player will then roll the dice and take any witches that are rolled. But if they roll three witches, you get the witch points.
Extra Paly
As we said earlier, we love our Halloween dice games and these dice are just perfect for them. So, we created a new score sheet to play a fun Halloween version of Hooligan. It’s a bit like Yahtzee but with a fast game play. You can get your free score sheet in the Fun Library (you can get your password by signing up in the black box below).
What We Like
First, we love the theme. The dice are great quality and the drawstring bag is adorable. We also like that the bag comes in a box. (Dice in a bag with paper instructions running around on the game shelf never goes well. They’re a weird size and they tend to get crushed and lost.)
Next, we love that we don’t need a pen and paper to score. Using the black dice to mark the witches is fun, easy and unique. We also love the witch on the black die, it really makes the statement that you’re out of the game. We also like that the directions of simple and easy to learn. The decision dice adds to the fun with the element of risk.
Next, we like the rule that if you don’t roll any more witches on your turn, you get the witch points. It makes it a decision. The fact that you can lower your witch number is also a great addition to the rules.
We also liked the game variations. Usually, we love a game that gives us new ways to play to make the game new again. In this case, we play with the extra rules every time, as we find they make it a more diverse game.
What We Don’t Like
First, we find the large size of the orange dice a lot to handle all at one time. For younger kids, you might have to roll one or two dice at a time. Next, this is a push your luck kind of game and we found ourselves always playing it safe. You rolled one witch? Great, now roll the decision dice. It might just be us, but any time I rerolled, I almost always rolled no witches. Maybe the witches just don’t like me. I do believe that if we were more risk takers it would be more fun. (But those witches just don’t like me!)
Next, if you are out of the game early, it gets rather boring watching the others play.
Last, although we like extra rules, we also found that rolling 4 of a kind on your first roll was hard to do and didn’t happen very often. Maybe if it the special powers took effect with 3 rolls it might be more interesting or if you didn’t have to get the four in the first rule (we didn’t test that but maybe we will in the future).
Should You Add Ditch the Witch to Your Family Game Shelf?
Overall, Ditch the Witch is an easy to learn and play game with a super cute theme. It’s a great addition to your Halloween games and if you love witches. If you have players who love to take risks then this is an easy to recommend game.
You can get your copy either at the Dice Emporium’s web site remember to use the code FSG10 to get 10% off until June 30, 2026. Or you can get a copy on Amazon (Canadian here).
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