It’s no secret: we love dice. Can you tell with how many dice games we’ve told you about? Monkey Dice is out latest Family Game Shelf original. It’s a banana-splitting good time.
Some other original games are Volcano, Zebra dice, Save the Turtles and Whacky Putt. Monkey Dice is fun, a little zany and will have you laughing like a monkey.
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What You Need for Monkey Dice
For this family dice game, you will need five dice per player. We like to play so everyone has their own dice colour (usually taken from our Tenzi game) but you can easily play with everyone having the same colour. To get more dice shop here; Canadians here.
Playing Monkey Dice Game
To start, everyone rolls one die. The highest roll goes first. The first player then rolls all five of her dice.
All twos are slippery banana peels and are passed to the left. Any and all threes are bananas and are set to the side. All fives are monkeys.
When a monkey is rolled, that player can chose to steal a banana from another player. However, when no one has any bananas to steal, a Monkey means you get to re-roll all of the dice that you have left.
Stealing Bananas
After you have rolled a five, or a monkey, you can choose any player to steal a banana from. But the monkeys are tricky. The chosen player gets to roll one dice. If he also rolls a Monkey, he has successfully defended his banana. The first player does not get a banana and her turn is over. On the other hand, if he doesn’t roll a monkey, then he must hand over one of his bananas. Her turn is now over.
Next, the player to her left rolls all of his dice—including any slippery peels that were passed to him.
Rolling More Than One Monkey
When a player rolls more than one Monkey on his turn, he has the opportunity to steal multiple bananas from one layer. If he has rolled three monkeys, he chooses a player to steal from. She then gets to roll one die to see if she can defend her bananas. If she defends by rolling a monkey, then no bananas are stolen and the fist player’s turn is over. On the other hand, if she doesn’t roll a monkey, she must pass three bananas to him.
If he has rolled three monkeys but she only has two bananas, then she gives him her two bananas. And his turn is over.
Out of Dice?
When a player is out of dice, she is not out of the game. She stays in the game and waits to see if any slippery peels are passed her way. She can also have her bananas stolen. When under a monkey attack, she may borrow a die from another player.
Winning Monkey Dice
A game of Monkey Dice is over when all the dice have been rolled into bananas. At this point, players count their bananas. The player with the most bananas wins!
All Monkeyed Out
Monkeys are interesting and a little crazy with a slightly sneaky reputation. We hope that you feel the same way about our Monkey Dice Game. We’re sure that you’ll have as good a time playing this game as we had making it.
We’d love to here if you’ve played Monkey Dice or any of our original games. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Be sure to visit our Family Game Shelf shop for more original games like our Whacky Putt dice mini golf games!
And if you want to make your Monkey Dice playing even more fun, try getting everyone a set of dice in their favorite colour. Shop dice here. Canadians can shop dice here.
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