Designer: Reiner Knizia
Publisher: Zoch and Rio Grande Games
2 – 7 Players, 30 minutes
Review By: Greg J. Schloesser NOTE: This review was first published in Knucklebones magazine When I first played this Reiner Knizia push-your-luck dice rolling game, I must say I wasn’t terribly impressed. Several folks tried to convince me that this was due to the fact that we played with a game maximum of 7 players, which caused the session to drag on and on. I was willing to play again to test their theory. Sure enough, playing with four players, the game is much better. It still isn’t fantastic, but acceptable as a light, fun filler. I do find the game a bit frustrating, as it is very easy to gather several dominos, only to see them quickly stolen by your opponents. But, for a game that is by its nature a luck-driven affair, I guess this is something one must accept. The game consists of 16 dominos depicting numbers from 21 – 36, as well as 1 – 4 worms each. Worms? Sure! You see, players are ravenous chickens, and their favorite meal, of course, is barbequed worms! The components are completed with six dice, each of which has the “6” pip replaced by the graphic of a worm, which bears the value of “5” in the game. The dominos are set in numerical order in a row known as the “grill”. Each turn, a player will roll the six dice, decide which of those dice he will “save”, and which he will re-roll. A player may save all of the dice depicting a particular number, but only if he has not already saved dice depicting that number on a previous roll this turn. He may then re-roll the remaining dice, and repeat this procedure. A player can continue rolling dice as long as he rolls a number he hasn’t previously saved, or until he selects a domino. At any point following a roll wherein a player is able to save a die, the player may elect to not re-roll and take a domino. A player may take a domino from the row on the table if the total of his saved dice is greater than or equal to the domino he takes. However, in order to do this, the player must have saved at least one die depicting a “worm”. If not, then he must either continue to roll, or end his turn if he can no longer roll dice. When a player takes a domino, it is stacked face-up in front of him. Dominos taken on subsequent turns are stacked on top of previously taken dominos so that only the most recently acquired tile is exposed. This is the only domino that is at risk of being stolen by one’s opponents. If the total of a player’s saved dice exactly matches the exposed domino of an opponent, the player may steal that domino, placing it atop his stack. When a player is unsuccessful on a turn – meaning he could not acquire a domino – the injury is more severe than simply not securing a tile. The player must also return to the “grill” the top domino from his stack of acquired tiles. The moral here is that you’d better be successful on your turn, or else it is going to hurt. Failing on a turn, however, does serve to shorten the duration of the game. Each time a player is forced to return a tile to the grill, the highest-valued tile in the grill is inverted and is no longer available for the players to acquire. The game ends as soon as there are no longer any worms to acquire on the grill. When the game ends, players tally the number of worms on the tiles they have acquired. The bird … er, player … with the greatest number of worms gets clucking rights. Although very high on the luck scale, the game is amusing. There are a few decisions to be made, predominately centering on which dice to save on each roll, and whether you should continue to roll or be satisfied with the total you’ve already accumulated. While causing some occasional angst, these decisions aren’t terribly taxing, and the consequences generally are not dire. The main decision: push your luck or not. So, the final assessment is that Pickomino is a game that is an amusing filler and one that should be a pleasant diversion. It should also prove popular with folks outside a regular gaming group, as the rules are easy to learn, the game plays relatively quickly (so long as you don’t play with 7 players!), and the result is rather satisfying. Pickomino isn’t going to be a classic that will be around 30 years from now, but it will be enjoyed no matter how long its life span may be.