Special Note: On page 11 of the Rulebook, the yellow d12 die shows an “8”. This illustration is incorrect as that side of the die is blank. On page 12 of the Rulebook featuring the “Skill Dice Manifest”, the top right image of the d12 die face features an “8”. This illustration is also incorrect as that side of the die is blank.

From Game Designer Matt Calkins (designer of Sekigahara and Charioteer):

Racket Dice is a two-player bluffing promotable-dice game with a racket sports theme.

I write games I want to play. A couple of years ago, I wanted a short two-player game full of interesting situations and rapid decision-making. Racket Dice is the result of that effort.

You play in a series of hands. The stakes of each hand is determined in a bluffing sequence before the bid starts. After each hand, the winner spends what they must and claims their points, both players recover some lost resources, and a new hand begins.

My favorite thing about the design is the skill dice. Each player has one special die for each of three abilities: hitting, agility, and stamina. The number of sides on the die indicates how good they are in five increments (d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12 is the best). Players start low but upgrade these skills during the game. Upgrades involve sacrifice, requiring players to choose the right moment to advance a skill.

The three skills are unique and lead to different playstyles. A specialist in hitting makes more hand-winning plays. The agility player builds their energy stockpile for later advantage. The stamina specialist wins long points with very high numbers.

(One delight in game-writing: to summon a latent variable to a new purpose. In Sekigahara, I used hand size to depict legitimacy. In Racket Dice, the number of faces on a skill die depicts the degree of skill.)

I love the ‘false bid’ tokens. They allow a player to lie about their dice and win a hand for nothing, so long as they’re not caught in the process.

You can ‘lie’ in Liar’s Dice and not know for sure whether you’re lying. You can ‘bluff’ in Poker without knowing you have the low hand. But a false bid in Racket Dice is objectively false. It’s a test of nerves. It’s great when a game makes your heart race.

This game works because it creates asymmetrical situations. Players build divergent strengths among various commodities on their way to victory: energy, skills, points, etc. Players make decisions that can be rightfully called ‘strategic’ even in the context of a quick dice game.

Racket Dice is two games in one, on either side of the board. Squash Dice is the basic game; Tennis Dice is quicker and has a few extra rules. I recommend starting with squash in order to learn the basics, and using the advanced rules (‘false bid’ tokens) as soon as possible.

-Matt