Rock the Bock, published by Tuckers Fun Factory, is a new roll and write by game author duo Inka and Markus Brand. You might be familiar with the Brands for creating games such as Exit and Encore!. Encore! is a fairly friendly dice game. Rock the Bock, on the other hand, is a roll and write game where players can hassle each other. Will you unleash your inner beast?
In Rock the Bock, players try to earn points in three rounds based on the number of does in their possession. However, there are also wolves lurking about. A player gets minus points for the number of does if he or she has fewer bucks than wolves, and plus points if the number of bucks is higher than the number of wolves. The active player throws all available dice in his or her turn. That player can then choose any set of wolves, bucks or does in a particular colour. The full set must be used. For example, if this player chooses does in a certain colour, all does must be used/crossed.
Each player is assigned a colour at the beginning of the game and if the active player chooses does in this colour, they must be ticked. If the active player chooses does in his or her own colour, this player must of course select these does. If the active player chooses does, this player must mark these does on his or her own score sheet. If the active player chooses wolves, the player chooses another player who must check the amount of wolves rolled. The active player must always choose a set of dice, even if he prefers not to, because this player may then help another player.
The active player also has to indicate how many dice he or she has used during a turn, regardless of whether this player has indicated anything else on his or her score sheet. The amount of dice a player has marked is deducted from the available dice during subsequent turns. As soon as all players haven’t go any dice left, a round is over and the points for that round are calculated (minus points for all does if more wolves or plus points for all does if more bucks). After three rounds the game is over and the player with the most points wins!
In Rock the Bock, you can tease each other by sending wolves to other players and also give does to other players to maximise their minus points. You aren’t likely play Rock the Bock for hours upon hours, but the short length and the take that element make it a very entertaining simple game that you can easily play in between play. A small con is the limited readability of the score sheets, because of the nice lay-out it is difficult to see where you have put your marks.
