Drebo is a simple but entertaining dice game. At least, you can’t call it a real dice game. Only at the beginning is there one roll, after that the die is only tilted. Before the game begins, players have the choice of playing with either the ‘for beginners’ side of the board or the ‘for experienced players’ side of the board. The side ‘for beginners’ is obviously a lot easier and better to start with when playing for the first time.
After rolling, the die is placed on the centre square of the game board. The players each grab their own score sheet and then take turns tilting the die. The die may not be turned or re-rolled: it may only be tilted. After a tilt, all players cross off the number of the colour the die has just landed on, unless a player does not want to or cannot do so. In that case, that player may cross off one of the special abilities at the top of the score sheet. A ticked off special ability may then be used only once in the game and applies instead of a ’tick off’ or a regular turn.
Special abilities include (i) rotating the die before tilting it, (ii) sliding the die diagonally instead of tilting it, (iii) ticking a square whose value is one higher or lower than the value of the tilted die and (iv) ticked off lightning squares that allow a player to still win in case of a tie.
The player who is the first to tick off three vertical, horizontal or diagonal rows, or three times all squares of a particular colour, or a combination thereof, is the winner! Incidentally, it is mandatory to shout ‘Drebo’ every time a ‘Drebo’ is achieved. In addition, it is warmly recommended to turn up the volume and put in more schwung with every subsequent ‘Drebo’. You don’t go from ‘Drebo’, to ‘Super Drebo’, to ‘Ultra Drebo’ for nothing. And do you have a fake Bingo? Uhh… Drebo? Then you have to sing a song. It’s not in the rules and it’s not actually verifiable, but well. That’s recency freedom shall we say. And that, in turn, is poetic freedom.
The only thing that is a bit unfortunate is that you are not really playing against the other players. The idea is to cover your score sheet so that the other players cannot see it. So you don’t know what colour-number combination the other players need, what special abilities they have ticked off and how close they are to winning. That makes it a bit less dynamic. But overall just a fun little game to play.
A little tip (also ‘for beginners’): if you can only see the top and side of the die facing you, then you only need to look at the side facing left or right, because the opposite eyes of a die always add up to seven.
