Zombie Dice

1 Overview

Zombie Dice is a fast-playing push-your-luck dice game by Steve Jackson Games for 2 to 99 players. You play as a zombie trying to eat as many brains as possible without getting shotgunned 3 times. Each turn you draw 3 dice from a cup and roll them — collecting brains, re-rolling footsteps (escaped victims), and tracking shotgun blasts. Keep rolling to accumulate brains or bank your score before you take a 3rd shotgun hit. First zombie to 13 brains wins. Games take 10-20 minutes.

2 Components

• 13 custom dice in 3 risk levels: 6 green (easy victims), 4 yellow (medium), 3 red (dangerous)
• All dice show 3 faces: Brains (scored), Footprints (re-roll), Shotgun blasts (danger)
• Green dice: 3 Brains, 2 Footprints, 1 Shotgun
• Yellow dice: 2 Brains, 2 Footprints, 2 Shotguns
• Red dice: 1 Brain, 2 Footprints, 3 Shotguns
• Cup to hold and draw dice from
• Score pad or any tracking method

3 Setup

1. Place all 13 dice in the cup.
2. Decide who goes first (the hungriest zombie, or youngest player).
3. The target score is 13 brains. The first player to reach 13 triggers the final round — all other players get one more turn.

4 Gameplay

On your turn:

1. Draw 3 dice randomly from the cup (without looking). Roll them.
2. Sort results: set aside Brains (scored) and Shotguns (danger). Keep Footprints with those dice for a potential re-roll.
3. If you now have 3 or more Shotguns: your turn ends immediately. You score 0 brains this turn.
4. If you have fewer than 3 Shotguns: you may stop and bank your current brains, or keep rolling.
5. To keep rolling: take the Footprint dice (re-rolls) and draw enough new dice from the cup to bring your roll back to 3 dice. Roll again.
6. Continue until you stop voluntarily or reach 3 shotguns.
7. If you stop voluntarily, add your brains to your total score.

If the cup runs out of dice during your turn, put all the rolled dice (except scored Brains and accumulated Shotguns) back in the cup and continue drawing.

5 Winning

The first player to reach 13 brains triggers the end of the round. All other players get one more turn to beat that score. The player with the most brains after the final round wins. In case of a tie, tied players roll off: each draws 3 dice, rolls once (no continuing), and highest brains wins. Ties in the rolloff are re-rolled.

6 Strategy & Tips

Know Your Dice Risk

The color of dice you're rolling matters enormously. Green dice show a shotgun only 1 in 6 times; red dice show a shotgun 3 in 6 (50%) of the time. When you've accumulated several red dice in your footprint pool and the cup is nearly empty of greens, the odds of getting shotgunned rapidly increase. Track what color dice remain in the cup as the turn progresses.

The "Stop at 3 Brains Early" Trap

New players often stop as soon as they score 3 brains. While this is sensible in the final turn (when protecting your score matters), stopping at 3 brains early in the game puts you far behind. In the early rounds, rolling again at 3 brains with 0 or 1 shotguns is almost always the right move — the expected value of another roll exceeds the risk.

When to Stop: General Heuristic

A practical rule: consider stopping when you have 2 shotguns accumulated and would be re-rolling multiple red dice. At that point, each roll has a significant chance of ending your turn with 0 brains. Otherwise, when you have 0 or 1 shotgun and are drawing mostly green dice, keep rolling. The green dice are safe enough that continued rolling is almost always profitable.

Endgame Aggression

When another player has reached 13 brains, your final turn requires you to beat their score. If you need to go from 6 brains to 14, you must be willing to take big risks — rolling through multiple danger dice. Accept the risk and roll aggressively. A conservative final turn that gets you to 11 brains still loses.

Targeting the Leader

Zombie Dice is not a direct-interaction game, but player order matters. If you're the player immediately before the leader, you can potentially trigger the "final round" yourself by reaching 13 brains first — denying them the chance to increase their lead. Monitor the score and adjust your aggression based on your position relative to the current leader.

7 Variants & Expansions

Zombie Dice 2: Double Feature

Adds new special dice including the double-brain die (scores 2 brains at once), the hunk die (can "run away" requiring an extra shotgun to kill), and the school bus die. Mix these into the standard cup for added variety and new strategic wrinkles.

Zombie Dice 3: School Bus

Introduces the school bus token — a die that lets you collect multiple victims in sequence. The school bus rewards bold rolling but can be lost if you accumulate too many shotguns while chasing it.

Team Play

Divide players into zombie teams of 2 to 3. Teams combine their brains per turn (each member rolls once) and share a combined shotgun count. First team to 25 brains wins. Good for larger groups.

Zombie Dice as a Warm-Up Game

Zombie Dice excels as a 10-minute warm-up before a longer game night or as a filler between heavier games. It scales to any player count without adding time per player, and it generates genuine tension and laughter even after many plays.

8 Common Mistakes

• Forgetting to draw fresh dice when re-rolling: After sorting Brains and Shotguns, the Footprint dice are re-rolled with enough fresh dice drawn from the cup to make 3 total. Many new players re-roll only the Footprint dice without drawing replacements, resulting in less than 3 dice per roll.
• Not tracking which dice color are remaining in the cup: The cup's composition changes throughout your turn. Missing that you've been drawing mostly red dice (because greens were used and scored) leads to unexpectedly risky late-turn rolls.
• Stopping too early in non-endgame situations: Banking 2 brains with 0 shotguns is usually a mistake early in the game. The expected value of another roll is positive when shotgun count is low and the cup still has green dice.
• Treating all final turns the same: When you know you need to beat a specific score, your strategy should change completely. Continuing to roll conservatively when you need 7 more brains to win is a guaranteed loss. Adjust your aggression threshold based on the score you need to beat.
• Re-rolling without noting how many shotguns you've accumulated: Losing track of your current shotgun count (1 vs. 2) affects every rolling decision. Always know your shotgun total before deciding whether to continue.