REVIEW: Zombie Dice 3 School Bus

 Zombie Dice 3 School Bus

Designer: Steve Jackson

Suggested Number of Players: 2 to 4

Price: $10.99

Type of game: Expansion, press your luck, dice

Just like Zombie Dice 2, this is another expansion pack, but this time it comes with one over-sized yellow 12 sided die representing a school bus, and several brain and shotgun blast counters to keep track of what is happening while on the school bus.  You can play this expansion with just the original Zombie Dice, or you can also add in Zombie Dice 2.

With 12 sides, this die has many different effects that can happen.  Some familiar ones are there are two regular brain sides, one single shotgun blast, and a double shotgun blast side and a double brains side like the “Hunk”.  There is one triple brain side, a single brain plus shotgun side, and a double brain plus shotgun side for a combination of points and damage.  Then there is the Yield sign, which lets you convert all shotgun blasts to feet.  A Stop sign forces you to end your turn collecting any brains you had…unless you rolled three shotguns that turn, then you’re out like normal.  A Dead End sign turns all feet into brains.  Lastly, a set of tire tracks runs you over, making you lose one brain point and you can’t roll the school bus die anymore for this round.

To use this D12, you simply set it aside for the first roll on your turn.  After your first roll, you can decide to “ride the bus”, and then you draw two dice from the pool (or use feet if you have those) and take the D12.  Roll all three dice together and tally up your results.  If you don’t get the Stop sign or the tire tracks, you can continue rolling the D12 until you want to stop for your turn or you can stop at the end of a roll. 

The school bus die is an interesting addition that adds lots of new options that can pop up.  However, it drastically speeds up an already quick game.  Its not uncommon to score up to nine or ten brain points using the school bus in a single turn.  Also, with the Stop sign that forces you to end your turn, it takes away from the press your luck aspect.  Overall, its silly not to roll the school bus die with how many chances there are for brains or beneficial changes. 

I would not recommend using this with Zombie Dice 2, as it takes the challenge of the fast “Hottie” and the double shotgun “Hunk” away with the Yield sign and Dead End sign.  The “Santa” die just makes it even easier as well.  Also, the D12 is pretty big and chunky, so you need to give it a good roll.  Its pretty easy to just drop the die and get a result without it moving much at all.

Just like with Zombie Dice 2, I would only recommend picking this up if you are an extremely hardcore Zombie Dice fan.

TL;DR: An expensive expansion for only one die, which speeds up an already quick game and adds more rules to a game so easy to understand.  Only for the hardcore Zombie Dice fans.

Pros:

+ Adds a new decision to every turn

Cons:

- Makes the game too fast

- Makes the game too easy

- Negates Zombie Dice 2 expansion

- Expensive for what it is

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