On a world rich in magic, mortals use this source of power for good and evil. They build gigantic structures. Then, there is the Society of the Great Eye that summons fiendish monsters from the outer dimensions to do their bidding.

Monsters: the Dice Game is a set of rules for creating and using your very own monster.

Battle System

The Battle System is a way to resolve conflicts between monster gladiators of every shape and monstrous breed. Each player assembles a monster using dice representing various body parts and of the same plastic and ink color. These monsters are then pitted against each other in battle.

Setup

Players construct their monsters from dice of the same color combinations. They may use a monster of any size as long as it is at least 16 and every player uses the same amount. Finally, determine turn order by rolling initiative. This is done by rolling all the dice for your monster and counting the number of plus and minus dice. If there are any ties, reroll. The new initiative roll applies to the overall turn order and might result in more tie rerolls.

Players start off with a maximum health equal to their starting dice pool.

Dice Pool

The dice consists of all dice that make up the monster. These consist of non-grappled dice.

Turn Order

The summary of each turn is as follows:

Acting player rolls their dice pool
Acting player may attack one player.
Heal (spend remaining plus to increase health to no more than the maximum health).
End the round.

Combat Rounds

The summary of each round of combat is as follows:

Defending player rolls their dice pool
Attacking player chooses dice for attack.
Defending player chooses dice for defense.
Defending player counter attacks as per Combat Step 2.
Attacking or defending player may disengage or start again at Combat Step 2.

To attack, the player selects one available attack die and up to 1 supplemental or plus die from their dice pool. The defender will select one defense die and up to 1 relevant supplemental or as many minus dice as desired from their dice pool to cover the damage. If there is any remaining damage, the defender, or, in the case of targeted attacks, the attacker, selects enough dice from the dice pool or stunned pool to cover the damage. If selected from the dice pool, these dice are stunned. If selected from the stunned pool, these dice are wounded.

Attack Types

There are two special attack types: stun and wound. Stun attacks may only be defended by dodge dice. Wound may only be defended by deflect dice.

Stun and Wound

If a player receives stun damage, their health is reduced by one. If the player receives wound damage, their health is reduced by two.

Grappling

If a die is applied that has grappling rules, neither the target die or the die containing the grappling effect face may be rolled or used until grappling die is rerolled or itself grappled. If the grappled die is no longer grappled, it is considered spent.

Leaving the Game

A player leaves the arena the moment they no longer have health or they surrender. Once this happens, the player must set aside their dice and patiently wait until another player wins.

Victory

The game ends when there are no other monsters remaining except one.

Icons

Just like standard Daemon Dice, there are 20 standard faces: seven postures and 13 body parts.

The Seven Postures

Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to win. Seven are the paths to hell. There are seven postures that your monster can do during their turn with their associated body part.

Block (defense) is used to defend against an attack other than ray or sweep by reducing the attack damage by one.
Deflect (defense) is used to defend any type of attack by reducing the attack damage by one.
Dodge (defense) is used to defend against an attack that is ray or sweep by reducing the attack damage by one.
Minus (special) counts as one point of initiative at the beginning of the game. Afterwards, it is used to subtract one from a given attack die.
Plus (special) counts as one point of initiative at the beginning of the game. Afterwards, it is used to add one to a given attack die or to remove a stun effect.
Stun (attack) is used to make an attack that does one stun damage. If a die in play is already stunned, it is now wounded and removed from play.
Wound (attack) is used to make an attack that does one wound damage. If wounded, the die is removed from play.

Body Parts

These symbols represent the body parts of your monster and have specific actions that may be taken.

Arm (attack or defense) can be used to deflect one point of damage or do one point of stun damage.
Brain (supplemental, attack) if the attack that is supplemented by the brain is successful, make another.
Eye (defense) provides one point of either dodge or deflect, depending on what is necessary.
Leg (attack or defense) can be used to deflect one point of damage or do one point of stun damage.
Lungs (supplemental, attack or defense) force a reroll of a die being used during an attack. if the new results no longer applies, the die is still spent.
Mouth (attack) is an attack that does one point of stun damage.
Claw (attack) is an attack that does one wound damage
Shell (defense) is a die used to deflect one point of damage from an attack.
Thagomizer (supplemental, attack) adds one point of wound to any non-supplemental body part attack.
Stinger (supplemental, attack) adds one stun damage to a non-supplemental body part attack. If the attack is not successfully defended, the defender suffers an additional wound damage.
Tail (attack) does two points of stun damage.
Tentacle (attack) grabs one die. See the Grappling section.
Wings (defense) provides two points of either dodge or deflect, depending on what is necessary.

Kinds of Monsters

Every monster has a kind. These define what abilities they have and are optional rules. Each kind is defined at monster creation. There may not be mixing of kinds in these scenarios unless otherwise specified. During set up, take one token for every 16 construction points. For example, one token for 16 or less and two tokens for 17 up to 32. When the ability is activated, remove a token.

Bloodborne - Whenever a bloodborne monster wounds a die, it removes one stun effect.
Decay - A decay monster may convert one stunned die into a wound.
Demonic - A demonic monster may convert one eye result from two points of defense to two points of ray damage.
Disease - For every point of wounds received by the disease monster, the attacker receives one point of stun.
Frozen - A frozen monster may convert one point of undefended wound damage to one point of stun damage.
Flame - A flame monster may convert one point of undefended stun damage to one wound damage.
Pain - A pain monster may inflict one point of stun damage on the opponent as their attack action. This may not be defended.
Void - A void monster may reduce an attack or defense by one point.

Multiple Kinds

Sometimes, and for whatever reasons that are your own, one finds themselves using two kinds to make up their monster. In this situation, the player will be able to activate the powers of the primary kind as often as allowed and the secondary kind only once per game. The primary kind is determined based on the highest kind in the monster. If there is a tie, the player must announce what is the primary kind. Take a second token for the secondary kind. These are optional on top of the already optional kinds rules.

Complete Monster Construction

Sometimes, it is desired to constrain monsters as much as possible to force different strategies. As an optional rule, only one of most dice may be used in the construction of monsters. The exception are: Arm (2), Leg (2), and Eye (2). This means that only one brain may be used and so on in the construction of a monster. Because of this, only two equipment may be used. This means the largest monster possible is 18 points if the optional equipment rules are applied.

Sample Playmat

A sample playmat is provided that lays out a suggested area for your dice. When using the layout, remember to place your action and life tokens in the appropriates spots and roll dice in the middle of it.

Equipment

There were at one time available to the wider Daemon Dice community some equipment. Because they are not widely available these days, the rules for them will be optional. At most, there may only be used one of each category of equipment for every 16 monster points. For example, one weapon and one defense may be included with your monster. These are not in addition to the pre-determined monster size, but are included in them. For example, a 16-point monster will have a combination of body parts and equipment (including the limitations specified by these rules). Another example is for a 26-point monster game may have 2 weapons and 2 defense in their dice pool.

All weapons and defense have a speed. Unless specified, they have a speed of 1. Speed means a weapon can deal damage faster or slower than the total defense speed. If the total defensive speed is less than the offensive speed, the offensive result goes first and is undefended. For defense, the speed is the total of all the dice used in defending the attack. For example, if an Axe is rolled with its speed of 3, it will be faster than Shell, which has a speed of 1 and cannot be defended by a single Shell. However, if two Minus results are applied, this will successfully defend the Axe because their combined defense with the Shell result is 3 speed and their total defense value is greater than the Axe offensive value.

Each category has their own symbols and, when rolled, these symbols have special meaning.

Equipment Symbols

Axe (weapon) speed: 3, do 2 wound to the target.
Bellows (auxiliary) provide 2 minuses.
Buckler (defense) speed: 2, provide 1 defense against any attack.
Dart (weapon) speed: 3, do 1 point of poison damage (If the attack is not defended, deal 1 additional wound damage) to the target.
Mace (weapon) do 1 wound to the target.
Potion (auxiliary) return one stunned or wounded die to the dice pool.
Scythe (weapon) speed: 4, do 2 wound damage.
Shield (defense) provide 2 defense against any attack.
Staff (auxiliary) deal 1 stun damage with a speed of 3 to the target or provide 1 point of defense with a speed of 3.
Sword (weapon) speed: 2, deal 2 wound damage to the target.
Trident (weapon) do 2 points of stun and 1 point of wound to the target.
Wand (auxiliary) do 1 point of stun damage to the target or return one stunned die to the dice pool.
Whip (weapon) speed: 4, do 2 points of stun damage to the target.

The Arena

The mages of the Society of the Great Eye are bored. To this end, an arena was constructed, modeled after ones that humans have put up before, and have sent their monsters inside to fight to the death. Will your monster triumph over the others?

Arena is a system using the Battle System where players, and spectators alike, place bets using tokens on which monster will win a battle.

Setup

Each arena participant will construct a monster of a given size and style as agreed upon by either the Arena organizer or players in advance and as defined by the Battle System. Furthermore, all spectators and players will be given a number of betting tokens as agreed upon in similar fashion as with the monster construction.

Betting

Before play begins, people place bets on who will win the battle and place it in the kitty. Once play begins, bets may only be changed by adding tokens to the kitty. People may only place bets if they have tokens.

Winning Tokens

At the end of battle, the winning playere gets 1/4 (round down) of the tokens bet. The remainder are evenly distributed to all those who bet on the winner with any leftover tokens, that is to say those that are not distributable to those who bet on the winning player, going to the winning player.

Defintion of Battle and Between Battle

Each battle is defined as one melee between players. At the end of battle, all statuses return to normal, including wounds and stuns. All dice removed from play are returned to the player. Additionally, and if the arena allows it, dice may be traded from their personal stash with those used in the last battle.

Arena Organization Model

If the arena organization model is used instead of the “independent arena” model, the organizers of the arena determine what particular construction rules are used for the monster as laid out in the Battle System and whether or not equipment are allowed. The organizers will also determine how many betting tokens are given to the player and, if necessary, how extra tokens may be safely acquired. They may play match maker between combatants. Finally, the arena organization will might be responsible for managing the kitty for each match.

Invasion

Inside the mortal realm, the mages of the Society of the Great Eye have put aside their differences for the moment and are sending their minions into the land of mortals to wreak havoc. However, old rivalries have prevented them from acting in solidarity. Therefore, the monsters started battling in the realm of mortals and consuming mortals for advantage over their opponent. Will your monster prevail and be the leader of the Society’s march through the land of mortals?

Invasion is a scenario of individual battle between monster gladiators of every shape and monstrous breed. Each player assembles a monster using dice representing various body parts and of the same plastic and ink color. These monster are then pitted against each other in battle, all the while consuming mortals that unwillingly wander into the fray.

Setup

1 Bag per player containing the dice
1 pawn per player
A bunch of tokens
1 or more standard decks of cards (see below)

Using a standard deck of cards excluding the Jokers, build out a 3 x 4 grid with cards distributed throughout each pile until there are 2 cards in each pile. Set aside any remaining cards. If there are more than 4 players, add more cards in multiples of 2 for each player range of multiples of 4. Again, setting aside any remaining cards.

Next, players construct their monsters from dice of the same color combinations. They may use a monster of any size as long as it is at least 16 and every player uses the same amount. Finally, determine turn order by rolling initiative. This is done by rolling all the dice for your monster and counting the number of plus and minus dice. If there are any ties, reroll. The new initiative roll applies to the overall turn order and might result in more tie rerolls.

Turn Order

While the Battle System is used as a starting point for how battles are resolved, the turn order for Invasion is different.

Draw dice randomly from the bag to form the dice pool (5 maximum) and roll them
Spend either 1 plus from either your bank or your dice pool to remove a stun effect.
You may spend 1 plus or 1 minus die to:

Move and, if you are alone at the card and it is face down, flip the card face up and spend any amount of minus dice up to the maximum for the face of the card to feast on mortals (see below). Aces are 1.
Move and, if you are not alone at the card, you must fight one player there.
Alternatively, if you are already at the same card as a player, attack the player.

After all actions are resolved, you may do one of the following banking actions:

Bank 1 die (up to 3).
Place 1 die from your bank into the bag.
Exchange one die from the dice pool with one die in the bank.

End your turn.

The Bag

The dice bag represents the possible actions that your monster might take in the future. When dice are spent or discarded, they are returned to the bag. Before dice are drawn from the bag, the bag is shaken to add some randomness.

Battle

Battle works just like in the Battle System except the dice pool is smaller and the dice that can be used are in the pool or the bank. Also, grappling discards the die back into the dice back instead of holding in place. Finally, running out of dice does not remove the player from the game. Instead, the player loses 1 turn. See “Running Out of Dice”.

Running Out of Health

It is possible that a player may run out of health representing their monster. This means they are exhausted and return to the outer dimensions. They must remove their pawn from the grid and sit out 1 turn. When they return, they return all their dice to the dice bag and draw 5 dice from it when their turn resumes.

Banking

A player may move dice in and out of the bank. When they do, they must keep the face rolled during turn set up. This means if a plus result is rolled on a die and that die is moved to the bank, it must retain that exact face until spent. Once spent, it returns to the bag.

Feasting on Mortals

A minus die may be spent to consume mortals. When this happens, flip over and retrieve into their scoring pile the top-most card of the currently occupied pile. This continues until there are no more cards left in the pile. Navigating through the grid becomes different because entire sections of the grid may become exausted. When a pile is exhausted, place a token there. This will represent the grid section for navigation purposes.

Victory

The game ends when all cards are taken and only tokens remain in their place, the player with the highest amount of points earned from feasting upon mortals wins.

Scoring is based on a grouping of the card faces. Cards of the faces Ace through 5 are worth 1 point. Cards of the faces 6 through 10 are worth 2 points. Jacks, Queens, and Kings are worth 3 points.

The Icons

For the meanings behind the icons, see the section called Icons.

Optional Rules: Quick Game

Optionally, a quick game may be played by only having 1 card per pile. This includes situations with multiple players.

The Wargame

Some in the Society of the Great Eye became bored with the arena and decided to gather some of their other members and played wargames with their monsters. Who will win the game?

The Wargame is a way to have a multiplayer map excursion using their monster. The winner is the one to gather the most points or survive the longest. It is recommended to have no more than 4 players on a given “board”.

Set Up

One token representing each monster constructed as defined in the Battle System
A 52-deck of playing cards
1 six-sided die

Shuffle the deck and lay out the 4x4 grid with one face-down playing card occupying one spot on the 4x4 grid. Next, roll your monster and count the pluses and minuses. The turn order is determined by going from highest to lowest rolls. If there are any ties, break the tie by rerolling the monster and counting the pluses and minuses until there is no longer a tie among those players. Finally, players place their particular token on one corner starting with the first player and moving on down the turn order.

Game Play

Players may do one of the following during their turn:

Roll the die and move that many spaces.
Fight a player occupying the same spot as them in one combat exchage.
Flip over the card of the space they’re occupying.

Combat

Combat follows the Battle System rules except there is three rounds of combat where the attacking player starts first. The defending player does not get to initiate combat on that turn.

Flipping Over a Card

If the player decides to flip over the card, they may use their turn to do so. If it is a red card, they tally their score equal to the rank of the card. Aces through 10 are worth 1, Jacks are worth 2, Queens are worth 3, and Kings are worth 4.

End of the Game

The game ends either when there is only one player remaining after combat or when all the cards are flipped over. If all the cards are flipped over, the player with the highest tally wins. If there is a tie, roll the die to see who wins.

The Society of the Great Eye

The Society of the Great Eye is a group of players who use the Monsters! rules. It features organized rankings using a modifed chess scoring system that is tailored to the specific scenarios played. So, a win is worth 1 point in a general challenge, 2 points with the Arena scenario, and 4 points with the Invasion scenario. A tie in Invasion is worth 1 point for all players that tie. No points are awarded for a loss. Collaborative play may not be used in scoring.

Dice Option: Using Dice from the games Daemon Dice, Demon Dice, and Chaos Progenitus

It is possible to optionally use the Chaos Progentius family of dice with Monsters: the Dice Game. In fact, there is relatively little compatibility issues. However this section describes how to use the dice from it.

Kinds and Plastic

In the Chaos Progenitus Family, there are different plastic dice involved that have inks and colors. This section describes how to relate the different kinds of monsters to dice based on plastic and ink:

Bloodborne - red plastic, black ink
Decay - black plastic, red ink
Demonic - blue plastic, red ink
Disease - yellow plastic, red ink
Frozen - blue plastic, yellow ink
Flame - red plastic, yellow ink
Pain - yellow plastic, black ink
Void - black plastic, yellow ink

Ivory Plastic Dice

There are promotional dice that have ivory plastic and different colorso of inks. They do not have any particular kind and, as such, do not count towards the determination of kind. A monster may not consist of more than 1/3 (rounded down) of ivory plastic dice. When the main symbol (body part or equipment symbol) are rolled, the die can be wounded for a special effect to occur. These are dependant on the color of the ink:

Black Ink - If a primary, or secondary if one exists, kind token is spent, you may get another.
Blue Ink - Convert one wounded die to a stunned die.
Brown Ink - Heal one stunned die.
Gray Ink - For the remainder of the round, target die has no effect.
Green Ink - Reroll a die and use this result instead.
Orange Ink - For the remainder of the round, treat target die as having been stunned.
Purple Ink - For the remainder of the round, treat target die as having been wounded.
Yellow Ink - Increment any scoring mechanism used by the monster by one.

License

Copyright (C) 2023 William R. Moore This work is licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://rezrov.xyz/caranmegil/my-games/src/branch/main/LICENSE

Abouts

Daemon Dice

Daemon Dice, according to SFR, Inc. is about combat between daemonic gladiators. Each player will assemble their monster by using dice and engage in combat with the others.

SFR, Inc.

SFR, Inc. is a small but growing game company that focuses on unique, unusual, and innovative games not generally produced by larger, mass-market companies.

Founded in 1999 by a group of committed gamers with extensive experience in business and the gaming industry, the company is dedicated to both making games better and making better games. ß The cornerstone of SFR’s product line is Dragon Dice™, a highly-successful game that premiered in 1995 and still enjoys a strong, loyal following. SFR has kept the existing product line alive while also expanding the game with new concepts and releases.

The Treefolk™ species completed the standard two color species, while the Acolytes of the Eldarim™ expanded the single color species concept. Releases such as the Hybrid Dragons and the Battlefields™ Expansion changed the entire game with the inclusion of only a few dice.

The Author

William Moore is a weird man from the middle of the United States of America that enjoys his family, his fish, technology, and gaming. Somewhere in there, he also fits in writing about things.

Credits

Development and Rules Layout: William Moore