Marvel Dice Throne Review

Dice Throne with a superhero twist!

Release Date
August 1, 2022
Created By:
Roxley Studios
Published By:
The Op

Marvel Dice Throne is here, and my Spidey-Sense is tingling in the best ways! Having a fun and competitive dice-based game is something I enjoy because, more often than not, the game is easy to learn. Thankfully, Marvel Dice Throne somewhat allows for each character’s uniqueness to shine as you battle it out against friends. 

Simply put, Marvel Dice Throne is the Marvel version of an already established tabletop gaming system developed by Nate Chatellier and Manny Trembley. Gavan Brown also develops the Marvel version. In the non-Marvel version, the developer has released two seasons worth of heroes such as the Shadow Thief, the Monk, the Moon Elf, The Pyromancer, and many more. Each season features eight different heroes, each with its special dice, card deck, player board, and status tokens. Following the same format, the Marvel version of Dice Throne brings to life a few choice Marvel heroes for fans to battle each other with.

Marvel Dice Throne features Thor, Black Panther, Black Widow, Miles Morales as Spiderman, Loki, Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Captain Marvel. Each hero is beautifully rendered with spectacular artwork by Damien Mammoliti and Manny Trembley. Large character boards feature offensive and defensive skills that are fully explained within the rules of the game. There’s also a hero leaflet, combat point dial, health dial, and a custom set of dice, custom card deck, and status tokens for each hero. 

The whole setup seems intimidating until you get into the bread and butter of the game. The game’s focus is to attack and defend using the set of 5 custom 6-sided dice. The dice have numbered sides as well as special symbols as well. The symbols and the numbers are used to determine which attack the character can do in a given turn. Once the target is selected, the target is sometimes allowed to perform a defensive action. Depending on the character, this defensive roll may prevent damage or cause the attacker damage. Some other actions and events may occur, but this is how the game progresses for simplicity’s sake. 

In between the dice rolls, the card system comes into play. These cards are used to change die rolls, upgrade character board skills, affect a foe’s die rolls, heal the character, and many other actions. This is where the strategy of the game  shines. Knowing the right time to use these cards as the game progresses can be the difference between victory and defeat. To keep things balanced, the combat point system prevents players from using a ton of cards each round.

As you play a few times and get used to the different powers and abilities of the characters, you realize the whole system and its varied heroes has a large amount of replayability. You would think that some rules surrounding the dice and allowing you to reroll up to three times would destroy the tactics by allowing you to do any action you want each round. Thankfully, it does not, and even the addition of the cards to alter die rolls doesn’t throw the action out of balance. 

This system works well with younger players as long as they can read the various cards and hero board actions. Since the rules are mostly carried out by the various attacks displayed on the character boards, the system is very easy to settle into.

Playing this system makes it easy to see how rulesets like teams and boss battles would also liven up the action. It would be very interesting to see if the minds at Dice Throne are planning to develop a Marvel-themed version of their Dice Throne Adventures where players fight minions and the way to bosses and even gain loot. It would be a grand way to introduce Marvel villains and maybe release new Marvel characters!

Marvel Dice Throne is a great and quick (around 30 mins per session) dice-based game to play with the family!

Marvel Dice Throne Review
A Marvel x Dice Throne mashup with excellent results
A brilliant addition to the Dice Throne system. The Dice Throne system makes for a great family game that has a lot of replayability.
Pros
easy setup and quick learning curve
beautifully rendered hero cards and artwork
simple ruleset makes for a great family game
high replayability
Cons
some of the powers for the characters can be a little confusing
Marvel fans are going to wish for a different set of heroes or simply villains to battle against
4
Score