Blueprints

^{review by Alapai}

Blueprints is a dice game for 2-4 players from Z-Man Games. In it, you spend each round drafting dice and placing them on your blueprint card to construct a building out of dice.

Each round, players get dealt a blueprint card that they keep behind their screen. This card will show you the building you are trying to build that round from an isometric view with spaces on the card that show you how many dice go on each space to build that building. Next, you draw dice from the bag and roll them, sorting them by value. One by one, you take turns choosing a die and placing it on your blueprint card (still hidden from the other players), replacing the die with another from the bag. Dice can only be placed on the card itself or on top of a die of equal or lower value. Once everybody has placed 6 dice, the buildings are revealed and poitns are scored. Each die is worth different amounts depending on its color (aka the building material used to build the building). Each orange die (wood) score 2 points for each die adjacent to it. Green dice (recycled) score more points for you the more green dice you build with. Black dice (stone) score points based on how high they are on your building, earning more points for being higher. Clear dice (glass) score points for the value rolled. There is also a bonus 6 points for building the blueprint exactly. After all the building points are tallied, awards worth victory points are given out as well as prizes worth victory points if a building fulfills the criteria. After three rounds, whoever has the most victory points is the winner!

I like Blueprints because each round is its own puzzle game that you are trying to solve. While there is some amount of interference you can run by taking dice that other people might want (like a clear die with a value of 6 is always going to be worth 6 points), each person has their building hidden from view, so even if you memorize what dice people have taken, you don’t know what they are going for any given round. There are also always the same number of dice each turn, so you always have a good amount to select from. The scoring system is interesting as, while scoring a lot of points for a building is good, it will only be worth so many victory points at the end. So while you might get a lot of points for playing 6 green dice and get the most valuable award, if someone else builds a building that is just okay that also earns them a prize, they might earn more victory points that round by getting a small award and a prize.

If you are looking for a puzzle-based game where you are fitting things together efficiently, but also want an amount of random luck involved in the process, Blueprints will fill that niche with its dice-based construction mechanics.

Blueprints is available now from our webstore.