Diced Veggies Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Objective
Setup
Symbol to Dice Legend
Gameplay
Ending Your Turn
Restocking
Endgame
Playing With Kids
Credits and Acknowledgements

Components

Includes: 1 Cleaver, 35 Ingredient dice, 44 Recipe cards, 34 Hype cards, 4 Chef tokens, 1 Frame.

Objective

Use your cleaver skills to slice your way to the best ingredients, cook delicious dishes from around the world, and hype them up to score the most points!

Setup

Roll all dice into the frame and settle them into a single layer. Drag the frame diagonally, so that the dice collect in a corner and form a neat grid with no spaces between them.
Remove the frame and set it off to the side. The grid of dice is called the block.
Shuffle the Hype cards into a face-down deck. Deal one to each player*.
Shuffle the Recipe cards into a face-down deck. Deal two to each player*, then make a face-up display of three cards beside the deck.
Give each player a Chef token.
Choose a starting player and give them the cleaver. You are ready to begin!

* During the game, keep your Recipes face up in front of you, and keep your Hypes secret in your hand.

Symbol to Dice Legend

Each ingredient is a differently colored die:

Carrot: orange die, showing 2 pips
Mushroom: tan die, showing 3 pips
Onion: pink/purple die, showing 4 pips
Pepper: green die, showing 5 pips
Tomato: red die, showing 6 pips

Gameplay

Take turns going from the start player clockwise. When someone cooks their seventh Recipe, each other player gets one more turn and then the game ends.

On Your Turn

Take these three steps:

Step 1: Cut
Step 2: Cook
Step 3: Card

Step 1: Cut

You must use the cleaver to make one cut that separates one or more dice from the block. Lower it carefully into the seam beside the dice you want to cut away, then push the blade gently sideways to separate the dice from the block. Do not disturb the dice numbers when you cut. If the block gets messy, tidy it up.

Cutting Rules

The numbers on the dice you push must have a combined total of 10 or lower.
The blade must enter from an outside edge of the block, and you must hold it parallel to the table; no angling the blade to avoid pushing dice.
The block must be in one piece when you are done; no portions disconnected or touching only by a corner.
If all dice in the block have a combined pip total of 10 or lower, simply take them all without cutting.

Gather your dice, without disturbing their numbers... it's best to slide them instead of picking them up!

Remember that you may not:

Push dice that add up to more than 10.
Angle the cleaver to avoid pushing dice.
Leave the block in more than one piece.

Cutting example: Find dice that add to 10 or less. Sink the blade into the seam beside them, entering from the block's edge at a flat angle. Then push sideways to cut them. Now they're yours!

Step 2: Cook

If you have all of the ingredients displayed on any of your Recipes, you can cook! Each die counts as one ingredient of its type.

You may cook more than one Recipe per turn.
You don't have to cook, even if you could.

To cook, show everyone that you've got the right dice, then discard them into the frame. Flip your cooked Recipes face down. Don't stack them; everyone needs to know how many Recipes you have completed.

Cooking example: With the right dice, you could cook a Stuffed Peppers Recipe. You'd love to play this Hype to cook Stuffed Peppers That Will Knock Your Socks Off... but sadly your dice numbers add up to only 17! Fortunately you still have your Chef token! You can discard it to change the Tomato's number from 2 to 6, bringing your dice total to 19. Looks like those Stuffed Peppers will be knocking socks off after all!

Hype Cards

When you cook a Recipe, you may also play a Hype from your hand (one per Recipe). Each Hype describes its requirements for playing it. Keep your Hypes in mind when cutting!

Read it aloud to confirm that you have met its requirements before discarding your dice.

Keep your scored Hypes paired face down with their Recipes; sometimes during scoring you need to know which one goes with which.

Your Chef Token

Before you cook, you may discard your Chef token to change either the type or the number of one of your dice.

If you change the type, just announce what the new type is; if you change the number, adjust the die so it shows the new one.

You'll get your Chef token back whenever anyone Restocks (see Restocking, below), so don't be too cautious about using it!

Step 3: Card

Draw one card; a Hype from the deck, or a Recipe (from the deck or from the display).

If you draw a Recipe from the display, fill the gap with a new one drawn from the deck.

Ending Your Turn

At the end of your turn, you may keep (at most) eight dice, two Recipes and two Hypes. If you are over the limit in any category, you must discard items of your choice until you are within the limits.

Discarded dice go into the frame. Discarded cards go into separate discard piles; if either deck ever runs out, shuffle the discards to form a new deck.

Pass the cleaver to the next player clockwise; it is now their turn.

Restocking

When your turn starts if there is at least one ingredient type missing from the block, you may choose to Restock. If there are no dice left in the block, you must Restock. To Restock:

Place the frame back in the middle of the table.
Return all spent Chef tokens to their owners.
Gather all spent dice, and all leftover dice from the block (players keep all of their unspent dice). Roll them loosely into the frame.
Drag the frame diagonally so that all of the dice settle into a corner, forming a partially-complete block that is still neatly aligned in rows and columns. The particular shape of the block doesn't matter; it usually won't be a perfect rectangle.
Take the rest of your turn as normal.

Restocking example: There are no Onions left in the block, so you decide to Restock. You roll all spent and leftover dice into the frame, then drag it diagonally. Everyone gets their spent Chef token back. Removing the frame leaves you a neatly organized new block to start cutting from!

Endgame

Endgame triggers when any player cooks their seventh recipe. They finish their turn, then each other player gets one more turn. Then the game is over.

First, all players get one final turn to cook, using all of the normal rules. Then everyone tallies their own final score by adding the star value of their completed Recipes and any accompanying Hypes.

Many Hypes are worth a set amount of points, but some of them score based on other criteria as described.

Scoring example: Your Scrumptious Paella scores 15 (9+6), your Pizza scores 8, and your Extra-Spicy Fajitas score 13 (7+3+3). That's 36 points so far! Keep scoring your completed Recipes and Hypes until you reach your final score!

Whoever has the highest score wins! If there's a tie, the victory is shared!

Playing With Kids

Diced Veggies works great as-is with all ages, but here are some ideas for how you can simplify it for even the youngest players.

Play without Hype cards and Chef tokens. This eliminates all non-shared reading, much of the strategic planning, and all math beyond simple addition from the game.
Reduce the number of Recipe-completions that triggers the end of the game to six, or even five. This is helpful for kids that need a shorter game.
Forget about adding to 10 when chopping dice. Instead, the limit is any three dice. This eliminates simple addition for the very youngest kids, but preserves the fun of cutting and colour-matching to complete Recipes.

Credits and Acknowledgements

Game Design: Jory Cappel, Rowan Cappel, Josh Cappel

Illustration: Claire Lin

Graphics & Rulebook: Josh Cappel

Communications Director: Sean Jacquemain

Project Management: Helaina Cappel

Special Thanks to: Aubrey Cappel, Sam Cappel, Ruth Cappel, Sasha Korman, Riley Korman, Eric Lang for his extremely insightful advice, Daniel Rocchi, Caelum Rocchi, and Adam Marostica.