Dicycle Race

Dicycle Race Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

18 coloured dice (6 of each of 3 colours)
6 "Bike" pawns
44 cards, including:
- 1 "Podium" card (double-sided)
- 36 "Road" cards, with three difficulty levels shown on the back of the cards: Green: easy; Orange: medium; Red: hard
- 6 "Jersey" cards

Symbols on the Cards

One or more die faces: roll precisely the number(s) shown (e.g. a pair of 3s).
number: roll a value strictly greater than the number shown.
< number: roll a value strictly lower than the number shown.
X X: roll a pair of your choice (e.g. two 4s).
X X X: roll a three of a kind of your choice.
X X X X: roll a four of a kind of your choice.
X X + number: roll a pair of your choice plus the number shown (e.g. a pair of 3s + a 6).
A B C: roll a run of 3 numbers (e.g. 1-2-3, or 4-5-6).
A B C D: roll a run of 4 numbers (e.g. 1-2-3-4).
Water bottle(s): show the colour(s) of the dice to take in order to make the requested combination.

Game Mode #1: The Sunday Mini-Sprint

2-6 players, 20 to 30 minutes. "Come on! It's time for the little Sunday ride to keep fit!"

Setup

Take 12 "Road" cards*. Lay them one after another, joining the ends of the road. Finish the road thus formed with the "Podium" card.

Each player takes a pawn and the matching "Jersey" card (placed in front of them), and all pawns are placed in front of the first card, ready to start.

* You may use more or fewer cards to vary the length and difficulty of the game.

Goal: Be the first to arrive on the "Podium" card.

Turn

The youngest player starts, then play proceeds clockwise.

Before playing, the player must choose their hand of 6 dice according to the colour combinations requested on the cards. The player takes 6 dice in total. They cannot take more or fewer.

On each card is written a dice combination (at the top) and one or more colours (water bottles at bottom right): this means that to advance onto that card, the player must make the combination with the requested colours (e.g. a pair of threes with a blue and a red).
During their turn the player may try to make one or several combinations.
On each turn, players are entitled to 3 dice rolls (colour(s) of their choice).
(For an explanation of the symbols, see "Symbols on the Cards".)

Example: to complete three cards, Pascal takes at the start of his turn 3 yellow dice, 1 blue die and 2 red dice.

With each roll, the player may choose one or more dice from the result and place them above the cards they are trying to reach. As soon as a die is placed above a card, it is locked and cannot be moved until the next player's turn.

If the player fills a combination, the card is validated and they may advance their pawn to it.

Example: the player has validated the first two cards with their dice. They can therefore advance their pawn to the second card.

Warning: if a card is validated but the previous card is not validated at the end of the 3 rolls, the player cannot advance to that card.

Example: the player has validated the second and third cards but not the first. They therefore cannot advance their pawn.

The Little Gift

If the player does not advance their pawn at all at the end of the 3 rolls, their turn is lost and they must leave in place all the dice that were not placed before the 3rd roll. The next player, if they wish, can then take 1 die among those and place it directly on the combination they are aiming for. However, they only take 5 dice in hand for their turn. But beware: if this player took a die, it allows the next one to do the same, and if that one also takes a die, they also allow the next one to help themselves!

Clarifications: it is forbidden to take a die that would not really be useful during one's turn. All players can thus potentially take a die, but not the player whose turn has just ended.

More Tactics...

To spice up the game, you can use the following variants with this rule:

ALL-THERE-AND-BACK (p. 14)
STOP OR AGAIN (p. 14)
LITTLE TRAFFIC JAM (p. 14)
MULTI ROUTES (p. 15)
THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST (p. 15)

You can also use the following scoring modes:

SIMPLE SPRINT (p. 16)
3-2-1 RANKING (p. 16)
TIME RANKING (p. 16)

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as a player arrives on the "Podium" card.

Game Mode #2: Family Outing

2-6 players, 45 minutes. The neighbours have decided to go on a family outing at exactly the same time as yours! No way they arrive at the beach before you!

Setup

Take 12 "Road" cards*. Lay them one after another, joining the ends of the road. Finish the road thus formed with the "Podium" card.

Players divide into 2 or 3 teams and group together the "Jersey" cards they have previously chosen to clearly identify the groups (e.g. Team A: purple and yellow; Team B: blue and red).

Seat the players so that each team can play in turn (Team A-B-A-B-etc., or A-B-C-A-B-C-etc.). Example with four players: Purple player (A), Red player (B), Yellow player (A), Blue player (B), seated alternately.

Goal: Be the first team to bring in all its pawns.

* You may use more or fewer cards to vary the length and difficulty of the game.

Turn

The youngest player starts, then play proceeds clockwise.

Before playing, the player must choose their hand of 6 dice according to the colour combinations requested on the cards. The player takes 6 dice in total. They cannot take more or fewer.

During their turn, they may try to make one or several combinations. On each turn, players are entitled to 3 dice rolls, of the colour or colours of their choice.

With each roll, the player may choose one or more dice from the result and place them above the cards they are trying to reach. Once a die is placed above a card, it is locked and cannot be moved until the next player's turn.

If the player fills a combination, the card is validated and they may advance their pawn to it.

Warning: if a card is validated but the previous card is not validated at the end of the 3 rolls, the player cannot advance to that card.

On their turn, a player may play any pawn of their team, or even several pawns, but always within the limit of 3 dice rolls.

The Little Gift

See the "Sunday Mini-Sprint" game mode. Warning: the players on the same team as the player who failed can also help themselves.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as a team has brought ALL its pawns onto the "Podium" card!

More Tactics...

See the variants and scorings of game mode #1, THE SUNDAY MINI-SPRINT (p. 16).

Game Mode #3: The Velodrome of Death

2-6 players, 30 minutes. You dreamed of it, here you are. It's time for the Olympic velodrome. One watchword: straight on (to the goal) in the bends.

Setup

Take 12 "Road" cards from the draw pile, as well as the "Podium" card. Lay them one after another in a circle and place the "Podium" card above one of them.

Each player takes a pawn and the matching "Jersey" card (placed in front of them), and all pawns are placed in front of the "Podium" card, ready to start.

Goal: Be the last "survivor".

Turn

In the same way, the youngest player starts, then play proceeds clockwise.

The player chooses the colours of their 6 dice and makes 3 rolls to advance their pawn as far as possible. The player takes 6 dice in total. They cannot take more or fewer.

During their turn, they may try to make one or several combinations.

If the player fills a combination, the card is validated and they may advance their pawn to it.

Warning: if a card is validated but the previous card is not validated at the end of the 3 rolls, the player cannot advance to that card.

The game proceeds as in the "Sunday Mini-Sprint" game mode. The difference is that all players advance their pawn, and at each round the last one to cross the "Podium" line is eliminated. The eliminated player immediately removes their pawn and a card from the course.

The Little Gift

See the "Sunday Mini-Sprint" game mode.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as only one player remains in the race. They instantly win the great Velodrome race!

More Tactics...

Possible variants:

STOP OR AGAIN (p. 14)
LITTLE TRAFFIC JAM (p. 14)
THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST (p. 15)

Possible scoring:

SIMPLE SPRINT (p. 16)

Game Mode #4: The Duel

2 players, 20 minutes. "En garde(-boue)!" (a pun on "mudguard")

Setup

Take 12 "Road" cards from the draw pile. Lay them one after another in a circle.

Each player takes a pawn and the matching "Jersey" card (placed in front of them), and each places their pawn opposite the other player.

Goal: Catch up with the other player.

Turn

The youngest player starts, then the players play in turn.

The player chooses the colours of their 6 dice and makes 3 rolls to advance their pawn as far as possible. They take 6 dice in total. They cannot take more or fewer.

During their turn, the player may try to make one or several combinations.

If the player fills a combination, the card is validated and they may advance their pawn to it.

The rest of the game proceeds as in the "Sunday Mini-Sprint" game mode.

Warning: if a card is validated but the previous card is not validated at the end of the 3 rolls, the player cannot advance to that card.

The Little Gift

See the "Sunday Mini-Sprint" game mode.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as a player catches up with their opponent. They instantly win the game.

More Tactics...

Possible variants:

STOP OR AGAIN (p. 14)

Possible scoring:

SIMPLE SPRINT (p. 16)

Variants

All-There-and-Back

The race is played as a round trip ("Podium" card in first position). Once the last card is completed, the player immediately sets off in the opposite direction (the last combination only has to be made once).

It is of course possible to make this change of direction within a single turn, by making the necessary combinations several times.

Stop or Again

If during their turn the player fails on even one of the cards attempted (they announce their objective at the start of the turn), they cannot advance their pawn at all.

Little Traffic Jam

Some cards have a number at the bottom left. It corresponds to the number of players who can be on that card at the same time. If a player stays on that card, the following players must wait behind, unless they manage to pass over by making the combination of that card as well as the following one(s).

Some cards have a blank circle: it is up to you to decide how many players can stop there, by customising them!

Multi Routes

You can split the course by creating parallel roads. These roads must then rejoin before the finish, and players take whichever route they want.

The First Shall Be Last

At the end of each turn, the places where the players are located determine their order of play for the next turn.

Example: at the end of the turn, the yellow player has overtaken blue and red, who find themselves 2nd and 3rd respectively on the track. On the next turn, yellow becomes first player, blue second and red third. If one of the two overtakes yellow, they will in turn become first player of the following turn, etc.

(Illustration: Red player: 3rd next turn; Blue player: 2nd next turn; Yellow player: 1st next turn.)

Scorings

SIMPLE SPRINT: the first to arrive wins.
3-2-1 RANKING: play three rounds. The first of each round scores 3 points, the second 2 points and the third 1 point. The player with the most points after the 3 rounds wins.
TIME RANKING: play three rounds. As soon as a player has arrived, all the other players play once more and the gaps are counted: the first player scores 0 points, the other players score as many points as they have cards remaining until the finish. This mode can be played over more rounds, in championship mode over the longer term, for example.

Race Scenarios

You may, if you wish, note down your races and challenge yourselves on number of turns, etc., by keeping in mind the card numbers printed at the bottom of the cards.

Here are 3 example race scenarios. To set them up, take the cards and place them according to the number printed at the bottom right of each card.

Scenario "We Leave the Training Wheels On" (easy - for beginners / children): Sprint: 8 / 11 / 2 / 7 / 12 / 21 / 29 / 3 / 5 / 14 / Podium
Scenario "Family Outing" (medium - for the whole family): Sprint: 2 / 15 / 22 / 24 / 28 / 10 / 9 / 4 / 17 / 19 / 30 / 25 / Podium
Scenario "For the Handlebar Hardliners" (hard - for the most seasoned): Round-trip sprint: Podium / 8 / 20 / 24 / 31 / 35 / 22 / 20 / 17 / 12 / 5

Don't hesitate to create your own course too!