Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters

'Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters' was a spin-off of the hugely popular Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, based on the board game introduced in chapter 134 of the manga (episode 47 of the second anime). Instead of the usual card-based gameplay most people are familiar with, Dungeon Dice Monsters uses dice.

The game is played between 2 players, each taking the role of a Monster Lord (also known as Die Master) with the objective of defeating the other player by summoning monsters using dice. The game is played with specialized dice, which the players collect and build a "Dice Pool" from. Each die has special "Crests" printed on them, all of them having certain uses.


 * Summon Crest: Used to Summon monsters.
 * Movement Crest: Used to move Summoned monsters around the board.
 * Attack Crest: Used to declare attacks with Summoned monsters.
 * Defense Crest: Used to defend from attacks toward Summoned monsters.
 * Spell Crest and Trap Crest: Used for specific monster abilities.

Each turn, the turn player rolls 3 dice. If they manage to roll 2 or more Summon Crests in a single roll, they can Summon a monster that matches the Level of the dice rolled. Other Crests rolled are stocked for later uses (Summon Crests can't be stored). When a monster is Summoned, the player chooses how the Summoning die "unravels" to create a dungeon floor; in the Japanese version, the real-life dice are produced with similar build to the manga, while International versions use premade layouts of all possible floors to simplify the Summoning process. The player can later order the Summoning monster to move (by spending Movement Crests), attack (by spending Attack Crests) or use specific abilities that might use the Spell/Trap Crests.

Summoned monster each have their own HP, ATK and DEF stats, while a Monster Lord always has 30 LP and 10 ATK. When a Monster Lord ran out of LP, the player who controls it loses. A player also loses if they're unable to perform any more summons on the play area. When a monster battles other monsters, the attacker deals damage to the enemy HP using its ATK stat. However, if the attacked player has Defense Crest stored, they can use it to defend from the attack; if the defending monster's DEF is higher than the attacking monster's ATK, the difference is subtracted from the attacking monster's HP.

The game was defictionalized and marketed in the early 2000s, with starter sets and booster packs announced and produced. A GBA game was also produced, with slightly modified rules. Despite the initial hype however, the spin-off later became a huge flop and finally canceled rather early due to several reasons, such as the impracticality in production (monster figurines are much more expensive to make than printed cards) and the game being overshadowed by the Collectible Card Game.

Despite the fate of the game however, it still has a small but loyal fanbase who still play the game to this day, and even creating their on spin while at it.


 * Awesome but Impractical: Most Level 5 monsters have pretty good stats. Good luck trying to actually Summon them, though.
 * Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the Japanese version and the video game, the dice are color-coded according to their Tribe. The English version color-code them by Level instead.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: In the GBA game, the Tribes has advantage and disadvantage over others.
 * Zerg Rush: A popular strategy is to use several Level 1 monsters to build a path quickly toward the opposing Monster Lord, then attempt to Summon a mid-Level monster to finish it quickly.