Too Many Crooks!
A dice negotiation game for 3–6 players. You can't use your own people on a job, so you crew up from the dice your rivals send over — and pay them from whatever you kept back.
- Players
- 3–6
- Genre
- Negotiation · Dice · Non-Binding Deals
- For fans of
- Intrigue · Batam
- Length
- 20–30 minutes · 3 jobs
- Components
- 48 standard dice in six colors, 6 crew sheets, scorepad
- Box
- Small box
Overview
The pitch
Everyone rolls in the open. In turn, you send four of your dice to rivals' jobs; what you didn't send is what you pay people with. Each host crews up with one of each kind from what arrived, then everyone hands out their cuts at once and in secret. You can promise anything. None of it is binding. There are two more jobs after this one, and everybody chooses who they send to next time.
One pool, three jobs
The same dice are your workers, your wages and your score. Send your best people and there is nothing left to pay anyone with.
One of each kind
A crew needs an inside man, a driver and the muscle. A 1 is the die a job can't run without, not dead weight — and a second 6 is no use to a job that already has one.
Out loud, then in secret
Deals are made across the table. Cuts are placed behind your hand and revealed together, so the whole table sees exactly who kept their word.
Twenty-five minutes
Three jobs and a reveal. Short enough to play twice, long enough for a grudge.
The one who looks like nothing and is the thing the job can't run without.
Reliable, mid-table, and the slot everyone can fill — so the question is who you let fill it.
Worth the most on the job and the easiest to find — everyone has a 6 to offer.
Components
Crew sheets and dice
Every crew sheet is a different score. They all play the same — the names are there so the table has something to call each other's jobs.
In the box
- 48Standard 16 mm dice, eight in each of six colors. A die is a contact; its number is how good they are.
- 6Crew sheets, poker-sized, each named for a different score
- 1Scorepad, and a four-page rulebook
Mockups show a proposed production version. One component type in bulk and no custom tooling: the whole bill of materials is a set of dice, six cards and a small box, on the same shelf as Las Vegas.
Play
Try it right here
The game runs below. No download or account needed.
Sell sheet
One page for your review meeting
The pitch, why it works, the three jobs, specs and components on a single landscape page, ready to print or forward.
Print and play · on request
Want it on your table?
A five-page kit: the illustrated four-page rulebook and a sheet of six poker-sized crew sheets. Add 48 dice in six colors — eight per player — and something to score with. Email me and I’ll send it over.
Roll
Everyone rolls at once, in the open: 8 dice on the first job, 7 on the second, 6 on the third. Dice stay face up all job, so everyone can see what everyone else has to offer.
Send your people out
In turn, send exactly four of your dice to rivals' jobs — any split, never your own. Whatever you didn't send, you keep. Those are the cuts you have to hand out, and the only thing you can pay anyone with.
Pick your crew
Every crew is one of each kind: an inside man (a 1 or 2), a getaway driver (3 or 4) and the muscle (5 or 6). Never two of a kind. You score the total of your crew. Dice you don't take go back to their owners and earn nothing.
Hand out the cuts
Everyone at once, in secret: assign your kept dice to your crew, then reveal together. Three cuts on the first job, two on the jobs after — so from job 2 on, one of your crew gets nothing, and you choose who. You may stack several dice on one person.
Your cut
Whoever receives a die scores it. On jobs 1 and 2 you'll have one kept die left over: score it, then put it back in the box — that contact has taken their money and gone, which is why you roll one fewer next job.
The last job
On job 3 your crew scores double and there's no die left over — both your kept dice go out. Highest total after three jobs wins, with ties going to the higher job-3 score. Nothing anyone said at any point was binding.
Nobody shows up
If nobody sends you anything, run the job with your own people: take one of each kind from your kept dice and score them as your crew (doubled on job 3). You pay no one, and on jobs 1 and 2 you still take your cut from what's left.
Interested in Too Many Crooks!?
Ask for a prototype or a walkthrough call with your team, or meet me at a convention.
