Tabletop Tuesday - King of Tokyo

Welcome to another edition of Tabletop Tuesday - Your weekly exploration into games of dice, cards, luck and more of the Tabletop world.

This week's game...the game of monster claws and fireballs that is King of Tokyo.

Players: 2-6
Time: 30-45 minutes
Genre: Strategy / Party Game



For those who recognize the designer's name, you may already be intrigued at what this game has to offer.  King of Tokyo is designed by esteemed American game designer, Richard Garfield, who most notably created one of the first modern collectible card games that is Magic: The Gathering.  So what is King of Tokyo?  This game takes all your favorite classic monsters and creatures and then has them compete with each other for control of Tokyo.  Makes sense seeing as this is a city that is always under attack by such devastating forces.

Each player starts with a monster of their choice, 10 health, and zero victory points.  The first player to score 20 points or be the last monster standing wins.  To accomplish this, players take turns rolling six dice, of which they are allowed to re-roll any number of dice twice, similar to Yahtzee.  Players can roll claw marks to attack, hearts to heal, lightning bolts for energy cubes, or numbers for points.  In order for the numbers to count as points, at least three of the same number must be rolled, of which any additional of the same number will count as one extra point per (Example: If the player rolled five 3's, they'd get 3 + 1 + 1 points).  The first monster to attack will enter Tokyo and earn a point.  Should they be able to stay in Tokyo until their next turn, they'll earn another 2 points.  The risk of this is that players cannot heal while inside of Tokyo, and the only way to leave Tokyo is after being attacked, in which the attacking monster will take their place.  All monsters outside of Tokyo attack the monster inside of Tokyo, while any monster in Tokyo will attack ALL monsters outside of Tokyo.  There is a lot of calculated risk vs reward at stake here.  Lastly, energy cubes can be used to trade in for power-ups, of which there are always three on the table available for purchase.  These power-up cards can vary from victory points to brutal attacks to extra dice and more.  It just adds another interesting wrinkle and bit of decision making to be found in the game.

The mechanic of being able to re-roll your dice up to two times gives this game a fine balance of luck, probability, and strategy to be found.  With all the many variables of power-ups, enemy health and point totals, and positioning, there are many tough choices to be made.  And players must have flexible enough plans should the rolls decide otherwise.  The variety of power-up cards also allow a decent amount of replay value to make each game just enough different from each other.  I recommend this game for those that enjoy careful though, a little luck, and a whole lot of monster role-playing.

If you have any questions about King of Tokyo, let me know in the comments.  Otherwise, look forward to future installments of Tabletop Tuesday.  And happy dice rolling!