Welcome to the
Calliope Games Summer Travel Series!
For the next several weeks we’ll be traveling the world through games, exploring the outdoors without all the pesky bugs and bad weather. We begin our series by mountain climbing to the top of Yeti Mountain in Dicey Peaks!
Dicey Peaks was released in 2018 and designed by Scott Almes (the Tiny Epic games, Almanac). It’s a press-your-luck, dice-rolling game where you play as mountaineers ascending the perilous Yeti Mountain! Your goal is to reach the top before your fellow players, and find the winning red flag. You’ll face treacherous climbs, unstable avalanches, and the dreaded Yeti himself. Can you make it to the final summit?
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How to Play
Quick Start Guide
On your turn, decide which combination of the 5 dice you want to roll: the white dice have extra pickaxes for climbing, the dark blue dice have extra tents for resting, and the light blue dice are evenly weighted. All dice also have avalanches and yetis to watch out for!
After you roll, decide if you’re climbing the mountain, which spends levels in your oxygen tank, or camping for the night, which regains levels in your oxygen tank. You can then roll 3 new dice as many times as you’d like trying to get as many pickaxes or tents as you need. If at any point you go over 9 or under 1, you bust for the round!
When you land on a new hex tile, flip it over and follow the symbol. It might move your pawn, give or take away oxygen, or let you flip over other tiles.
If the active player rolls a yeti symbol, no matter if they’re climbing or resting, all players currently behind them are scared forward exactly one space.
As you climb, the altitude will limit the amount you can climb or rest. So for example, if you’re on a hex tile with the number 4 on it, you can only spend or regain up to 4 oxygen levels. Lastly, you must be careful of the other faces of the dice too: 3 avalanches while climbing and you bust, or 3 yetis while resting and you bust.
Once you reach the summit, you cannot regain oxygen while looking for the flag, so you better have brought enough with you! On your turn you will flip over one of the unflipped tiles and hope you find the one with the red flag. If you do, you win! If you don’t, play continues until someone does.
It’s high risk, high reward, high entertainment!
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I buy the game?
Right here on our website! You can also find it at your friendly local game store, Amazon, or any convention Calliope Games attends.
Do you need to have the Yeti pawn in order to play?
Not at all. The Yeti pawn was a promotional item for our Kickstarter, and helps remind players to move their hikers forward when the yeti symbol is rolled. It does not affect gameplay at all! If you want your very own Yeti, visit us at a convention, or join our newsletter to be informed of giveaways.
Is this a good game to play with my kids?
Absolutely! The overall rules are simple: roll for what you want, stop when you want to (or when you bust), flip over the hex you land on and do what it says, first to find the flag wins! There’s minimal reading involved, so younger players can have true agency in their gameplay and decisions without having to ask what something says or means.
The luck of the dice gives everyone a more even playing field, and the game provides catch-up mechanics (the Yeti scaring players forward and the flag being hidden in the top three tiles) for those not in the lead. It also plays in under an hour, and turns are fast! Perfect for dwindling attention spans.
Would this be a good game for Gameschooling? What concepts does it help teach?
Yes! Dicey Peaks is a great game for younger students to work on concepts like higher and lower, while older students can study probability in various degrees of difficulty. From identifying that certain dice give you a better chance at an outcome you want, to tracking the likelihood of rolling a specific die face, to tracking the likelihood of upcoming rolls, there are stackable lessons for any age. You can find a sample lesson plan here.
So is this just a kids’ game?
Absolutely not! The press-your-luck mechanic is a winner at game nights, and its short play time makes it ideal as an opener or closer.