If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game offers a simpler and faster version of the original

Roll for a rover.

Experience a Terraforming Mars game in under an hour with the brand-new dice version.

Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game is an upcoming board game based within the same universe as the original Terraforming Mars. As CEOs of their own futuristic corporations, players are tasked with making the planet Mars a habitable place for humanity, so that they can eventually begin living there. However, though they share the same goals, players are not working together. Instead, the players are looking to acquire more victory points than their rival CEOs, thereby securing their dominance over the tech sector and humanity’s future.

In Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game, players begin by selecting a corporation from those available, with each one having its own special ability and starting pool of dice with which to roll. The players’ dice provide them with the resources they need to perform various actions, with every type of die providing different kinds of resources. For example, the blue die includes water and electricity resources, which can be used to place oceans on Mars’ surface and produce heat to increase its temperature.

Cover image for YouTube video
A trailer for Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game.
Players in the space-themed game will also get a hand of project cards. By completing project cards, players will gain those all-important awards which will net them the victory points they need to win the game, or otherwise unlock more dice to roll for resources or offer additional actions for them to perform. Completing projects requires resources, with each card having its own unique requirements that players can work towards by unlocking more dice and gaining extra actions. Besides fulfilling projects, players will also need to work towards fulfilling the parameters for successfully making the planet habitable, including raising the temperature, placing oceans and planting greenery to produce oxygen. Once all these three parameters have been met, the game ends and players acquire victory points from awards, milestones – which can be acquired by achieving certain requirements – and their cards. Whichever player has the most points by the end of the game is named the winner.
Watch on YouTube
Wheels and Liv highlight the upcoming board games they’re most excited about.
Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game was created by Jacob Fryxelius, the designer behind the original Terraforming Mars, the spin-off title Ares Expedition and a founder of the game’s publisher, FryxGames, which was co-founded by the title’s artist – Isaac Fryxelius. The Kickstarter campaign for Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game is live until October 13th, with a pledge of $35 (£33) getting backers a copy of the core game in July 2023.

Dicebreaker is the home for friendly board game lovers

We welcome board gamers of all levels, so sign in and join our community!

In this article
Awaiting cover image

Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game

Tabletop Game

Related topics
About the Author
Alex Meehan avatar

Alex Meehan

Senior Staff Writer

After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

Comments