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Quick Look: Skunk’d
Designer: The Johnson Family
Artists: Paula Ribiero
Publisher: Hooked on Johnson Games LLC
Year Published: 2024
SKUNK’D! 35 years in the making, from our family to yours, the SCENT-sational dice and card game that is silly yet cerebral, where YOU make the rules! Years ago, our grandparents introduced us to a simple six-dice game. Six-dice games, where 1’s, 5’s, and 3-of-a-kind have scoring values, have apparently existed for centuries. However, to a crazy bunch of kids who never play by the rules, they may as well have released the Kraken!
Review:
To read the rules please follow this link Rules & Etiquette — SKUNK’D (skunkd.games)
Components:
In the base game you will get – 1 Zipper Canvas Bag
1 score keeping notepad
1 Skunk’d themed pen
1 Stink Sheet
8 Rules Cards
6 Custom Skunk Dice (Black)
Also available in founder’s edition and deluxe – 6 Deluxe custom dice (Green and Black with gold numbers)
Skunk’d Head Band
Skunk’d Dice Tray
Skunk’d at the core is a dice chucker, themed around a fury animal that lets off a pungent odor when frightened or trying to escape. The concept of being skunk’d has been part of competition for a very longtime. When a person is skunk’d they essentially lost everything they didn’t even score. That is what the game Skunk’d is. On a player’s turn they will roll dice collecting points based on the sets they can gather on the dice. However, if you push your luck there is that chance of getting Skunk’d and losing all your points from that round.
People who have played Farkle or Yahtzee will be familiar with most of the mechanics of Skunk’s as the game utilizes a mixture from both games. You have the bust mechanics from Farkle mixed with the set collection of Yahtzee. However, there are some differences that separate Skunk’d from it’s cousins in the dice chucking genre.
One such addition is that the sets you collect must be rolled on a single roll, there is no saving dice in order to build your run or 5 of a kind, in order to score a set, it must be rolled in one shot. Another mechanic added to Skunk’d is the variable rules cards that add extra rules that help each game feel a little different even though throwing dice is different each time itself. The addition of the cards add just a little extra spice and chaos to the game.
The artwork is very cutesy and is perfect for those times you just want to chill and have a little bit of random fun. The Skunk’d mascot is a cute little skunk that was well done and not overly produced for the game. The cards have great artwork on them depicting the skunk in different situations that convey what the rules card is about.
The components are good quality, the cards are standard affair and should hold up well for playing as they are only handled at the beginning of games. The bag that the game is stored in is rugged and made of canvas. It will be able to handle the roughest of handling. Dice are your standard plastic dice but have the Skunk’d logo engraved on the one side, in rolling the dice they seem balanced and do not tend to favor one side over others. The dice tray is well made with the skunk’d logo emblazoned in the center, it is a large dice tray making traveling with it more difficult, but for the home table it is great.
All together Skunk’d is a well-made game with well manufactured components, other than the dice tray the game will travel well by putting it in a bag and able to fit in some pockets. It is easy to bring out when waiting for your meal at a restaurant or just taking a break while out running errands. I feel that Skunk’d will hold up well to traveling around with you.
Setting up a game of Skunk’d is simple, at the beginning of a game one person is elected to be the rule maker, by all players rolling the 6 dice whoever has the most skunks is first player and Rule maker. They will look through the rules cards and select the ones they want to be in play during that specific game. You can also choose randomly what rules cards are in play by dealing a few of them onto the table.
After the rules have been decided on, each player in turn order will roll the dice trying to gain as much points as they can. A player will roll the six dice; if any of the dice creates a scoring situation those dice can be placed in the player’s den, set them aside. The player will then reroll the remaining dice trying to add to the current scored dice in the den. Be careful if the player rolls and no dice can be scored then the player has Skunk’d they lose all points from that turn and the dice move to the next player.
At any time during a player’s turn they can stop rolling to collect the points that they have saved in their den, those points are written down in hopes to being the first to the final score amount. The only time a player is required to keep rolling is when all six dice are scorable, the player must roll the dice one more time and get a scorable roll. IF the player rolls all six dice and does not have a scorable roll they have super skunk’d and lose all their points.
Gameplay can be random but there is an art to choosing when to roll and when to pass and what dice to place in your den. You might think keeping two 5s from a roll is good, that is 100 points, but you just reduced your dice odds by 2. SO, there is a little bit of strategy in trying to keep the odds in your favor. But in the end, you are chucking the most random game component invented.
I am not a huge fan of games like Farkle, I like Yahtzee, but I don’t know if that’s just because of the nostalgia of playing with my grandma. Skunk’d won me over, while it is random and chaotic there is a little bit of agency in your scoring. Do I push my luck to go for those huge points or be satisfied with what I have. The ability to choose what I keep from a roll and place in my den is welcomed. Skunk’d has regularly hit the gaming table in my group as we tend to start the night with it and will use it in between large time-consuming game as a palette cleanser. The game never fails to garner laughs or sighs of frustration, but either way we always come back to play it again. I liken it to playing golf. You could be having a terrible game and hit that one shot that makes you want to keep playing. Skunk’d is the same way rolling like garbage and then you roll a pole cat (in one roll the dice go 1 through 6, or two 3 of kinds in one roll called a double mega) and you are right back in the game wanting to roll again. The dice are rewarding and frustrating at the same time. And when someone wins you never feel cheated or mad, it usually ends with you saying If I could have just rolled this I would have won. For a game built around such a random component it doesn’t seem unbalanced or cheap, just fun.
After talking with the designers about the game and having the privilege to see them at a few gaming conventions demoing the game I can tell that they have a passion for the game. Watching the players at their tables at cons is proof that the game elicits fun. There is always someone who leaves the table either with the game in hand or asking how to purchase the game.
The designers showed me the tables and charts that they composed when decided on what scoring sets to leave in the game. The amount of work that went into coming up with averages and odds of rolling each set is mind boggling and would make any college statistics professor happy. A lot of under the hood work went into making a random game balanced and it shines through when you are playing the game.
If you are looking for a modern dice game that is fun for everyone, I suggest picking up Skunk’d. Skunk’d recently fulfilled its kickstarter and is available at the Skunk’d website Get SKUNKD — SKUNK’D.
After reading Steven Foster’s review, if this sounds like a game for you at the time of this posting Skunk’d is available at the Skunk’d website. Check it out and get yours HERE.
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Steven Foster – Reviewer
Steven is currently a stay-at-home dad, homeschooling his two young sons. He is a father of 8 children ranging in age from 26 to 7. He and his wife of 22 years have been foster and adoptive parents for 15 of those years.
Steven began gaming as a young child playing family classics like Monopoly and Uno. In the
early 90s, he started playing Magic the Gathering with the alphas and started his first Dungeons and Dragons campaign in 1995.
His first Euro-style board game was Catan in 1997 but board games would soon be out. Steven left tabletop gaming in the early 2000s and got into online competitive gaming with Counterstrike, and Halo then eventually started competitive Call of Duty tournaments.
He started playing board games again in 2019 at the start of the Global Pandemic. Board games became an escape during a time when a family of 9 was stuck in the house together. Steven fell in love with board games and quickly amassed a decent collection. Steven enjoys board games and their ability to bring people together and create lasting memories. Some of his favorite types of games are polyomino, tile placement games, and worker placement games.