Awesome Dice!

Isn't this the coolest?
Dice used as the art medium. 
Thanks Dude Craft!

Odds'R

The box

The game is Odds'R, a party game for up to four players or teams. And my choice for game of the day for Thanksaturgiving this year.
Put out by Eagle Games in 2002, no longer in print. So if it's no longer in print, how did I even find out about it??
Well, I do loves me The Spiel, as I've mentioned before, and their back-shelf spotlight a few episodes shined on this game, including letting me know that there were some for sale through the BGG marketplace.
I tried out the BGG marketplace for the first time, to much luck, and got the game still in shrink, for a decent price, and dealt with another BGG user for the sale, which makes me feel better than giving money to some random eBay user. (Like I know a BGG user will buy more games, an eBay user might only be in it for the money)

The board

It's a trivia game at it's base. But it has a lot of other elements.
There's a lottery to start, and each time you ask a question, you first read the winning lottery number. You have three opportunities to buy lottery tickets, so it seems like it's a small chance of winning, but still an interesting addition.
After the lottery, the trivia question, in one of 15 categories is read, and the multiple choice answers are shown to all of the non-answering players or teams. And everyone bets on if the answering player or team will get the answer right.
The winning of the game is who has the most money, not who's answered the most questions, so the lottery and the betting are key. Game ends when one player gets to the center, and they get a bonus for getting there, but they are still not necessarily the winner. I like that element a lot, no wedgie hogging.

The grab bag tokens and cow chip

Other fun twists are different odd spots you might land on.
There are grab bag spaces, where you'll pull one of 15 tokens out of the velvet bag. The "GrabBag is full of goodies-and gotchas!" according to the box. Since I like being as surprised with a new game as my guests, I try not to read too much of the specifics, so we'll see how that plays out.
There's a cow chip to flip, and it's just a heads-or-tails win-some-money or get nothin' space.
And there's a space where you get to use a special die in addition to the moving dice. The special die will let you know if you are going ahead or backwards on the moving dice. This was one of the gotta-have-it things about this game, I love specialty dice! And bonus that you only use the extra die if you land on the space, not all the time.

The pawns

And then there's the pawns. Another gotta-have-it part of this game. Your pawn starts off as a candle stick looking kind of thing, with rings you add for each answer you get wrong.
If you get too many wrong, you get the dunce cap placed on top.
There are spaces where you could sell your ding-rings for cash, so it's not that bad to get a few rings, as long as you're going to land on the right space to have them removed.
This seems like fun, I only hope that no one feels bad for having too many rings. But I think playing in teams will help that. I love the colors, nice and bright. I'm thinking of how to incorporate these fun pawns into other games too. Or they could even be used as a counter in some games. It would be easy to see from across the table how many rings your opponent has.

The Meeples playing with the colors

So if you listened to the same Spiel episode, you already knew all of this. ;p
I don't have any actual play experience yet, since we'll be playing Saturday. But I do hope to do mini-reviews with any/all who play. And take more photos.
I hope you and yours are having a great Thanksgiving, whether you're celebrating today or Thanksaturgiving like we do.
What games will you be playing while you digest?

Gemlok

The BFF had a B&N coupon burning a hole in his pocket, and we needed to get out of the house, so yesterday we ventured out and The BFF picked up Gemlok. The first thing I thought of when seeing the picture on the box was 'Bejeweled: the Board Game'. But it's not.
The second thought when looking at the box was: gotta get these dice! Cool, funky, movement with arrows dice. And the surprise when the box was opened, the dice are huger than I expected. (yeah, I know that's not a real word, but it's fun)

Huge dice with regular sized Meeple for comparison

It's a pretty solid little game. Reminded me a bit of some of the tactics in chess, the movement only, the what's-the-other-player gonna-do Analysis Paralysis is gone, with every player only able to do what the roll of the dice tell him/her to do.
The two dice are different except for the one Gemlok side, so there are ten possibilities of how to move. You have to take the two or three steps laid out on the dice face, but you can turn the die any direction to start the movement (that was the one part that alluded me for about 1/2 the first game).
If you land on yourself or an opponent on your last movement, you get to bump, them/you, up to three spaces.

CU of game play

The board is set up with smaller point value gems sprinkled around the outside, with plenty of empty spaces, the center is a four by four cluster of higher end gems. I like that the colors of the gems seem to represent actual gems and dollar values, I'm not sure what 4 is, though, Opal? When you bump, of course, you want to bump your opponent out into the boondocks, and yourself closer to the center squares (and Paul Lynde). If and when you roll a Gemlok, with the exception of your very first roll, you have to/get to lock one of your gems. (Thus the name. Drink.) You don't want to get the Gemlok side when you're sitting in the sand, but you are aching for it when you're sitting atop one of the diamond 9 pointers (the highest point gem). Of course, as dice go, you can sing 'Luck Be A Lady Tonight' all you want, Big Jule, but you know those dice ain't gonna roll how you want them to.
After ten rounds, either player can declare the game end, but the other player(s) get another turn to try to bump you. I tried this tactic the first game, and sure enough, The BFF bumped me off TWO separate seven point jems, left me sitting in sand, and he beat me by less than that 14 points. So second game, I waited and let him call it quits, and that time he only beat my by two points. ;p You're supposed to play a four game series, but we were done after two, only because it was a long weened, and we were ready for relaxation, not thinking.
The other game ending condition would be if someone gets all eight of their gems locked. Which I think would be really hard with the two player game that we played, probably even harder with three or four. We're interested to see just how different the game will be with three or four. Next weekend is our family game day, we really think my dad and older son will like this. Maybe The Munchkin can get Grandma to play something else for a while. Or I'm sure she'd be happy with Plants vs. Zombies.

P.S. Now that The BFF has started his own gaming (and movie) blog, I hope this won't turn into a who-can-blog-it-first competition. But I did blog it first this time. With photos. ;p

Meeples swimmin' in Gems

P.S.S.
Be careful letting your Meeples out along with any kind of gems or gem-like bits. They are soooo money hungry, they jumped intot he gems like they were Uncle Scrooge McDuck.