Bare Bones

About this board game

Bare Bones is a 2–4 player card-and-dice game that plays in about 30 minutes, combining deck building, colorful dice, and tactical card combos across 12 rounds.

Each player begins with an identical base set of seven cards, then chooses three additional cards. Cards come in two varieties: Dice Cards and Action Cards. Building your deck effectively is central to finding a path to victory.

There are seven colors of Dice Cards, and each one lets you roll one die of its corresponding color when played. The dice have different values that represent points, while white dice provide the currency needed to acquire new cards and develop your deck.

Action Cards add powerful abilities to your strategy. Use them to multiply scores and enhance other cards, creating combinations that can turn a carefully built deck into a strong scoring engine. With 20 Action Cards provided but only seven used in each game, the available options can vary from one play to the next.

• Start with seven identical base cards and choose three additional cards.
• Play Dice Cards to roll matching colored dice.
• Use white dice as currency to acquire new cards.
• Combine Action Cards with your deck to multiply scores and improve card effects.
• Build toward a winning score over 12 rounds.

Bare Bones balances deck-building decisions with the uncertainty of dice rolls. There are many possible card-and-dice combinations, but victory ultimately comes down to how you shape your deck and how the dice fall. After the twelfth round, players tally their scores to determine the victor.