A Fistful of Penguins

About this board game

A Fistful of Penguins is a quick family dice game for 1–6 players that takes about 15 minutes to play. Over three rounds, you gather animals for your zoo and try to earn the most money by displaying them.

Each turn begins with the special animal dice, which provide a selection of animals to add to your zoo. Every animal offers a different scoring opportunity, so choosing what to collect can make a major difference to your final total.

• Kangaroos score by the square of their number, rewarding a large group.
• Lions are worth big money, but scoring lions means only the lions score.
• Camels are worth $5 each, unless any lions are present, in which case they score zero.
• Squirrels steal money from the other players.
• Moose score the most, but each moose needs to be paired with a squirrel to score.

Penguins do not earn money directly, but they provide valuable penguin tokens. A token can add another die to your group or let you reroll as many of your dice as you wish, making a fistful of penguins a powerful way to improve your options.

The basic version of A Fistful of Penguins is designed for casual family play and helps teach players the faces of the dice. An advanced version is also available, and BoardGameGeek recommends playing it before rating the game for its audience. After the third round, the player who has made the most money displaying animals wins.