Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters

Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters was a spin-off of the hugely popular Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, based on the board game introduced in chapter 134 of the manga (episode 47 of the second anime). Instead of the usual card-based gameplay most people are familiar with, Dungeon Dice Monsters uses dice.

The game is played between 2 to 4 players, each taking the role of a Monster Lord (also known as Die Master) with the objective of defeating the other player by summoning (called "Dimensioning" in this game) monsters using dice. The game is played with specialized dice, which the players collect and build a "Dice Pool" from. Each die has special "Crests" printed on them, which are used for various aspects of the gameplay:

• Summon Crest: Used to Dimension monsters.
• Movement Crest: Used to move monsters around the board.
• Attack Crest: Used to declare attacks with monsters.
• Defense Crest: Used to defend from enemy monsters' attacks.
• Spell Crest and Trap Crest: Used for specific monster abilities.

Each turn, the turn player rolls 3 dice. If they manage to land 2 or more Summon Crests in a single roll, they can Dimension a monster that matches the Level of the dice rolled. Other Crests rolled are stocked for later uses (Summon Crests can't be stocked). When a monster is Dimensioned, the player chooses how the summoning die "unravels" to create a dungeon floor; in the Japanese version, the real-life dice are produced with similar build to the manga that can be opened up, while the English version uses premade layouts of all possible tilings to simplify the Summoning process. The player can later order the monster to move (by spending Movement Crests), attack (by spending Attack Crests) or use specific abilities.

Monsters each have their own HP, ATK and DEF stats, while a Monster Lord always has 3 LP and 10 ATK (in the GBA version, Monster Lords has no ATK, and thus can't attack). Monster Lord loses 1 LP when attacked, regardless of the attacking monster's ATK. When a Monster Lord ran out of LP, the player who controls it loses. A player also loses if they're unable to perform any more summons on the play area. When a monster battles another monster, the attacker deals damage to the defender's HP using its ATK stat. However, if the attacked player has Defense Crests stored, they can spend it to defend from the attack, thus reducing the damage by the defender's DEF stat. The GBA version added that if the defending monster's DEF is higher than the attacking monster's ATK, the difference is subtracted from the attacking monster's HP.

The game was defictionalized from its source material and marketed in the early 2000s, with a starter set and several booster packs announced and produced. A GBA game was also released, with slightly modified rules. Despite the initial hype however, the spin-off was a huge flop and got canceled rather quickly due to several reasons, such as the impracticality in production (making monster figurines are much more expensive than printing cards) and the game being overshadowed by the Collectible Card Game.

Despite its failure however, it has gained a small but loyal fanbase who still play the game to this day, and even creating their on spins while at it.

Tropes used in Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters include:

• Adaptational Badass: Some "trash tier" monsters from the main game actually turn into badasses in the dice game. Some examples:
  • Mystic Horseman. In the card game, it's a Level 4 vanilla with poor stats and thus never really used. In here, it's an easy-to-summon Level 2 monster with a whopping 40 HP (for comparison, the Level 4 Dark Magician has 30 HP) and an ATK-increasing ability to decimate threats on top of it.
  • Larvae Moth. Yes, that Larvae Moth. In here, it's a Level 1 monster with 20 HP/ATK/DEF (a really good stat for its Level). In the card game, it's a Joke Character.
• Anti-Air:
  • Certain monsters like Battle Warrior have the ability to attack flying monsters.
  • Feral Imp negates all flight abilities upon summon, and will continue to do so until it's destroyed.
• Awesome but Impractical: Most Level 4 monsters have pretty good stats. Good luck trying to actually summon them, though.
• Boring but Practical: Most Level 1 monsters have poor stats and no effect, but they're easy to summon and can be used to construct dungeon fast to pave way for your stronger mid/late-game monsters.
• Canon Foreigner: Quite a number of the monsters in the game are originals for the franchise. Examples include Orgoth the Relentless and Mighty Mage. The former in particular has become a Canon Immigrant after its card was introduced in Duke Devlin's Duel Monsters deck and later the real-life card game.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the Japanese version and the video game, the dice are color-coded according to their Tribe. The English version color-code them by Level instead.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: In the GBA game, certain Tribes have advantage and disadvantage over others.
• Random Number God: Present in a huge role, since a good chunk of the game pretty much depends on the roll of three dice. This has led to players spending whole 10 minutes changing turns without being able to Dimension anything. The English side attempts to lighten the burden with the "Double Roll" and "Triple Roll" rules (a player can roll the 3 dice twice/thrice a turn, but only 1 of the results will be taken).
• You Require More Vespene Gas: The Crests (except for Summon) are basically resources in the game. You'd need them to do pretty much everything, from attacking to activating effects to actually moving.
• Zerg Rush: A popular strategy is to use several Level 1 monsters to build a path quickly toward the opposing Monster Lord, then attempt to Summon a mid-Level monster to finish it quickly.