Kickstarter Preview: The ONE

Recently I received a preview copy of a game called The ONE, a dice game from Dave Kiurski. The game is a luck-based party game in which players roll giant foam dize through plastic tubes and record the outcome on a record sheet.

The ONE is actually four games in, well, one. Each game has variants on rules used to determine the victor. The basic game is a challenge to see who can roll the highest total of three frames. It’s a double-elimination tournament, and the game continues until a single person can be declared The ONE — the person who has not lost any games.

In a game called The Last ONE, players roll off in an effort to capture one another’s dice. The player who rolls the highest value of a given frame takes a dice from the player who rolled the lowest value. The game repeats until one player has all of the dice.

In 3-2-ONE, players assign point values to numbers and attempt to score by rolling the numbers they selected. It’s a bit of a craps game using 20-sided dice.

 

Finally, 20-to-ONE is a game in which players attempt to roll every number, from 20 to 1, in sequential order. Players roll a set of three dice and, if the number they are looking for next shows up, they score and get to roll again. Otherwise, play passes to the next player who gets a chance to roll.

Each of these can be a fun party game, but what’s particularly interesting is the custom foam dice developed for The ONE. These dice are 2.5 inches, brightly colored, and incredibly fun to squeeze. They are counter-style dice, meaning their values count down from 20 (which is actually represented by a game character) to 1 in sequential order. This is unlike normal 20-sided dice, whose values add up to 21 if you look atany two opposing sides of the die.

Though the game you will get from Kickstarter promises to have a plastic rolling tube included, the press kit I received didn’t include one (prototypes being too costly to ship for free). I can’t comment on the quality of the rolling tubes, but the quality of the dice is pretty good.

If you’re a fan of simple party games or dice games, or just want to pick up some cool foam dice, check out The ONE Kickstarter Project, which ends June 30th, 2013.

Accessibility

As a simple dice game, The ONE doesn’t have too many concerns in regards to accessibility. Here’s what you may need to expect though.

In-game Text: Some of the games require you to record your score after rolling a frame. This can be recorded on the included record sheets or in any way you see fit. As long as you can write, type, use a Brailler, a smartphone, tokens, Abacus, or any other sort of recording device, you can keep track of your score.

Being a dice game, it is number-dependent. Thankfully, the 2.5 inch dice are large and generally easy to read even with low vision. If you have no vision or otherwise are unable to read the dice, it may be possible to simply ask for assistance with reading your scores; there is no need for secrecy in these games.

Fine Manipulation: The ONE actually requires very little in the way of fine motor skills. The dice are large and squeezable, so picking them up and handling them is simple. If you do not have the ability to hold both the rolling tube and a die at the same time, consider that the rolling tube is optional; the end result of rolling a die is all that matters.

Basic Math: Like most games, The ONE requires only simple, basic math for scoring.