Three Little Pigs

The Three Little Pigs is the first in a series of Tales and Games from iello. With a recommended age of 7+ ,The Three Little Pigs looks like it is just a Children's game but after playing I found it scratches the dice gaming itch nice and quickly. Three Little Pigs sits 2 - 5 players and takes only 10-20 minutes to play even with the included Advanced Rules..


Objective:
Players roll dice and attempt to get enough of the same icons to construct a sections and eventually build a house solid enough to protect them from the Big Bad Wolf. Your goal in The Three Little Pigs is to have the house or houses worth the most points by the time three piles of building sections run out.

How to Play

On your turn you get to roll all 5 dice, 3 times. After each roll you are allowed to set aside any number of dice to keep or to stop rolling and use your results.

The icons determine which section you are allowed to take; Roof, Window or Door. The number of dice showing that icon determine which material that section is made out of; Straw, Wood, Brick. The building sections also shows 1 pig icon for each face up die result needed to purchase them.

You can only buy 1 section per turn and you do not have to use all of your dice.
Lastly houses without roofs are not worth any points.

Too easy? Here's the catch.

If at any point in time you roll 2 Wolf Icons then you must stop rolling and perform the Big Bad Wolf action.



Scoring

Scoring is pretty straight forward, even with the advanced rules so I will include them as well.

1 point for each pig icon displayed on your house sections.
1 point for each flower pot displayed on your house sections.

Advanced Rules:



My Thoughts:

With the advanced rules there is more than just a kids game here and we actually had a few games end really quickly because someone thought it was so easy that they forgot about the ending conditions and didnt have any roofs on their houses. Despite the simple rules and heavy influence of luck, The Three Little Pigs manages to stay fun when playing with both young children (4yr old) and adults. After our first few play throughs I thought 2 Wolf icons did not get rolled nearly enough but after playing more I realized this was just the luck we were having and 2 wolf icons show up just the right amount of times. My only criticism is that as you add more players you end up waiting longer for your turn and there is nothing to really keep you engaged other than if someone happens to roll wolfs. Playing The Three Little Pigs has gotten me excited to check out more of the Tales and Games series from iello and try them with my family.

Who Would Enjoy The Three Little Pigs?

Family Gamers: Adjustable rules that make the game harder or easier, easy to learn rules, and colourful dice help make The Three Little Pigs a great family game but really it is pretending to be the big bad wolf that kids are going to love.

Casual Gamers: If you do not own a dice game yet Three Little Pigs might be right for you. If you ever play with family, younger kids, or non gamers the theme might be appealing. I swear there is a golden drinking game hidden in here, will update once I have the rules straight. Since Three Little Pigs has virtually no setup time and takes only 10 - 20 minutes to play I think it fits nicely in a casual gamer's collections.