Upcake

• Designer: Ralf Zur Linde, Klaus-Jurgen Wrede 
• Publisher: Piatnik
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Two imposing cake towers loll upwards in front of you. To get to the top, you have to choose the dice wisely and combine them to form a two-digit number. How far will you dare to climb? Whoever lasts the longest without failing will be rewarded with a hefty score at the end!

To start, give each player a score sheet, making sure that all players are playing with the same side up.  Choose a player to go first; that player rolls the 5 dice, then going around the table, each player chooses one die and writes that number in the lower layer of the left cake tower – right next to the 1 – therefore creating a number between 11 and 16.  The starting player then takes the dice and rolls them again. 

A game consists of two rounds. In the first round, you enter your numbers on the left tower; and in the second, the right.

Gameplay:
On your turn you must decide whether you
a) play or
b) pass.

Play:  First, optionally reroll ONCE all dice with matching numbers. Choose two (out of five) dice from the general display and use them to form a two-digit number. For example, you can use dice with the numbers 2 and 5 to form 25 or 52. Like this, you try climbing up your cake as high as possible. The next number must always be higher than the previous one.  You get a bonus if your new number is exactly one more than the previous number – you then write the next number directly above it.  For instance if 35 is your highest number, and you choose 36, you write 36 down and then write 37 above it!  Finally reroll your two dice to bring the display back to 5 dice.

Pass: if you cannot use any dice, you pass and re-roll all dice. Write an X in the small circle next to the space where you write a number. You can only pass once on each level .

The round ends as soon as someone has reached the highest level of his cake OR if someone has blundered (= not able to write a valid number after “passing”).  

If the game ended because someone made it to the top, finish the current round so that all players have the same number of turns.   The player who has the largest number on the top layer wins the round and receives as many stars as is shown above the cake. No one else receives a star.

If the game ended because someone slipped up, the round ends immediately, and the player who slipped up receives nothing and all other players get one star. In addition the player who has the highest number written down gets one additional star.

Repeat the process for the second round using the cake tower on the right.  At the end of the second round, the player with the most stars wins.

The back side of the sheet offers an advanced version where numbers are written into the star spaces on certain levels and players receive a bonus star if they can write the matching number into the cake layer that matches the number in the star space

My thoughts on the game

So, I’ll admit that this was a game that started with low expectations.  I’ve been on a bit of a downswing with Roll-and-Write (RAW) games as they have started to feel same-ish.  This maybe isn’t a archetypical RAW though as players aren’t all using the same roll – rather the dice are rolled by each player on their turn as a tool.

I do like the way that the dice pool stays relatively intact from player to player, and there are some subtle ways that you can try to influence the decision of at least the next turn in player order (by deciding what to re-roll or not).  

The play here is exceedingly simple.  Re-roll any matched dice you like, then find a number that is higher than your current entry and put it in the next space.  You can choose to pass and re-roll, but then you’ll lose momentum from the win condition of getting to the top of the cake.  It’s actually not as easy as it sounds, and it’s not uncommon to suffer a jump of 20 or even 30 numbers at some point in the game.

When you play the advanced game, the addition of the bonus stars for exactly matching a space give a little added twist to the strategy.  The scores in the game are quite low, the winner often only having 5 or 6 stars – so getting a bonus star is a huge deal.

At first we thought the setup condition where the starting player also gets to choose the first seed number seemed off – but as the game goes an equal number of rounds if someone gets to the top of the cake, having the last turn in the round is a huge advantage when you know exactly what you might need to win a tie-breaker – so everything evens out.

Upcake is simple to teach/learn/play and most games should come in around 15 minutes. There will be plenty of turns with simple decisions (especially when the dice passed to you already have the next sequential number showing) – but there will be a few points in the game where you have to stop and think about your options on re-rolling.  After a few games, deciding if you like this or not should be a piece of cake!

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y, John P
• Neutral.
• Not for me…