SNAP Review – Diced Veggies

[Andrew] Anitra have you ever seen those videos online, like Tasty videos, where someone snaps their fingers and all of a sudden food goes from whole to chopped up and nice?

[Anitra] Yeah! Man, I wish I could chop food that easily.

[Andrew] Well, I can’t give you that, but what if I told you there was a game where you had a block of food, and you could pull different ingredients away in nice cubes that you could then turn around and use in your recipes?

[Anitra] Sounds weird, but I’m here for it.

[Andrew] This is a SNAP review for Diced Veggies.

Game

Diced Veggies is a game for 2-4 players. It was designed by cousins Jory and Rowan Cappel and their uncle (and dad), Josh Cappel. And it’s published by Kids Table Board Gaming. The box says it’s for ages six and up and it takes about 30 minutes to play.

Art

[Andrew] So Anitra, let’s talk about the art in Diced Veggies.

There are two types of cards in this game: the relatively plain Hype cards and the Recipes. Each Recipe card depicts its finished food, illustrated by Claire Lin. I don’t know that I would say they look realistic, but they certainly look delicious!

[Anitra] Both kinds of cards have very clear graphic design by Josh, showing exactly what they need to be completed and how many points they’re worth.

[Andrew] The veggie illustrations on these recipe cards correspond to the colored dice: yellow carrots, pink onions, red tomatoes, green peppers, and tan mushrooms.

Speaking of colored dice, some of the pips on our dice were not colored in. Hopefully they’ve fixed this, but it sure was weird!

Mechanics – How to Play

[Andrew] So let’s talk about how we use these Recipes and these dice – it’s time to talk about the mechanics for Diced Veggies.

[Anitra] The game starts with a rectangular block made up of all the dice – there’s a handy frame to use to get everything lined up. Every player gets two Recipes and a Hype card, along with a Chef token.

[Andrew] The starting player gets the cleaver – they’ll make the first cut into the block.

[Anitra] They must make a single cut, then push out some number of dice sideways. The dice they “cut out” must add up to ten or less for the value of all of them.

[Andrew] Take your new dice and keep them in front of you without changing their values. Now we’re on to step 2 – cooking!

[Anitra] If you have all of the ingredients you need, you may cook one or more of your recipes. Show everyone that you have the right dice, then discard them back into the frame and flip the Recipe face-down.

You could use your Chef token to change either the number or the type of a single die. If you used the Chef token, you have to discard that, too.

[Andrew] You might also apply a single Hype to each recipe, as long as you meet its requirements.

[Anitra] So, something like Restaurant-Quality Pizza, where the numbers of your dice add to thirteen exactly.

[Andrew] Keep that Hype with the face-down Recipe for scoring.

[Anitra] At the end of your turn, you draw one card. You can either take a Hype card from its deck, a Recipe from its deck, or a face-up Recipe from the three that are in the display on the table.

[Andrew] Discard cards and dice if you’re over the hand limit. Then end your turn by passing the cleaver.

Restocking and End Game

[Anitra] Let’s talk about restocking. When you start your turn, if there’s any ingredient completely missing from the block, you have the option to restock. Take all the discarded dice, and all the dice in the block, and roll them into the frame. Also return any used Chef tokens to their owners. Shake the frame around to settle all the dice, then drag it diagonally to make a new block.

[Andrew] Now you’re ready to start your turn with a nice, fresh block of veggies to cut!

The game ends after a player cooks their sixth Recipe. After they finish their turn, every other player gets one more full turn. Then every player gets one more chance to cook. Finally, everyone adds up the points awarded by all their cooked Recipes and associated Hypes. The highest score wins!

Playing with Younger Kids

[Anitra] But what about younger kids? The box says ages 6+.

The rulebook gives three variations that can make Diced Veggies simpler.

First, you can remove Hype cards and Chef tokens entirely. This eliminates reading and a lot of the strategic planning and math in the game.

[Andrew] Second, you can just remove math entirely. Instead, chefs can always cut out a maximum of three dice from the block, no matter what their values are.

[Anitra] Lastly, you can shorten the game, by triggering the end earlier: when someone completes their fifth Recipe, or even their fourth Recipe, instead of waiting for six completions.

Expectations

[Andrew] So Anitra, what did we expect from Diced Veggies?

[Anitra] Well, the game’s name is a pun, so we’re off to a good start. And how many games come with a big cardboard cleaver? Cutting out the dice from a block is a really unusual way to choose them. And I liked that a lot.

[Andrew] Reading the rulebook, I expected that, depending on which members of our family we played with, we’d probably be trying some of those variations that we talked about, too.

Surprises

[Andrw] But Anitra, is there anything that surprised us about Diced Veggies?

[Anitra] I found it to be a really fun game, with good, interesting choices to make. But when we play by the “regular” rules, there’s no way we can be done in 30 minutes. Completing six Recipes just takes too long, especially with three or four players. When we played with four Recipes kicking off the end game instead, we still got the full experience, and then it really does take 30 minutes or less.

I was also really pleasantly surprised at just how accessible this game is for younger children. The suggestions in the rulebook are great, and you could definitely play this with kids even younger than six years old, as long as it kept their attention.

[Andrew] I think that you hit on the big thing that actually surprised me, too. I mentioned before that I expected us to use variants, but what I really didn’t expect in the game was just how long it was going to take to get to six Recipes.

The cutting mechanic is novel and interesting, I really like it. And in a larger game with a bunch of people hanging out socially, it’s easy to lose track of time, it’s not a big deal. But if you’re trying to finish Diced Veggies in 30 minutes, and you’re hitting the same mechanics over and over again, your recipes are going to lose some flavor.

Recommended?

[Anitra] That being said, we do recommend Diced Veggies for families, especially families who love cooking.

[Andrew] But maybe tackle fewer recipes per game. There’s only so much that you can eat, after all!

We’re going to give Diced Veggies, from Kids Table Board Gaming, 4 ingredients out of 5.

And that’s Diced Veggies – in a SNAP!

Find Diced Veggies at most game stores, or buy direct from KTBG.

And check out the Diced Veggies page with links to recipes for many of the foods in the game!

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Diced Veggies from Kids Table Board Gaming for this review.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?