Lately, it feels like we’re all just dinosaurs trying to avoid the falling meteors. In this game, you’ll try to dodge all of life’s little disasters. You might fall into a pit of hot lava or get ghosted by your dino date, but the dino who survives it all wins the game!
In Happy Little Dinosaurs, the first person to reach 50 points, or be the last Dinosaur standing, wins the game! During each round, you’ll flip a Disaster card featuring a Natural, Predatory, or Emotional disaster. Each player will play a Point card in hopes of collecting points and avoiding the disaster.
You will work to avoid all of life’s little disasters and laugh as they happen to your friends. If you collect 3 Disaster cards of the same type OR 3 different types of Disaster cards, you will be out of the game. Point cards feature weapons, trinkets, and good luck charms that you use to collect points and avoid disasters. Each card has a point value between 0 and 9 that you will use when scoring a round. You can use Instant cards at different points during the game to tip the odds in your favor or save your Dinosaur from certain death.
Player boards include your Dinosaur's traits, an Escape Route you use to track your score, and a Disaster Area where you will collect Disaster cards. You'll move your Dinosaur meeple along the Escape Route on your player board to track your score. Will you successfully dodge the disasters or get eaten by a prehistoric whale? Only the cards can decide.
- description from the publisher
- family-friendly
- replayability with expansions
- expansion interactions can complicate play
- dinosaurs and disasters
- Humorous prehistoric world with small dinosaurs
- light and humorous
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hand Management — Play disaster cards and mitigate outcomes to maximize points.
- Set Collection — Collect dinosaurs and use expansions to alter scoring dynamics.
- set collection / expansion integration — Collect dinosaurs and use expansions to alter scoring dynamics.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- International dinosaur month
- the wall for October is dinosaur month
- draftosaurus you see it's still in shrink
- one of my favorite roll and right games
References (from this video)
- Amazing art
- Cute, fun caricatures of dinosaurs
- Rough game design
- Trying not to become extinct.
- The end of the world.
- Unstable Unicorns
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Play — It's like a silly play a card and it's not good.
- Sand timer — So, the premise is is you're all you all wake up as a prisoner in this dark cave system covered with black mold and it's whoever gets out of the cave with the most money wins. But, um it's like there is no way to avoid the black mold. There's PvP mechanics.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's got a slanted board and like you put dams in like these rivers and stop marbles and it's got an alpaca board. I don't know what you do on an alpaca board, but I'm here for it
- It's it's it's one of those hybrid euros but it
- So, the premise is is you're all you all wake up as a prisoner in this dark cave system covered with black mold and it's whoever gets out of the cave with the most money wins.
- I just wish I was such a better game
- My brain is blanking tonight.
- You know who was never funny? That guy with the ventriloquist guy that had like the multiple different uh
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- He he whooped Batman's ass.
- I whooped Batman's ass, I whooped Mighty Thor's ass
- We'll just drain it all out, clean it, put it back in his body.
- You know, it's it's it's a cool little song.
- The only two immortals left are Willie Nelson and Keith Richards.
- The only two feel like
- But Ringo was like a metronome. He he just and he and he had he had stamina of for days
- So, here's a trivia question for you. Who's older, Yokoono or Rangoar?
- It's like you you you I saw this thing. there was a thing on there for um date of anniversary and date of birth.
- It's It's wholesome.
- He He witnessed me. He looked at me.
- It's not subtle. They that it was as subtle as a sledgehammer.
- And then they realized that like he had this weird chemical chemical imbalance thing where he just his brain didn't create the chemical to make him afraid to die.
- Have you seen that movie Free Solo?
- Well, and then they say the problem is is that your brain says swim right to the swim against it.
- Yeah, little movie called Jaws. Maybe you've seen it, you know.
- It looks good and it sounds good and it's got the first race is amazing.
- Yeah. Only left turns, please.