D&D x Yahtzee: An Unexpectedly Thoughtful Tie-In

WotC owner Hasbro has been trying to leverage the sustained modern success of Dungeons & Dragons for several years now. A special edition Yahtzee game is an unexpected indication that they are beginning to understand where the game’s charm comes from. 

Here’s something that my Facebook ads have really wanted me to know about: Game publisher The Op / USAOpoly have released a special edition of the classic game Yahtzee in Dungeons & Dragons flavor.

I promise it’s more fun than it seems! What could have been a simple uninspired case of “let’s throw an owlbear decal on the dice cup and call it good” has actually ended up being a very clever product. The Hasbro subsidiary has recognized the key thing that the two games have in common: Dice. More specifically: Novel ways of rolling them.

The third-party Dungeons & Dragons accessory industry has really come into its own over the past decade-or-so. It’s easy to engage with D&D and its players in a money-earning capacity without getting into copyright trouble, and that’s brought some unique products to the show floors of conventions worldwide. Players are invited to indulge in everything from custom gemstone dice to handcrafted wooden tables that cost more than a new car.

Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro have been helping themselves to small slices of that market here and there with a small handful of self-published tools and accessories and by licensing the D&D IP out to companies like Gale Force Nine and Ultra Pro. 

This isn’t the first time Hasbro has offered a crossover between D&D and one of their other products. Dungeons & Dragons-themed Monopoly exists but while there’s a Monopoly for just about everything, the game experience is nearly identical between editions. What makes this edition of Yahtzee different is that it does bring a new experience to the gaming table. It’s still the same game that can be found in every camp cabin and grandmother’s attic, but it brings a new thematically appropriate way to interact with the game’s mechanics. Plus: you can bring its centerpiece into your Dungeons & Dragons games as a practical and highly branded tool.

As Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro look to further embrace digital tools like D&D Beyond, they seem to have also begun to acknowledge the charm of the game’s tactile nature. Dungeons & Dragons is an experience, not a set of aesthetics. An experience is very difficult to capture in a crossover product but this silly Yahtzee dice roller does it.