Zombie Dice: An Optimal Play Strategy

Abstract

We discuss the game of Zombie Dice, published by Steve Jackson Games. This game includes green, yellow, and red dice. Each die has brain, footprint, and shotgun symbols on it, with each color of dice having a different amount of each symbol. Out of the dice, three are randomly picked and rolled. The player plays as if he were the zombie, meaning that brains are wanted and shotguns are not. Footprints are rerolled if the player chooses to keep going and not score. One brain equals one point. If three shotguns are accumulated, then that player's turn is over and he loses all his brains for no points (busting). The objective of the game is to gain thirteen or more points. In this article, we investigate a model for deciding whether or not to continue rolling (if given the opportunity). With this model, we create a decision point given information about the current player's turn including the amount and color of dice left in the cup, color and number of footprints, and the current number of shotguns of the player. Examples will be shown to highlight the game and its strategy fashioned from the model.