Dice Throne - Headless Horseman - Character Spotlight
Information:
Mechanics: Engine Builder, Head to Head, Yahtzee Mechanism, Variable Player Powers, Take That
Player Age: 14+ Player Count: 2 - 6Time to Play: 20 - 40 Minutes
Game Designer: Manny Trembley, John Heidrich, Nate Chatellier
Game Artist: Manny Trembley, Nick Malara, Britt AndersonPublisher: Dice ThroneYear Published: 2026Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Manny Trembley, John Heidrich, Nate Chatellier
Game Artist: Manny Trembley, Nick Malara, Britt Anderson
Introduction:
Now that the October Halloween season has commenced. What better way to celebrate this than looking at Dice Thrones character Headless Horseman. Headless Horseman is one of the Outcasts characters that are available through an individual character pack. He is designed from the famous myth popularised by the Sleepy Hollow. In Dice Throne he is an aggressive character with a ticking time bomb in the form of his own pumpkin head. As well as two interesting status effects one that works like a charge counter and one that is flexible in how it can be used.
Complexity:
Headless Horseman is a complexity of four. This would be due to the combination of his companion (his actual head); his dreadful status effect that does nothing on its own according to the status sheet but can be used in ways established on his board; lastly his passive effect adds to his complexity. His passive effect will bounce his head around the player boards, unless there are enough dreadful tokens to blow up the head gaining benefits and dealing damage.
Companion:
The companion of the Headless Horseman, the haunted head. The head will move around the players like a hot potato, each upkeep it can be moved to another player.
There is an instant card that will do this at a moment's notice as well.
There are strategies available based on if the haunted head is on the headless horseman or other characters through multiple cards, gaining status effects, dealing damage and preventing damage.
Status Effects:
Dreadful does nothing on its own,
different effects will use this status as a charge counter like the defensive roll that adds dice based on the amount of dreadful tokens (without spending tokens). These tokens can also be used to activate the haunted head dealing three damage to an enemy, gaining a CP and a Grim Pursuit token. Dreadful tokens can be gained in numerous ways, the main way is whenever the haunted head is moved through the passive ability.
Grim Pursuit is the second status effect. This effect can be spent to add a fourth re-roll in the offensive roll phase or add damage to an attack by rolling five dice adding one damage for each horseshoe. Creating a lot of versatility as these tokens can stack three high.
Upgrades:
The characters defensive abilities and attacks can all be upgraded once. Each of these upgrades (besides the defensive) add a secondary attack. A player which has a few of these upgrades in play will easily have an abundance of options preventing a missed turn due to bad rolling.
Final Thoughts:
- Not a strong character for team play, as his status effects mainly relate to him.
- Interesting companion (The Head) and charge status counters in the form of dreadful.
- The majority of upgrades offer a secondary action.
Headless Horseman is an aggressive character that creates an abundance of flexibility. This flexibility is from a large range of options from the upgrades that add secondary abilities, to the head that bounces around from player to player, with different ways to interact from positives effects when the head is on the player to negative effects like spending dreadful to activate the head and deal damage. Even Headless Horseman last status effects Grim Pursuit can be used once to re-roll during the offensive phase or be used to add more damage. If you like flexibility in your characters, and a great Halloween theme I can easily recommend Headless Horseman.
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