Dicing with Death - until the death?

[Colonel Bogey]

Ouch! I was dicing with death and beat him where upon the sorceress cast the Random spell on me and I turned into a toad. So I spent the next three turns making my way back to the portal of power. Now with significantly less lives I decide to head back through and try again. I get back to dicing with death and he wins twice leaving me with one life. So I decide that on my next turn I'll leave the inner region to try and get some lives back. But on my turn it won't let me!

Is that rule right? From my memory which is admitedly hazy you were always allowed to make your way out of the inner region if you were about to become a cropper. Decided to rule check before reporting as a bug.

[Colonel Bogey]

I died btw. XD

[wmtheta]

Well, on the one hand, the rules (page 19) do say that you can "turn back at any time." Your memory is correct. On the other hand, the instructions on the space seem to contradict that rule. (Paraphrasing) "If the score is equal, you must dice with death again on the next turn, if the score is lower, lose one life and dice with death on the next turn, you can move if the score is higher." My guess is that the rules on the space overrule the rules in the rulebook, so you can only choose to turn back once you've won the dice death.

[Colonel Bogey]

Originally posted by wmtheta:

Well, on the one hand, the rules (page 19) do say that you can "turn back at any time." Your memory is correct. On the other hand, the instructions on the space seem to contradict that rule. (Paraphrasing) "If the score is equal, you must dice with death again on the next turn, if the score is lower, lose one life and dice with death on the next turn, you can move if the score is higher." My guess is that the rules on the space overrule the rules in the rulebook, so you can only choose to turn back once you've won the dice death.

My thoughts are the rules on the space are there to emphasise the point that you can't *move forward* until you have beaten death. Not that you can't return with your tail between your legs from whence you came. What does it say on the other spaces in the inner region? I'll go and check but I'm fairly sure none of them give instructions about being able to return hence the rulebook rule stands.

[NomadRob]

you should be able to turn back - it's a bug we are aware of but haven't fixed yet - thanks for the reminder

[BarbeQ]

Hmm. Runaway from DEATH? If you allow this, then HE must at least send some sinister laugh after you - preferably in capital letters ;-)

[ososober]

the wording "must" over rules the can retreat, so you "must" dice with death again, so i would say no you could not back out after not beating death on the dice with death, you can only back out after beating death.

[sanityismyvanity]

No, you can Turn Back on that space, like any other Inner Region space except for the Crown of Command. The Dice with Death space would have to explicitly state that you cannot Turn Back for the rulebook to be overruled in this case.

[ososober]

one of the reasons why i do not take that path with any character, can get stuck with death forever.

craft wise, only ever takes 4 turns with sufficent craft

[joshuacolyn]

that is not true ososober. You can have a total of 6 pit fiends and if you have a poor enough strength and die it can take a lot longer than 4 turns just to defeat all 6 pit fiends

[ososober]

only thing is, ive never lost to a pit fiend in either board or digital game,

[whoiii]

Originally posted by BarbeQ:

Hmm. Runaway from DEATH? If you allow this, then HE must at least send some sinister laugh after you - preferably in capital letters ;-)

Backing away from death should indeed get you an audio and graphic taunt. very fitting and good idea.