How to Play Too Many Bones: A Beginner's Guide to Setup and Your First Game

Quick answer

Pick one Gearloc, set the Day Counter to your chosen length, and run the loop: move, resolve the encounter, then fight or rest. Spend your training points on skill dice that push you toward your Tyrant's weaknesses, and treat every point of health as a resource you spend, not a score you protect.

Too Many Bones looks intimidating on the table: chip stacks, dice trays, and a battle mat full of Baddies. The good news is that the actual turn loop is simple, and the complexity lives in the choices you make, not in the rules you memorize.

This guide walks through a full first session in order, from setup to your first Tyrant fight, with the checkpoints that catch most new players. Keep the rulebook nearby for keyword lookups, but you should be able to run your first game from this page.

Set up the table before you pick a Gearloc

Lay out the Battle Mat, place the Day Counter where everyone can see it, and set the Baddie and Tyrant chip stacks within reach of the mat. Sort the loot, encounter, and skill dice into their own piles so you are not digging mid-fight. If you are playing solo or two-player, the Too Many Bones: 1-2 Player Modular Mat Pack gives your Gearloc mat, loot, and dice a fixed home and anchors the Battle Mat, Baddies, and Encounters in place.

Choose a day length that matches your table. A short game teaches the loop faster than a long one, and you can always replay with a longer count once the rules click. Decide who reads encounter cards aloud before you start, because stopping to negotiate that mid-game slows everything down.

• Checkpoint: every chip stack has a labeled spot on or beside the mat before you deal anything.

Pick one Gearloc and learn only that mat

Each Gearloc plays differently, so resist the urge to read every character mat on day one. Read your chosen mat top to bottom: starting stats, starting skills, and the skill tree you will build toward. New players often pick a Gearloc with a straightforward damage plan and save the tricky ones for later sessions.

If you want a forgiving first pick, Too Many Bones: Gasket (The Hydromech) is a steambot built to blitz, blast, ram, and scram, with a hydro valve that keeps its power running. That kind of built-in durability gives you room to make mistakes while you learn the encounter flow.

• Common mistake: reading every Gearloc mat before playing. Pick one, play it, and learn the others next session.

Run the day: move, encounter, then fight or rest

On your turn, advance the Day Counter and resolve the encounter for that day. Encounters can be fights, choices, or events, and the card tells you which. When a fight starts, place the Baddies on the Battle Mat, roll initiative, and work through the round: your Gearloc acts, then the Baddies act.

Between fights, spend training points on new skill dice and use rest opportunities to recover. The tension in Too Many Bones comes from deciding whether to push forward for more training or heal up before the next encounter. There is no single correct answer, which is exactly the point.

• Checkpoint: advance the Day Counter at the start of the day, not the end, so nobody loses track of which encounter is next.

Build your dice pool around your plan

Skill dice are your character build. Each one adds an ability or improves a stat, and you choose which to buy as you earn training points. Read the skill tree before you spend: some dice only pay off if you commit to a playstyle, and buying randomly leaves you with a pile of situational abilities.

Look at the Tyrant you are hunting and build against it. If the Tyrant punishes slow damage, invest in burst. If it swarms you, invest in area control or defense. Too Many Bones: Tink (The Bot Builder) is a good example of a Gearloc whose Spiderbots reward commitment: keep them running and they fight on your behalf, but the build only works if you invest in keeping them alive.

• Common mistake: spreading training points across every branch. Pick two or three skills and deepen them.

Fight the Tyrant only when you are ready

The Tyrant is the boss at the end of your chosen day count. Do not treat it as just another encounter: it has its own abilities, and it will punish a Gearloc who arrives with low health and no plan. Read the Tyrant card before you commit, and check whether your current skills actually answer its threats.

If you are short on time or health, use the remaining days to train and heal rather than rushing in. Losing a Tyrant fight usually comes down to arriving early, not to bad dice. A prepared Gearloc with a focused build beats a lucky one almost every time.

• Checkpoint: before the Tyrant fight, confirm you have at least one skill that directly counters its main ability.

Keep the table organized as the game grows

As you add expansions, the chip count on the table grows fast. Keep Baddie chips sorted by type, keep loot and encounter decks separate, and return spent skill dice to their piles at the end of each round. A tidy table is not just aesthetic; it stops the mid-fight search that kills momentum.

Small accessories help more than you expect. The Too Many Bones Collapsible Dice Tower keeps rolls on the table instead of on the floor, and its magnetic flaps let it fold flat for storage. If you have ever lost a roll under the couch mid-battle, you already know why that matters.

• Common mistake: leaving spent chips and dice scattered on the mat. Clear them each round so the next player can read the board.

Your first game, step by step

1. Set the Day Counter: Choose a short day length for your first game and place the Day Counter where everyone can see it. Checkpoint: everyone agrees on the game length before any chips are dealt.
2. Pick one Gearloc: Read one character mat fully and ignore the rest for now. Common mistake: switching Gearlocs mid-game because another one looks more fun.
3. Run one full day: Advance the counter, resolve the encounter, and fight or rest as the card directs. Checkpoint: you can explain the turn order back to the table without the rulebook.
4. Spend training points: Buy skill dice that support a single plan rather than spreading points across every branch. Common mistake: buying a skill die you cannot use with your current stats.
5. Fight the Tyrant: Read the Tyrant card, confirm you have an answer to its main ability, then commit. If you are not ready, spend remaining days training and healing instead.

Gear that helps your first games

• Too Many Bones: 1-2 Player Modular Mat Pack: The modular playmats give solo and two-player games a fixed position for your Gearloc mat, loot, and dice, with a final mat that anchors the Battle Mat, Baddies, and Encounters. A defined layout means you spend your first games learning the rules instead of hunting for chips.
• Too Many Bones: Gasket (The Hydromech): Gasket is a steambot with a pumping hydro valve and multiple modes of Baddie dismemberment, built to blitz, blast, ram, and scram. Its durable, aggressive kit gives new players room to make mistakes while still contributing in a fight.
• Too Many Bones: Tink (The Bot Builder): Tink builds Spiderbots that fight on his behalf, and his ability to accessorize them gives each bot a personality. A good second Gearloc once you understand the turn loop, because managing bots adds a layer of planning without new rules.
• Too Many Bones Collapsible Dice Tower: The collapsible dice tower has a red-on-black finish, magnetic flaps, and bonded leather, and it folds down for storage. Keeps dice on the table during chaotic fights and packs away without taking shelf space.

Too Many Bones rewards planning more than luck, and your first game is really about learning the day loop and one Gearloc well. Set a short day count, build a focused dice pool, and fight the Tyrant only when your skills answer its threats. Once that loop clicks, every expansion and new Gearloc becomes a variation on a system you already know.