Perudo

Today's review is of the old-world release,* Perudo (a variant of Liar's Dice).  For 2-6 players, it takes 15-30 minutes.

Overview
Each player starts with 5 dice in a cup, and rolls them by overturning the cup on a table.  Each then looks at their dice, keeping them secret.  Play proceeds clockwise, with each player guessing how many total (among all players) of a given number of dice there are.  You must increment in number of dice or number on the dice; ones are wild and count for anything.  If a player questions the previous player's claim, they shout "Perudo!" and the dice are revealed.  If the claim is correct, the player who questioned it loses a die; if the claim is wrong, the player making that claim loses one.  Example round in a 4-player game:

Player 1: "there are three 5s"
Player 2: "there are four 5s"
Player 3: "there are five 2s"
Player 4: "there are five 5s"
Player 1: "there are seven 5s"
Player 2: "Perudo!"
[all player's reveal their dice; there are collectively five 5s and three 1s, making for eight 5s total.  That's more than seven, so Player 2 was wrong; they lose one dice and the next round begins]

Play continues until all players are out of dice.

game contents; image from here

Review
The game is simple, fast, and enjoyable.  It's a bluffing/hidden knowledge game that gets increasingly difficult for players as they lose die (because they know less of the overall state- if one player still has all 5 dice and each other is down to 1, the player with 5 clearly knows more overall about the game state and is better postured to guess correctly or call bluffs). There is a mild degree of strategy (you quickly learn to bid high enough to give the next player a hard choice), but of course features a heavy luck component (which is no bad thing).

Rating: A-

*rumored to have been shown to Pizarro in 1532