OVERVIEW

Boy this game's become really popular in recent years. But it's a great game that can be played by a large group while still being fun and sociable.

Number of Players

This game is played with 2 to a bunch.

Goal

To achieve the highest score above 10,000.

What you will need

• 6 dice

• A pen/pencil and a pad for scoring

Scoring Combinations & Point Values

• 5's = 50

• 1's = 100

• 3 of a kind = 100 x face value of the die (e.g. three 4's = 400) except three 1's which scores 1000

• 4 of a kind = double the 3 of a kind value

• 5 of a kind = double the 4 of a kind value

• 6 of a kind = double the 5 of a kind value

• 3 pair = 1,000 (PS... No, Jay, four 2's is not "two pair of 2's")

• Straight (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) = 1,500

• Full house (3 of a kind AND a pair) = 3 of a kind value + 250 (no matter the paired number)

The Play

Players use whatever method they like to decide who goes first

The first player begins by rolling all 6 dice and scoring combinations are determined.

If at any time the player rolls and fails to produce any scoring dice or combinations, this is a FARKLE and all points earned on the turn are forfeited. Play passes to the next player.

If scoring dice or combinations are rolled, the player can elect to continue rolling to score additional points, but must keep at least one scoring die or combination of dice in order to proceed rolling the remaining dice.

IMPORTANT: Scoring combinations must be rolled all at one time -- they cannot be accumulated over multiple rolls. For example: a player must roll all 6 dice in order to produce a scoring 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 combination worth 1,500 points. They cannot accumulate a 1, and a 5 on one roll, and then add the 2, 3, 4, and 6 from subsequent rolls. Dice combination scores only apply to dice that are thrown in a single roll.

The player can continue rolling and accumulating points as long as they keep at least one scoring die or combination on each roll (see example turns below)

As the player continues to roll for additional points, the number of dice available on each roll will decrease. This also decreases the likelihood that a scoring die or combination will be rolled.

SCORING AND MELDING SCORE: Player continues to accumulate the value of the dice and combinations held at the end of each roll. The player can elect to end their turn at any time and bank any points accumulated on that turn WITH THE EXCEPTION that the first score recorded for each player must be AT LEAST 500 points (this is the melding score.

When a player has successfully used all 6 dice in scoring combinations, they may elect to pick up all 6 dice and continue rolling (retaining the points that they've earned to that point). If the player FARKLES at any time going forward they lose ALL points that were accumulated on the turn.

Winning the Game

The first player to achieve 10,000 or more points may "knock" -- thereby planting their hopes on their lofty score. All remaining players have 1 chance (turn) to achieve a higher score and thus snatch victory from their worthy opponent. The original knocking player does not get any more chances to improve their score. This presents the first player to 10,000 or more with the consideration that their score should be significantly higher than the current second-place contestant. Following this final round of turns, the player who has booked the highest score is declared the winner.

Additional House Rules and Shenanigans

• GREEDY RULE: If at any time a player FARKLES three times in a row, they lose ALL POINTS earned in the game and their score is reset to 0. In this case they are not required to achieve the meld score of 500 in order to resume accumulating points.

• Three pair = 1,000 (optional house rule)

• Insurance: If a player has used all 6 dice in scoring combinations they may elect to invoke insurance on their next roll (which will include all 6 dice). If the player elects to invoke insurance, their points accumulated on this turn are immediately reduced by half. But in the event the next roll is a FARKLE, the player will retain the half-points that they insured rather than losing all points that they had accumulated.

• Buck Up Lil' Camper: The scorekeeper will keep track of each time a player throws a 6-die FARKLE (e.g. player throws all 6 dice which yield no scoring dice or combinations). When a single player has thrown their 3rd 6-die FARKLE in a single game, that player shall receive a 2,000 point bonus. A subsequent 4th 6-die FARKLE would earn a 3,000 point bonus and so forth.

Examples

Example 1

• On player's first roll: 1, 4, 5, 5, 6 - player elects to keep 1, 5, 5 for 200 points (100 + 50 + 50) and re-roll the remaining dice.

• On player's second roll: 3, 4, 5 - player elects to keep 5 (adding 50 more points to the previous 200 for 250 cumulative points).

• On player's third roll: 1, 6 = player elects to keep 1 (adding 100 to the previous 250 for 350 cumulative points). If player has previously melded (at least 500 points on the first "melding" score) they can elect to stop and add the 350 points to their running game total. In this case, the player has NOT previously melded and must continue rolling.

• On player's fourth roll: 5 = player adds 50 points to the previous 350 points for 400. Since the player has now used all 6 dice in scoring combinations they have the option to pick up all six dice and continue rolling on this turn with all six dice. In this example case, the player still has not achieved a melding score and must continue anyway.

• On player's fifth roll: 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5 - player has rolled a full house (three 4's and two 2's) and scores 400 for the three 4's + 250 for the pair of 2's + 50 for the single 5. This 700 points is added to the 400 rolled previously for a total of 1,100. Again, this player has used all 6 dice in scoring combinations and can again pick up all 6 dice and continue rolling on this turn.

• On player's sixth roll: 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6 - player scores an additional 150 (100 + 50) for a cumulative total of 1,250 this turn and has 4 dice left to roll. This leaves a less than 50/50 chance that a 1, a 5, or a 3-of-a-kind will be rolled on the next roll (do NOT check my math on that!) and the smart thing to do would be to end the turn, score 1,250 points (a VERY nice score for a single turn) and pass the dice to the next player. But this is not a smart player... :(

• On player's seventh roll: 2,2,6,6 - It's true that two pair is generally a very exciting thing to roll, and good for you. You rolled good, you really did. But player did not roll a 1, or a 5, or any scoring combination and therefore has FARKLED ... losing all points accumulated. Poor player. Don't YOU be like player...use better judgement.

Example 2

Really? You need ANOTHER example? Well okay, here's another one then I guess:

• On player's first roll: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 6 - Player scores 1, 000 for the 3-of-a-kind 1's, and this amount is doubled to 2,000 by the fourth 1 thrown in this same roll. Since player is a smart player and realizes the futility of throwing only 2 dice (odds are only 4 in 12 to roll a 1 or a 5) so they elect to stop, score their 2,000 points for this turn, and pass the turn to the next player.

OVERVIEW

I really owe my love of this game to my grandparents. After my mom's folks retired, they moved around a lot, usually buying houses in burgeoning communities in the far-flung reaches of the Inland Empire (Hemet, Temecula, Sun City...). Despite the drive, we visited my grandparents a lot. And no matter what city we'd end up in, we'd end up playing Yahtzee (herein referred to as "Yacht•Sea" for purposes of convenience...and risk-mitigation) for hours on end bathed in glorious central air conditioning.

Number of Players

This game is played with 2 to a bunch.

Goal

Achieve the highest grand total score comprised of the sum of each of the scores recorded on your 13 turns in the game.

What you will need

• 5 dice

• A Yacht•Sea Scoring Sheet

• A pen, pencil, or willingness to borrow one from a more adroit opponent

Set Up

• Choose a player to begin. You can choose someone at random and then tell them that the official rules state that the sexiest person goes first if you want to make them feel better. But you can basically use whatever selection criteria you agree upon.

The Play

Play begins with the first player selected. Players each take turns in succession and at the end of each turn, record a score into one of the available scoring boxes in the column for the current game. If a scoring box on a player's scoring sheet already has a score recorded from a previous turn, then that box is no longer available for the remainder of the game.

A turn consists of up to 3 rolls by the player. After their first roll, the player will decide which of the available scoring boxes is most advantageous depending upon the dice thrown on their first roll. The player then optionally has up to two additional rolls to improve their score. On these subsequent rolls, the player may elect to roll as many or as few of their 5 dice as they want in order to improve their score.

At then end of 13 rounds of play all players will have filled in a score for all 13 available scoring boxes. The scores are summed up and bonuses are awarded as indicated on the scoring sheet.

Winning the Game

The player with the highest grand total score for the game is the winner.

Additional Rules

• Directions for scoring each score box are provided on the scoring sheet.

• As play continues there are fewer and fewer scoring boxes available to record scores. If they are unable to achieve a scoring value for an available scoring box on their turn, players may be forced to record a low- or zero-point score into an available box of their choosing (if more than 1 box remains available).

I'm still building this portion of this web site. But in the meantime, you can view rules and a tutorial here.

OVERVIEW

This game is a classic 3-legged "last-player-standing" or "winner-takes-all" game. Play nice!

Goal

Be the last player standing and collect the booty!

Players

This game is played with 3 or more players -- the more the merrier actually.

What You Will Need

• Each player will begin the game with 3 tokens

• 3 dice

• A kitty ... the "pot" kind of kitty -- like a bowl or shallow container of some kind

Setup

• Each player puts three tokens in the playing area in front of them.

• Place the kitty in the center of the playing area

• The first player is selected (by whatever mechanism) and the three dice are passed to that person.

The Play

The first player (having three tokens currently) rolls three dice.

For each of the dice rolled, the player takes one or more of the following actions:

• If the die is 1, 2, or 3: No action is taken.

• If the die is 4: Player passes 1 token to the player in their left.

• If the die is 5: Player passes 1 token to the player on their right.

• If the die is 6: Player places 1 token into the kitty (thus taking it "out of play")

After all actions are taken for each die, the turn passes to the player on their left.

How many dice to roll

On each turn, the player will roll the same number of dice as they have tokens UP TO THREE.

• If a player as 3 tokens, they roll 3 dice

• If a player has 2 tokens, they roll 2 dice

• If a player has 1 token, they roll 1 die

• If a player has 0 tokens they do not roll any dice and play passes to the player on their left (they are not "out" as they may still receive one or more tokens from another player)

• If a player has 4 or more tokens, they roll 3 dice

• Nobody ever rolls more than 3 dice. Heck, there are ONLY 3 dice! How could you possibly roll more than that??

• If you accidentally roll too many dice (e.g. you roll 3 dice but only have 2 tokes) everybody points and laughs at you, and then you blush and re-roll using the correct number of dice. Hey, it's cool -- we all do it once in a while.

Winning The Game

Nobody is out until the next-to-last token is contributed to the kitty. When this happens, the holder of the last remaining token is declared the winner, and if said tokens are themselves of any recognizable monetary denomination (which they should NEVER be) that player would then collect the contents of the kitty -- or other suitable consolation prize.

OVERVIEW

This game is kinda-sorta similar to Farkle with much deconfusinizing. That is to say...it's a bit simpler. Players take turns attempting to score as many points on each turn. In each turn, a player must bank at least one "1" and one "4" in order to record their scored points for their turn. If a player fails to bank at least one "1" and one "4" by the end of their turn, the player will record 0 for their turn.

Number of Players

This game is played with 2 to a bunch.

Goal

Score the highest of all players for each round. This score will be constituted by the scoring dice on the turn (those that are not the required "1" and "4"). If chips or stakes are anted by all players, the player who scores highest for the round will collect the pot.

What you will need

• 6 dice

• A pen/pencil and a pad for scoring

Scoring Combinations & Point Values

• All dice are simply worth their face value. On each scoring turn (where both a "1" and a "4" are banked, the required "1" and "4" do not score any points, but the face value of the remaining 4 dice are tallied and the score is recorded.

The Play

Players may optionally ante at the beginning of each round.

Players use whatever method they like to decide who goes first. The round will consist of all players completing a turn in clockwise rotation beginning with the first player.

• The first player begins by rolling all 6 dice. From this roll, the player must elect to keep 1 or more dice before continuing to roll.

• Player re-rolls non-banked dice and elects to keep 1 or more dice from this roll. This process repeats until all 6 dice are rolled and banked. Ergo a turn can have no more than 6 rolls if one die is banked on each roll. Did you notice how I used the word "ergo" there? Pretty cool.

• If after banking all 6 dice, if both a "1" and a "4" have not been banked, the turn will score 0 and the turn passes to the next player. If a "1" and a "4" have been banked, these 2 dice are set aside and the face value of the remaining dice are added together and the sum is recorded.

Winning the Game

Option 1: Claiming the pot

All players ante an established chip or wager at the beginning of the round and is claimed by the highest scoring player of the round. If the highest score is tied by 2 or more players, they may elect to split the pot, or to let the pot ride to enrich the pot on the subsequent round(s).

Option 2: First player to win X rounds

All players may establish a selected number of rounds that a player must win to be the winning criteria. The first player to win that many rounds would be the winner.

Option 3: Running totals

You're going to be sitting by the pool (or river, or campfire, etc.) for the whole weekend...just keep a running total score and see who comes out on top when the weekend is over!