One of the biggest problems with being a game enthusiast in the modern age is finding a place to put everything. Each week, it seems, a new high-quality board game comes out with boards, cards, dice, and tokens. These games often take hours to play and set up.

While it’s great to have this kind of versatility and to support the indie market crafting some of these new ideas, simpler has its place. When you go on a camping trip, a cabin excursion, or a voyage on a boat, space is at a premium. In these times, knowing a few card or dice games comes in handy. 

The wonderful versatility of these tools explains why they have stuck around for so many years. Indeed, dice are found throughout archaeology going back as early as the beginning of the Common Era with the standard size and weight of a modern six-sided cube appearing around 1250 CE.

Excited to learn some simple dice games? Read on!

Dice Games

While many new shapes and sizes of dice have been created since antiquity, for the most part, the easy to learn games rely on the standard six-sided. The number of dice needed will be listed with each game and any other equipment needed. 

Bunco

Played with – 9 dice

Bunco is played in groups of four, so you’ll need at least eight players but the standard is twelve. 

There are six rounds. In each round the teams roll the dice and attempt to get a number equal to the round and as many as the round. So, in round three you need to get three threes out of your nine dice.

In round four you would want four fours and so on. A team gets one point for each time they succeed at this task. It’s customary to yell “Bunco!” when a point is scored.

At the end of the six rounds, the team with the most points win. 

You will find that drinks accompany many a Bunco game in the US and it is a popular competitive game in bars.

Liar’s Dice

Played with – 5 dice and a dice cup

This game has become more well known recently from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and also it shows up in a Red Dead Redemption. 

The objective of the game is to keep your dice the longest. The game is played with two or more players and at the end of each round the losing player loses a die. 

When you run out of dice, you are out of the game.

For play to begin, each player rolls their dice in a dice cup. The cup serves to hide your dice from the view of other players.

Each player makes certain that none of their dice have landed on top of each other. If so, they reroll until all the dice lay flat.

From there, each player goes in a circle making a bid on how many dice on the table are showing a particular number. So if you think there are five threes on the table, you say so.

Each player can make a new prediction or call you a liar. When someone calls out a liar, the dice are revealed. If the predictor is correct, they keep their dice, if the player calling liar is vindicated, they keep their dice. 

Farkle

Played with – 6 dice

Farkle was once the game of either Danish kings or Czech kings, depending on where history lands. It was popular throughout both Bohemia and Scandanavia throughout the 12-16th centuries. 

The game is a push your luck game that can be played head to head or with any number of players. Each player rolls and scores their roll. Each die kept for score reduces the pool the player has.

If the player rolls all of their dice without failing to score, they get them all back and can continue on.

Scoring rules

1 = 100

5 = 50

3 of a kind = value x 100 (except 1s which equal 1,000)

4 of a kind = 1,000

5 of a kind = 2,000

6 of a kind = 3,000

A straight 1-6 nets you 1,500

Three pairs also equal 1,500

The game is played until one player reaches 10,000 points. 

To begin accruing points a player must get a score of at least 1,500 in one set of rolls.

There is one final round when a player hits 10,000, and any player that can match or beat the score is the winner.

Chicago

Played with – 2 dice

The game is played with two or more players and is rapid-fire with only 11 total rounds per game.

In the first round, you roll the dice and attempt to get two ones, adding up to two. In the second round, you roll and attempt to get three. This continues until the eleventh round and an attempt to get a total of twelve.

Like Bunco, you get a point for each time you get the right roll in the right round. The winner is the one with the most points at the end.

Ship, Captain, Crew

Played with – 5 dice

This game is played with two or more players. Each player should have their own dice for speed of play. This game goes really fast as there are only three rounds. 

Each player rolls the five dice and attempts to build a ship, a captain, and a crew to begin scoring. To get these key pieces you need a 6 (the ship), a 5 (the captain), and a 4 (the crew). Each other number rolled after acquiring these three is worth its face value in points.

It is possible to get the ship, captain, and crew together in the first roll. The highest possible score is 36 (6×6). If you don’t get everything in one roll you must get them in the order of the game’s name. So, you need a ship before a captain before a crew. 

Find More

Of course, this list only scratches the surface. If you find you have a favorite in the mentioned dice games, rest assured a dozen variations likely exist. 

There’s always more to learn and explore in the world of gaming and technology. Come back for more articles on things of interest in the future.