Dice Simulator - Dice Games

Dice Games

There are many dice games, here are just a few popular ones.

Craps

Craps is played with two dice, usually on a special table. The player throwing the dice is known as the shooter, other players bet on the numbers that come up. Principally, betting is based on whether the throw wins (a pass) or loses (a miss).
The shooter throws the dice. If he throws a total of 7 or 11 he immediately wins (a natural).
If he throws a total of 2, 3 or 12 he immediately loses (craps).
Other values are the player's point and he continues to throw the dice until he either throws his point again, in which case he wins, or he throws a 7, in which case he loses and another player becomes the shooter.

Yahtzee

The game is played with five dice and consists of 13 rounds. In each round, you roll the dice and then score the roll in one of 13 categories. You must score once in each category.
Each player gets up to three rolls of the dice per round. He can save any dice that are wanted to complete a combination and re-roll the other dice. After the third roll (although a turn can be ended after one or two rolls, if desired), the player's score is allocated to a category and calculated as follows:

  Upper section
  Categories 1-6 score the sum of all dice of that number
  If the total of this section is 63 or more, add a bonus of 35
  Lower section
  Three of a kind scores the sum of all dice
  Four of a kind scores the sum of all dice
  Full House (three of a kind and a pair) scores 25
  Small Straight (four sequential dice ie 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5, or 3-4-5-6) scores 30
  Large Straight (five sequential dice ie 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6) scores 40
  Yahtzee (five of a kind) scores 50
  Chance (any other combination) scores the sum of all dice

You can allocate a zero score to a category just to get it out of the way. The skill with this game comes with deciding how to allocate your score after each turn.

Liar's Dice

This is a very old game, often associated with pirates, for two or more players. Each player has five dice and each roll their dice but conceal them from the other players.
The first player makes a bid (guess) about how many of any one number are on the table in total (eg you could bid 'three 5s' if you thought there were at least three 5s on the table). The next player bids by:

  Increasing the quantity of the same number (eg 'four 5s'),
  Increasing the quantity of a different number (eg 'four 2s')
  Keeping the quantity but increasing the number (eg 'three 6s')
  Changing the quantity and number provided one of them is more than
    the higher of the quantity and number in the previous bid (eg seven 3s)

This continues until one player calls the bidder a liar. At this point all the dice are reveal and the bid checked.
If the bid is valid, the bidder wins, otherwise the challenger wins. The loser can either pay the winner (the other players break even) or the loser has one die removed and the game continues until only one player holds any dice.

Beetle

A fun family game in which you draw a beetle from its components according to the roll of a die.

  6 is for the body
  5 is for the head
  4 is for a wing, of which there are two
  3 is for a leg, of which there are six
  2 is for an antenna, of which there are two
  1 is for an eye, of which there are two

A 6 must be rolled to start which allows the body to be drawn. This now allows the head, legs and wings to be drawn on subsequent rolls. The head must be drawn before the eyes and antennae are allowed. The first person to complete their beetle is the winner.

Other Games

Many other games use dice to move a counter around a board such as Ludo, Backgammon, Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly.