Dice Games by Number of Dice: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 Dice Games

Most people own a few loose dice and a vague memory of the rules to something. This guide sorts dice games by how many dice you need, so you can pick a game for whatever is in the drawer. For each count you get the games you can play on Dice.now, then one or two traditional games with rules short enough to start tonight. Every game here uses ordinary six-sided dice unless the entry says otherwise.

Games With One Die

One die is enough for a surprisingly complete game, because a single die still leaves a decision: roll again or stop.

On Dice.now: Pig

Pig is the smallest push-your-luck game ever invented. Roll one die and add the result to your turn total; roll a 1 and the turn total is lost. Hold at any time to bank the total, and the first player to 100 wins. First described in print by John Scarne in 1945, Pig is the standard classroom example for expected value: one more roll gains an average of 3.33 points five times in six and loses your turn total once in six, so rolling pays until the total reaches 20. Todd Neller and Clifton Presser computed the exact optimal strategy in 2004, and it turns out to depend on both players’ scores, not just your turn total. A game takes about five minutes.

Traditional extra: Beetle

Beetle is a drawing game for any number of players with one die, pencil and paper. Each player is trying to draw a complete beetle, and each face of the die earns one part:

You must roll a 6 for the body before you can draw anything else, and the head (5) must come before the eyes and antennae. Players take one roll each in turn; the first to complete a beetle with all 14 parts wins. Some sets assign the faces differently, so agree on the table first. There is no skill at all, which makes it a good game for very small children and a bad one for anyone who wants a decision; for those players, Pig is the one-die game to play.

Games With Two Dice

Two dice give you 36 outcomes and the famous bell-shaped curve of totals: one way to roll a 2, six ways to roll a 7. Almost every two-dice game is built on that curve. The dice probability guide has the full table.

On Dice.now: Craps and Shut the Box

Craps is the casino two-dice game. A shooter throws a come-out roll: 7 or 11 wins for the Pass Line, 2, 3 or 12 loses, and anything else sets a point that must repeat before a 7. The Pass Line carries a 1.41% house edge and the free odds bet behind it has none, while the worst bets on the layout give the house one chip in six. Our version deals free chips and lets you learn the layout without risk.

Shut the Box is the pub game with nine hinged tiles numbered 1 to 9. Roll two dice, flip down any tiles that add up to exactly the total, and roll again until the open tiles cannot make your throw. Your score is the sum of the open tiles; low wins; zero means you have shut the box. A game lasts two to five minutes and almost every roll offers a choice of which tiles to shut.

Traditional extra: Mexico

Mexico is a chip-losing game for three or more players. Each player starts with the same number of chips or coins. In each round every player rolls two dice and reads them as a two-digit number, high die first, so 6 and 3 is 63. The ranking is special: 2-1, “Mexico,” is the highest roll of all, then the six doubles from 6-6 down to 1-1, then the ordinary numbers from 65 down to 31. The lead player may roll up to three times, keeping the last result, and the number of rolls they take is the maximum for everyone else that round. The lowest roll in the round pays a chip into the pot; the last player with chips wins the pot. Mexico’s scoring is identical to Mia (also called Mexican Liars), but Mia is a bluffing game played under a cup, closer to Liar’s Dice.

Traditional extra: Sevens Out

Sevens Out is a two-dice race to a target of 500 or 1,000. On your turn, roll both dice and add the total to your score, then roll again. Doubles score twice their total (5-5 is 20 points). Roll a 7 and your turn ends immediately; the 7 is not added. Because a 7 is the most common total, turns are short and the game is more chance than choice, which makes it a gentle two-dice warm-up before Craps.

Games With Three Dice

Three dice is the party count. The classic three-dice games have almost no decisions, which is exactly why they work in a crowded room.

On Dice.now: Bunco and Left Center Right

Bunco runs six rounds. In round one everyone rolls three dice for 1s, in round two for 2s, and so on to 6s. Each die that matches the target scores a point, three of the target at once is a Bunco worth 21, and you keep rolling while you keep scoring; the round ends when someone reaches 21. The traditional party version seats 12 players at three tables with a bell and a traveling fuzzy die.

Left Center Right uses three special dice marked L, C, R and a dot. Everyone starts with three chips and rolls one die per chip held, up to three. Each L passes a chip left, each R passes one right, each C puts one in the center, and a dot keeps it. The last player holding a chip wins the center pot. Five minutes, no decisions, works with a drink in the other hand.

Traditional extra: Chuck-a-luck

Chuck-a-luck, also called birdcage or sweat, is a carnival betting game with three dice in an hourglass-shaped wire cage that the operator flips to roll. Players bet on a number from 1 to 6. If the number shows on one die you are paid even money, on two dice 2 to 1, on all three 3 to 1 (some layouts pay 10 to 1 or more for a triple). It looks fair and is not: the standard 1-1, 2-1, 10-1 layout loses the bettor about 4.6% per wager, and the meaner 3-1 triple payout raises that to about 7.9%. John Scarne noted that experienced gamblers avoid the game for exactly that reason. At home, play it with matchsticks and let each player take a turn as the house. It descends from Grand Hazard and is a cousin of Sic Bo.

Traditional extra: Going to Boston

Going to Boston, also called Yankee Grab or Newmarket, is the three-dice game to teach a six-year-old. Roll all three dice and set aside the highest (only one if two dice tie). Roll the remaining two and set aside the highest again. Roll the last die. Your score is the total of the three dice you set aside, and the highest score wins the round. Play an agreed number of rounds; most rounds won takes the game. A variant called Multiplication scores the sum of the first two dice multiplied by the third, which makes the last roll the one that matters.

Games With Four Dice

Four dice is the awkward count: no classic game is built for it, and none of ours use it. If four is what you have, Going to Boston plays perfectly well with four throws instead of three, and Pig works with any die. Otherwise borrow one from a board game and skip to the next section.

Games With Five Dice

Five dice is the classic count, the one that poker dice sets, Yacht and Yahtzee all standardized on. It gives 7,776 possible rolls and enough shapes (pairs, straights, full houses, five of a kind) to fill a scorecard.

On Dice.now: Yahtzee, Dice Poker, Ship Captain Crew and Liar’s Dice

Yahtzee is the scorecard game: three rolls a turn, 13 boxes, a 35-point bonus for 63 or more in the upper section, 50 for five of a kind and a 100-point bonus for every extra Yahtzee. A perfect player averages 254.6 points. Scandinavian Yatzy uses the same five dice with a 15-box card.

Dice Poker uses the same three rolls to build the best poker hand instead of filling a card. With six faces and no suits a pair is the most common result, so the hand rankings run pair, two pairs, three of a kind, straight, full house, four of a kind, five of a kind.

Ship Captain Crew asks you to roll a 6, then a 5, then a 4, in that order, in three rolls; the two dice left are your cargo and their total is your score. Miss any of the three and you score nothing.

Liar’s Dice gives each player five dice under a cup. Players bid on how many dice of a face are showing across the whole table, bids rise, and eventually someone calls “Liar.” With 1s wild, a hidden die matches any bid one time in three.

Traditional extra: Threes

Threes (also called Threes Away or Tripps) is a low-score game for two or more players with five dice. Roll all five; you must set aside at least one die, and may set aside more. Roll the rest, set aside at least one again, and continue until all five are set aside. Your score is the total of the five dice, except that every 3 counts as zero. Lowest score wins the round, so a perfect turn is five 3s for 0, and a 1 is the next best die. If two players tie, common practice is to replay the round for double stakes. Some groups add a “shooting the moon” rule in which five 6s, the worst possible score, wins the round outright.

Traditional extra: Drop Dead

Drop Dead appears in Foster’s Complete Hoyle (1922) and has been used in probability textbooks ever since. Roll five dice. If any die shows a 2 or a 5, the roll scores nothing and every die showing a 2 or 5 is removed from your turn. If no die shows a 2 or 5, add the total of the dice to your score. Either way, roll the remaining dice again, and keep going until your last dice all come up 2s or 5s, at which point you have dropped dead and the next player takes over. Each player gets one turn; highest total wins. There are no decisions, but the shape of the game (a first roll of five dice avoids every 2 and 5 only about 13% of the time) makes it a neat illustration of independent events.

Games With Six Dice

Six dice opens up the push-your-luck family and most modern designer dice games. It is also the count at which straights and three pairs become possible, which is what gives the six-dice games their big scores.

On Dice.now: Farkle, Ten Thousand, Qwixx, Roll For It, King of Tokyo and Elder Sign

Farkle and Ten Thousand are the same roll, set aside and bank game with different tables. Both score 1s, 5s, triples, a 1-6 straight and three pairs; both race to 10,000; both wipe out your turn on a roll with no scoring dice, which happens 2.31% of the time with six dice and 66.67% with one. Farkle uses the official PlayMonster table (three 1s = 300, three pairs = 1,500); Ten Thousand uses the folk table (three 1s = 1,000, three pairs = 750, extra matching dice double the triple) and a 500-point entry threshold. The Farkle vs Ten Thousand comparison lays the tables side by side.

Qwixx rolls six dice (two white, one each of red, yellow, green and blue) and lets every player cross off the white total on every turn, with the active player also using a colored die. Roll For It gives each player six dice in their own color to match against cards worth points. King of Tokyo and Elder Sign both roll six custom dice a turn with Yahtzee-style re-rolls, one for monster combat, the other for a cooperative Lovecraft puzzle.

Traditional extra: Sevens

Sevens is a six-dice game for three or more players, played to 100 points or a set number of rounds. Roll all six dice. Any two dice that add up to 7 (6-1, 5-2, 4-3) are removed from play. You may then keep the remaining dice as your score for the round or roll them again, removing any new pairs that make 7, up to three rolls in total. The first player in each round sets the maximum number of rolls everyone else may take. Highest remaining total wins the round.

Traditional extra: Maxi Yatzy

If you own six dice and a Yatzy sheet, Maxi Yatzy is the six-dice version: 20 boxes including Three Pairs, Five of a Kind, a Full Straight (21 points), Castle (two triplets), Tower (four of a kind plus a pair) and a 100-point Maxi Yatzy, with a 100-point upper bonus at 84 and the rule that unused rolls carry over to a later turn.

More Than Six Dice

A handful of games want a bag of dice rather than a set. Zombie Dice uses 13 custom dice in three colors, drawn three at a time from a cup, and Liar’s Dice needs five per player, so a four-player table uses 20. Bunco’s traditional party form uses nine dice across three tables. If you would rather not count, every game in this guide is playable on Dice.now with the dice supplied, and the 16 best dice games roundup sorts them by who you are playing with instead of what you own.