Dice games you can play tonight
Pick a game by how many people you have and how long you want to play. Every game below comes with rules short enough to read aloud and a tool for the table: a score keeper, a move helper or the exact odds of a bluff.
Pick a game
Pig
- 2 to 10 players
- 10 to 20 min
- Easy to learn
Roll as often as you dare and add it up, but a 1 wipes out your turn. First to 100 wins.
Ship, Captain and Crew
- 2 to 10 players
- 10 to 20 min
- Easy to learn
In three rolls, find a 6, then a 5, then a 4; the other two dice are your cargo score.
Liar's Dice
- 2 to 6 players
- 15 to 30 min
- A few rules to learn
Everyone rolls in secret, then bids on how many of a face are on the whole table. Call a bluff and someone loses a die.
Bunco
- 8 to 12 players
- 90 to 150 min
- Easy to learn
A party game for tables of four: roll for the round's number, swap partners, and chase a bunco.
Shut the Box
- 1 to 6 players
- 5 to 15 min
- Easy to learn
Roll two dice and close tiles that add up to the roll. Close all nine and you shut the box.
Farkle
- 2 to 8 players
- 30 to 45 min
- Easy to learn
Push-your-luck with six dice: keep scoring dice, roll again, and bank before you farkle.
Yahtzee
- 1 to 10 players
- 20 to 40 min
- Easy to learn
Thirteen turns, up to three rolls each, and one box on the score card to fill every turn.
If you only want one answer
- Two people, one die: Pig.
- A party of 8 or more: Bunco.
- Adults who like to bluff: Liar's Dice.
- Playing alone, or with a child learning to add: Shut the Box.
- A longer game with real decisions: Farkle.
No dice? Roll here
Pig
- You need one die and 2 or more players. First to 100 points wins.
- On your turn, roll as many times as you like. Add each roll to your turn total.
- Stop whenever you want and bank the turn total onto your score.
- Roll a 1 and the turn total is gone. You score nothing and pass the die.
Pig score keeper
When to stop rolling
Five rolls in six add 4 points on average (2 to 6), and one in six loses your turn total. Put together, one more roll changes your expected turn by (20 minus your turn total) divided by 6. That is 2.0 points in your favor at a turn total of 8, zero at 20, and against you above 20. So a simple habit that gets the most points per turn on average is: keep rolling until your turn total reaches 20, then bank, unless banking less already wins the game. The helper above shows that number as you go.
Two common changes
- Equal turns. The first player has an edge, so many tables let everyone finish the round after someone reaches 100. Tick the box in the keeper to play that way.
- Two-dice Pig. Roll two dice and add both. A single 1 ends your turn with nothing; two 1s wipe out your whole score. You can still use the turn adder by tapping both dice, since a 1 ends the turn there too, but it does not apply the two-1s penalty, so play this version on paper.
Ship, Captain and Crew
- You need five dice and 2 or more players. Many groups play for a small pot of coins.
- On your turn you get up to three rolls. You are hunting for a 6 (the ship), then a 5 (the captain), then a 4 (the crew), in that order.
- Set each one aside as you find it, then roll the rest. A 5 does not count until you have a 6, and a 4 does not count until you have a 5. They can all come up in the same roll.
- Once you have 6, 5 and 4, the other two dice are your cargo. If you have rolls left, you may roll both cargo dice again to try for more.
- No full crew after three rolls means no cargo: you score 0. Highest cargo wins the round; ties roll off.
Cargo helper
A turn, start to finish
- First roll: 5, 4, 4, 2, 1. No 6, so nothing counts yet. Pick up all five.
- Second roll: 6, 6, 4, 3, 1. Keep one 6 (the ship). The 4 cannot be kept without a captain.
- Third roll, four dice: 5, 4, 3, 2. Keep the 5 and the 4. Your cargo is 3 + 2 = 5, and you are out of rolls, so 5 it is.
Some groups allow re-rolling just one cargo die; agree on that first.
Liar's Dice
- Each player needs five dice and a cup. Everyone shakes, slams the cup down, and peeks at their own dice only.
- The first player makes a bid about all the dice on the table, such as "six 4s": at least six dice, counting everyone's, show a 4.
- The next player either raises or calls "liar". A raise means more dice (seven of anything) or the same number of a higher face (six 5s).
- When someone calls, everyone lifts their cup. If the bid was true, the caller loses a die. If not, the bidder loses one.
- Whoever lost a die starts the next round. Lose all your dice and you are out. Last player with dice wins.
- Many tables play with 1s wild: they count as whatever face is bid. If you do, agree how bids on 1s themselves work; a common rule lets you switch to 1s by halving the number, rounded up.
Is the bid true? Odds helper
Reading the odds
Say four of you are left with five dice each. You hold 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, and the bid in front of you is six 4s. You can see two 4s, so the bid needs four more among the 15 dice you cannot see. Each of those shows a 4 one time in six, which puts the chance the bid is true at 23.2%. That is a good moment to call. With 1s wild, each hidden die matches one time in three, and if your 2 were a 1 you would count three already: the same bid is then true 92.1% of the time, and you should raise instead.
The helper also shows the biggest bid that is at least an even bet given what you can see. Bidding above it is a bluff, which is fine, as long as you know it is one.
Bunco
- Bunco is a party game for 12 players (8 works too) at tables of four, with partners sitting across from each other. Each table needs three dice and a score pad. One table is the head table.
- There are six rounds, and the round number is the target: 1s in round 1, 2s in round 2, up to 6s.
- Roll three dice. Score 1 point for each die showing the round number. Keep rolling as long as you score; when a roll scores nothing, pass the dice to the left.
- All three dice showing the round number is a bunco: 21 points. Shout it.
- The round ends for every table when a team at the head table reaches 21 (they ring a bell). At each table, the team with more points wins the round.
- Winners move up a table and split up so everyone gets a new partner. Groups differ on the head table; usually its winners stay put.
- Each player marks a win or a loss every round and counts their buncos. Prizes at the end of the night (most buncos, most wins, even most losses) are up to the host.
Bunco has no publisher and no official rule sheet, so groups add their own rules. The most common one: three of a kind of any number that is not the round number scores 5. The helper below has a switch for it. Many groups also play several sets of six rounds in one evening.
Roll scorer
Round:
Your team this round: 0
Bunco night tally
| Player | Buncos | Wins | Losses |
|---|
Shut the Box
- You need two dice and tiles numbered 1 to 9 (or write 1 to 9 on paper and cross them off). Play alone or take turns.
- Roll both dice and add them. Close any open tiles that add up to the roll: on a 9 you could close the 9, or 4 and 5, or 1, 3 and 5.
- Keep rolling and closing until you roll a total you cannot make. Your turn ends.
- Your score is the sum of the tiles still open. Low score wins. Close every tile and you have shut the box, which usually wins on the spot.
- Most tables let you roll one die instead of two once the 7, 8 and 9 are all closed.
Move helper
Your roll:
Rule choices
Shut the Box score sheet
Which tiles to close
We worked out best play for every one of the 512 ways the tiles can stand. With all nine open and the one-die rule, a player who always picks the best move shuts the box 9.8% of the time (7.1% if you must always roll two dice), and finishes with 11.0 points left on average.
Take a first roll of 9. Here is the chance of shutting the box afterward for each way to make it:
| Close | Chance to shut the box after |
|---|---|
| 9 | 14.5% |
| 4 + 5 | 6.4% |
| 3 + 6 | 6.3% |
| 2 + 7 | 5.8% |
| 1 + 8 | 6.5% |
| 2 + 3 + 4 | 2.6% |
| 1 + 3 + 5 | 2.6% |
| 1 + 2 + 6 | 2.1% |
Closing the 9 alone more than doubles your chance compared with any other choice. As a rule of thumb, close the big tiles early, because 7, 8 and 9 can only go with a big roll, while small tiles fit into many totals. When you are chasing a low score instead of a shut box, the best move can differ, which is why the helper shows both numbers.
Playing with a group
Everyone takes one turn per round and adds their score. The score sheet above ends the game when anyone's total reaches 45, and the lowest total wins. A stricter old version knocks out each player who passes 45 until one is left.
Farkle
Farkle is the push-your-luck game with six dice: keep the dice that score, roll the rest, and bank before a roll comes up empty. It has more decisions than any game above and takes about 30 to 45 minutes for a group.
Play at home: Farkle rules, scoring chart and score keeperPlay Farkle online
Yahtzee
Yahtzee gives you thirteen turns of up to three rolls with five dice, and one box on the score card to fill each turn. You can play it with any five dice and a score card.
Dice game questions
What dice games can you play with one die?
Pig is the classic: one die, any number of players, first to 100. Roll as long as you like and add up the numbers, but a 1 wipes out everything you rolled that turn.
What are good dice games for adults?
For 8 to 12 people, Bunco: it is built for a party and keeps everyone moving between tables. For 3 to 6, Liar's Dice, where bluffing matters more than luck. For a quick game with a small pot of coins, Ship, Captain and Crew.
What dice games can you play alone?
Shut the Box works as a solo game: try to close all nine tiles, or beat your own lowest score. Yahtzee also plays solo if you chase a high score.
How many dice do I need?
Pig needs one. Shut the Box needs two. Bunco needs three per table of four. Ship, Captain and Crew and Yahtzee need five. Farkle needs six. Liar's Dice needs five per player plus a cup each. No dice at all? Use the roller on this page.
Is it Bunco or Bunko?
Both spellings are common for the same party game. The rules do not change with the spelling, though house rules differ a lot from group to group.