Dice Games with 6 Dice are surprisingly rare, it seems like it is just the magic number, one that most games can’t reach. Yahtzee or Liar’s dice, for example, which are amongst the most well known dice games both only use 5 dice. There are tons of games that use more than six dice, Dungeons and Dragons or Warhammer to name a few. In any case, we decided that this was not fair and so we wanted to give a little bit of love to dice games that used six dice.
Table of Contents
- Farkle also known as Dice 10,000
- George: the Solitaire Dice Game
- Simple Dice Games using 6 Dice
- Dice Games With 6 Dice: The Tabletop Unicorn
Farkle also known as Dice 10,000
Farkle also known as Farkel in some countries is commercialization of an older game called Dice 10,000. In a similar way that Uno commercialised the public domain game of crazy eights, Farkle did the same thing with dice back in 1996.
The aim of Farkle is to roll a total of 10,000 points over the course of the game. There are a few different ways to play, some rules state you must hit exactly 10,000, if you go over, you lose your points for that round, other rules state that going over 10,000 is fine. What all rule books agree on is that 10,000 is the key in Farkle.
Players score points on the following rolls:
| Dice | Points |
| 5 | 50 |
| 1 | 100 |
| 3 Pairs | 1000 |
| Straight | 1500 |
| Full House | 1500 |
If pairs or three of a kind are rolled the scores are added together and doubled, for example, a pair of 5s would be (50+50)*2 for 200 points, rather than just 100.
Straight and Full houses play in a similar way to poker. A straight is 1 through 6, a full house is a two of a kind and a three of a kind.
The creators of Farkle, Mary and Charile Potter, did add in some other rules to the original Dice 10,000 game:
- Players have one chance per turn to re-roll any non-scoring dice i.e. 2, 3, 4, 6 that are not paired or have created a straight/full house
- If a player throws six scoring dice on their turn they may roll again.
The term “Fackle” comes if a player has thrown all non-scoring dice, in this case they’ve “Farkled” the round and gain no points.
George: the Solitaire Dice Game
George is an interesting game that we found during our research, on the Ohnree YouTube channel. George is a single player dice game. To start you must pick one of your six dice, this dice will be called “George”. George begins at level 3, to win he must reach level 7. If, however, George levels down to 0, you lose. You begin by placing George to in the middle of the table and roll the remaining five dice.
Every turn starts with one of three actions:
- Pass – George drops one level and you can pick up any dice on the table.
- Roll – Roll and dice in your hand
- Flick – Flick George on the table, if he hits an equal number to his level you pick that dice up and George gains a level, for example, if George is level 3 and he hits a dice showing a 3 on its face, you may level George to 4 and pick up that other dice.
Flicking is the core component of the game, however, you must be careful. First, if you flick George off the table, it is an instant loss. Second, if you flick George into a lower dice, you lose 2 levels.
There are a number of smaller rules and nuances, if you are interested in the game we recommend you check out Ohnree’s original video below.
Simple Dice Games using 6 Dice
It is quite hard to find complex or intuitive dice games that use six dice. There are plenty of simple ones floating around, but don’t get too hung up over them. At the very least, they are great to play with kids.
One to Six
In this game, each player has six dice. The aim is to roll the sequence one to six. Players start by initially rolling all six dice in their hands. Let’s say the numbers they roll are 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, and 6. In this case, they have four of the numbers needed to make one to six – a 2, 3, 5, and 6. Now the players may re-roll the duplicates, the remaining two dice, to try and get the missing numbers, 1 and 4.
When you start you will normally net quite a few dice, but the game gets progressively harder the closer you are to finding the final dice.
There are two versions of this game, one where players can roll as often as they like, making it a race against time. The other, players take turns to roll – this can be a lot slower, but it makes for a fairer game.
Six of a Kind
Six of a kind plays in a rather similar way to one to six. This time, however, players are trying to get six of a kind rather than a sequence of dice. Interestingly, the probability of finishing the game is the same in both cases: to roll six of a kind or one to six on your first throw it would be a 0.012% or 1/7776, so guess its time to start rolling!
Higher or Lower
Higher or lower is our final simple dice game. Each player has 6 dice. Play rock, paper, scissors to decide who throws first. The player who wins rolls first and might roll, for example, 1, 3, 5, 2, 2, 6, which is 19. That player would then call higher or lower and their opponent would have to try to roll according to the call – ties roll again. The game is played as a best of three or five, the player who call higher or lower swaps each round.
The lowest score possible in this game in this game is 6 with all ones, or 36 with all sixes, so it is worth factoring that into your higher or lower call.
Dice Games With 6 Dice: The Tabletop Unicorn
It is very hard to find worthwhile dice games with 6 dice. Farkle is the most popular and most played by far. George, a game we discovered while researching, was really the only other game of note. Most other 6 dice games were overly simplistic and bit lacklustre. If you have 6 dice, we’d probably recommend you played a game that only uses five, like Yahtzee or Liar’s dice. You can use the sixth dice as a spare in case you lose one under the sofa!
