Happy Friday Everyone,
I love playing games!! You can ask anyone in the office or my friends and they will tell you if there is a game involved, I will want to play. Games bring laughter and fun and a since of belonging. It’s almost become a tradition to play games every holiday now, which I deeply love.
My earliest memory of playing games is playing Pretty, Pretty, Princess with my sister and dad. You would spin the spinner which would land on a picture of something the princess needed. Each having your own color, you had to get your ring, bracelet, necklace, earring and then you could roll to win the crown which made you win the game. I still laugh at the thought of my dad playing with us with the dangling plastic earrings on his ears. Playing games like that creates memories that will never be forgotten.
It a world filled with screens and technology, it’s easy to find ourselves disconnected. It has become a tradition in my family now that every Friday night we have a Pizza and game night. My new favorite game that I play often is Dice. I even carry dice with me so if theres a chance to play, we play. I taught my friends how to play over FaceTime and it has become our new favorite activity together. All you need is six dice, so it makes it easy to play even over FaceTime, because we both have our own set.
In the spirit of Friday game night, I want to teach you my favorite game and share the rules so you can play with your family. Some call this game Farkle, but we just call it Dice. Here are our rules to the way we play the game:
All you need: 6 dice
Scorekeeper and Determining Who Goes First
Choose a scorekeeper. It is their responsibility to keep track of everyone’s score, so pick someone who can pay attention. Each player rolls one die, with the highest roll going first. In the event of a tie, the players who tied for the highest roll roll again. Once the first player is decided, play continues to the left.
Scoring
Once you start rolling you have to score 500 points to make the board to continue. If you do not make 500 points, you have to wait till your next turn to earn points. When you reach 500 points for the first time, you may choose to immediately end your turn to prevent losing the points or keep rolling. Once you start earning points, you have to score at least 350 points on one roll to add that to your score.
The Points
5’s = 50 point
1’s = 100 points
1,1,1 = 1000 points
2,2,2 = 200 points
3,3,3 = 300 points
4,4,4 = 400 points
5,5,5 = 500 points
6,6,6 = 600 points
1,2,3,4,5,6 (a straight) = 1500p points
3 pairs = 1500 points
2 Triplets = 2500 points
4 of a Kind = 1,000 points
Five of a Kind = 2,000 point
Six of a Kind = 3,000 points
Your Turn
On your turn, place all six dice into a dice cup or roll them. You have to have a 1 or a 5 die to keep going. Take out any dice worth points after each roll. This forms your running score for the round. Roll the remaining dice, removing any dice worth points and adding them to your running total. If you are ever able to set aside all six dice, you may re-roll all of your dice and keep building your running total. If ever you are unable to set aside any dice (no dice are worth points), You lose your running point total and your turn is over. If someone before you rolls the dice and earns a lot of points and decides to keep that score but has dice left over, you may take the remaining dice left over and play on their score. For example: If you someone rolls three 1s thats 1000 points. They want to keep that score and not roll anymore, you can take the three remaining dice and roll. If you get a 1 or a 5 in those three dice, you add to that to the 1000 points that’s already there. So if I roll a 1 now my score is 1100 or I roll a 5 my score is 1050 and I get to keep those points. If I roll all three dice and get three of a kind or all 1s and 5s, I get to pick up all 6 dice and keep rolling to add to that score. This could make your score really high. This makes the game fun and interesting.
Winning the Game
Be the first player to meet or exceed 10,000 points to start the end game sequence. Each other player has one turn to try to beat your score. After all remaining players have had their turn, the player with the highest score wins.
This game is so much fun and you can play for hours. I love playing with my friends and family over FaceTime. Even in the state of the world like it is, we can get together and have fun playing games. No matter what game you play just have fun as a family together. Make your own traditions for tonight. I challenge you to turn your TV off and make memories with your family. Just make sure there is some pizza involved. Have a great weekend everyone
Tiffany
Program Supervisor