Dice Games Mania

Nathan has become a huge fan of dice games lately. We play a lot of games, to be honest, but there has been this odd trend lately pushing toward dice games. Let’s start with the basics.

ICBINY – Standing for “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Yahtzee,” this is really the game that started it all for dice games that Nathan and I play. I found it as a shareware program, and transcribed the rules, so that Nathan and I could play. It’s a very fun game that has one up on Yahtzee itself. IBCINY is all about pushing your luck, which makes the game exciting.

Yahtzee – In Yahtzee, you rarely push your luck. You have three rolls, and the only reason you stop early is because you already have what you need. There is strategy, but it has more to do with what order you try to score your points. I’m not sure if I’ve ever played Yahtzee with Nathan, though we did play Casino Yahtzee on many glorious occasions. Well, maybe not glorious, but it is a very good game. It’s a step up from Yahtzee strategy wise, because you can choose which dice to roll in order to try for different combinations, and you can even try to win off of bonuses.

Zonk – Not that different than ICBINY to be honest, but different enough that Nathan and I played it quite a bit.

Farkle – This is the online equivalent of ICBINY and Zonk. I only played it once using Nathan’s account. For its similarities to those two games, it is also decidedly different.

Finders Keepers – Ok, not so much a dice game, as a card in Net Runner that uses dice in a sub-game way. This is the one card that I think Nathan wants to burn more than Tycho Extension. It’s actually stacked in your favour as a player, but Nathan never has luck with it. You pay seven bits (in-game money) and roll three dice, gaining bits equal to your roll. Seven is the most common roll on two dice, and as we all know from playing Dungeons and Dragons, the average roll on three dice is between nine and twelve. Still, somehow, Nathan rarely does very well with that card, while I seem to do quite well.

D&D and/or Role-playing – Not so specifically a dice game as Yahtzee or anything else I’ve discussed here, but probably worth mentioning, because of the different styles of dice you use. And depending on what group you play with, rolling dice might be the most important part of the game. Well, just below embellishing your stats. Nathan and I have never played a role-playing game together. We’ve role-played… characters, public access show, get your mind out da gutter.

CCR – Ok, it was actually called LCR (Left, Center, Right). The verdict is still out on this one, because we need to try it with more than two players to see if it’s more exciting, but there doesn’t seem to be any strategy to it. It’s all the luck of the roll.

That One with the Colours – We played one recently that uses Green, Yellow, and Red. Green gives you points, yellow is neutral, and red stops you. That is to say that red stops you if you didn’t roll any green that roll. This game wasn’t so bad because it is press your luck, Nathan will have to tell you the name in the Comments section. It’s not as good as ICBINY, Zonk, or Farkle though, because those games allow for big gains and slow gains. ICBINY even has a way of losing all your points! Yeah, that’s right, exclamation point and all. In this game, everything rolled that is green counts as one point.

Dice Book – I swear I had a book of dice games that Nathan and I were supposed to play through, but I’ll have to look for it. I guess there is always looking online. Maybe we can start with Craps, and Nathan’s paycheck.

One of My Goals – I’ve always thought Nathan and I should create a game together. Maybe a dice game is the way to go for our first one. We’ll call it NATEBINY. I’m not sure what that acronym will stand for yet.