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Dice Games for Groups

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Card & Dice Games
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Dice Games for Groups

Dice games for groups teach how much chance to expect: with 25 dice the average number showing any one face is 25 divided by 6, which is 4.17, and a bid of six or more of one face holds only about 23% of the time. Two dice sum to 7 more often than any other total, six ways in 36. Play for tokens that carry no value, never food, seed, tools or labour, and play with dice you have tested.

Part of Games, Recreation & Organized Sport

Liar’s dice, a ship-captain-crew game and dice sums, with the probabilities worked out so players can bid sensibly.

Probabilities Behind The Games

Two dice. There are 6 × 6 = 36 equally likely outcomes. The total is 7 in 6 of them, 6 or 8 in 5 each, 5 or 9 in 4, 4 or 10 in 3, 3 or 11 in 2, and 2 or 12 in 1 each. So 7 appears one time in six, 6 ÷ 36 = 0.167, and 2 or 12 only one time in 36 each.

Counting faces among many dice. Each die shows a given face with probability 1/6. With N dice the number of that face averages N ÷ 6. The chance of getting at least k of a given face among N dice is a binomial sum. Computed exactly for N = 25 dice (for example five players with five dice each):

Bid: at least k of one faceChance, ordinary faces (p = 1/6)Chance if the face is wild (p = 1/3)
461.8%98.5%
540.6%95.4%
622.8%88.8%
710.9%77.9%
84.5%63.0%
91.6%46.2%
100.5%30.4%

The average is 25 ÷ 6 = 4.17 for an ordinary face and 25 ÷ 3 = 8.33 where a second face counts as wild (probability 1/3). So a bid of six or more of an ordinary face is true about 23% of the time (22.8% in the table), a bid near the average is roughly a coin flip, and bids far above it are usually bluffs.

Liar’s Dice

Each player rolls their dice under a cup and looks only at their own. Players take turns raising a bid on how many dice of a face are showing among everyone’s dice, or challenge the previous bid. If the challenged bid is true the challenger loses a die; otherwise the bidder does. A player who loses all dice is out.

Use the table: if a player’s own dice contain several of the face, the bid is safer, because they know part of the total. If the bid is above the average and you hold none of the face, a challenge is a good bet.

Ship, Captain And Crew

Each player rolls five dice, up to three rolls per turn. They must secure a 6 (the ship) first, then a 5 (the captain), then a 4 (the crew), setting aside each as it appears; all three must be found for a score. The other two dice are the cargo, whose sum is the player’s score, with a maximum of 12. A player who has not found all three after three rolls scores nothing.

Computed exactly under these rules (a 6, 5 and 4 may be set aside in the same roll if they appear in order), the chance of qualifying within three rolls is 54.0%. So about 46% of turns score nothing, which is part of the fun.

What You Need

Method: Starting A Dice Evening

Step 1: State the stake rule: tokens only; no food, seed, tools, livestock or labour obligations.

Step 2: Teach liar’s dice with five dice each and a few rounds.

Step 3: Show the table so players learn to bid by the odds.

Step 4: Rotate games so no one dominates, and set an end time.

Step 5: Watch for chasing losses, the sign described in the gambling article.

Common Mistakes

  • Treating a long run as owed. Dice have no memory; a face missing for ten rolls is no likelier next.
  • Unequal dice. Test them.
  • Rolling off the table. Use a cup or a tray.
  • Playing for real stakes. This is where recreation becomes conflict.

Safety

Stakes of survival goods

Games of chance become dangerous when the stake is something the community depends on. Never stake food, seed, tools, livestock, labour obligations or another person’s property. Do not let minors play for stakes. The corpus’s gambling article gives the full policy and the signs of a problem; follow it.

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