Dice 10000 - Play

Play

The game requires six standard dice and a pencil and paper for scoring. Each player starts out "off the table" with a score of zero. Players collect points during their turn, and either add those points to their cumulative score, or continue rolling with the risk of losing all points accumulated that turn if a scoring combination is not rolled.

To begin a turn, if the player is "off the table," he rolls all six dice. If the roll scores any points, he may set aside each scoring die or group of dice he wants to claim points from, and either roll all remaining dice, hoping to score additional points, or take the points already accumulated this turn and pass play to the next player. Most versions of the game require a minimum score of 300 points in each turn to bank the score and pass, otherwise the player must continue rolling. If the player rolls multiple scoring combinations, only one is required to be taken with each roll, all other dice may be rerolled if desired. If all six dice score points in one or more rolls of a single turn, the player rolls all six dice again and continues to score additional combinations, known as a sweep. If at any time a roll scores no points, the player forfeits all points scored that turn (commonly called "zilch" or "crapping out"), and play is passed to the next player. If a player gets zilch three turns in a row he may suffer a 500 point penalty or lose all his points previously accumulated, depending on the several rules used.

In order to get "on the table," a player must score at least 1000 points in a single turn (but not necessarily in one roll). Once a player is "on the table," he is on for the duration of the game. For a player who is "on the table," he may start a turn by either rolling all six dice as described above, or picking up the unused dice from the last player's turn. In this case, instead of starting this turn's scoring from zero, scoring starts from the score taken by the last player.

Example: Player 1 stops her turn with 700 points, and opts to not roll her remaining two dice. She adds 700 to her score, and it is now Player 2's turn. Player 2 may pick up those two dice, and if he scores anything with them, he adds those points to 700, as his score, and may bank or continue rolling as normal. Player 2 may instead opt to start over with all six dice, and start his own scoring from zero.