Farkle

Here are our Farkle rules for everyone out there that has been waiting for them. This is seriously one of our favorite games. We play every day during lunch (while D is asleep, of course). There may be alternate rules out there, but this is how we play!

What you need:
- 6 dice
- paper and pencil

To start the game:
Everybody rolls one dice - highest number is first

How to play:
You can roll the dice as many times as you want, but you must leave at least one dice out with each roll. The dice that you leave out must equal points (see Scoring below). To get "into" the game, you must score 500 points (in one turn). Until you score the initial 500 points, no points may be recorded for you. On your turn, if you choose to keep rolling but don't roll any dice that equal points, you lose your turn and any points accumulated during that turn. All previous points remain intact. If you choose to keep rolling and are lucky enough to use all the dice, you MUST (or GET TO, depending on how you look at it) keep rolling the dice - so you get to roll all the dice over again and keep adding to your points until you decide to stop or you lose your turn. If you are down to two dice left on your turn and you roll doubles that normally wouldn't score (i.e. two 6's, two 4's), you get a free roll to try to roll something that will score. This only works with TWO dice and is applicable as long as you are rolling doubles!!

High stakes:
Once everyone is "in" the game, high stakes comes into play. If a player has earned a good amount of points, say 1500 points, and he/she chooses to end his/her turn with two unrolled dice, the following player can take those two remaining dice and try to roll them for points. If no score is made, the player simply loses his/her turn with no other penalty. The previous player keeps all of his/her points (the original 1500) regardless of what happens on the next player's turn. If the player, however, is lucky enough to roll a 5 or 1 (or other combination depending on how many dice are left over), the points are added to the previous player's score! So if a 1 was rolled by the next player, that player's score would be 1600 points. If the player then chooses to stop and keep the 1600 points, the next player could roll the remaining 1 dice to try to get in on the action. Sometimes these high stakes can make it all the way back to the original player! It's all about taking risks!

Scoring:
1's = 100 points each
5's = 50 points each

You can also roll combinations to get points:

Three 2's = 200 points
Three 3's = 300 points
Three 4's = 400 points
Three 5's = 500 points
Three 6's = 600 points
Four of a kind = 1000 points
Five of a kind = 2000 points
Six of a kind = 3000 points
Three pairs (i.e. two 4's, two 6's, two 2's) = 1500 points
Large straight = 1500 points
Two triplets (i.e. three 4's and three 6's) = 2500 points

NOTE: ALL OF THE ABOVE COMBINATIONS MUST BE ACHIEVED IN ONE ROLL!

How to win:
The first player to get 10,000 points wins, in theory, that is. After a player crosses the 10,000 mark, remaining players get one final turn to try to beat the "winner"!