Generala

Generala is an old Latin American dice game. It is the game that Yahtzee is based on.

Number of Players

The game may be played with two or more players.

Set Up

• 5 six-sided dice
• Something to write with and on

Players determine turn order in some fashion, preferably by rolling the dice and the turn order goes from highest to lowest or, alternatively, from lowest to highest.

Game Play

The acting player rolls the dice. They must roll some combination of dice listed in the “Results” section. They then select one or more scoring dice to be tucked away. At any time, all the dice or or the remaining untucked away dice may be rolled. If not, the player can pass and add the score from the tucked away dice. If you do not get any scoring dice on the roll, the player scratches. The player must get their optimal score in at most three turns.

Results

• Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, or Sixes (may only be taken once) is worth the summation of the individual faces (e.g. getting a 4-4-4 is worth 12 points)
• Straight (e.g. 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6) is worth 20
• Full House (three dice results and two of another dice result, such as 3-3-3 and 2-2) is worth 30
• Four of a kind is worth 40
• Generala (five of a kind) is worth 50 (alternatively, 60)
• Double Generala (rolling Generala a second time in a game) is worth 100 (alternatively, 120)

Winning Conditions

The player who either has the highest store or the first to get a Generala on their first roll wins.

Betting

Players may add a betting element to the game by placing tokens, usually money or poker chips, into a kitty using any mechanism agreed upon by the players (e.g. anteing or blinds). The winner takes the kitty. If there is no winner, the kitty stands for another round.

Yamb

Yamb is a public domain dice game very similar to Yahtzee. The catch is there are different kinds of columns with different meanings. So, for example, there is an up column meaning it must be completed from the top to the bottom if completion points are to be made.

So, grab some six-sided dice and roll them bones after reading my interpretation and explanation of the rules.

Number of Players

The game may be played with two or more players.

Set Up

• 5 six-sided dice
• Something to write on.

On this writing thing, make a table consisting of an upper section and a lower section.

The upper section is laid out with the following rows:

• Ones, which are the sum of all dice showing 1 pip.
• Twos, which are the sum of all dice showing 2 pips.
• Threes, which are the sum of all dice showing 3 pips.
• Fours, which are the sum of all dice showing 4 pips.
• Fives, which are the sum of all dice showing 5 pips.
• Sixes, which are the sum of all dice showing 6 pips.

The lower section is laid out with the following rows:

• Min, which is the sum of all dice rolled and is considered a minimum score.
• Max, which is the sum of all dice rolled and is considered a maximum score.
• Minimax, which is the value of Max - Min multiplied by the Ones value.
• Two pairs, which are the sum of two pairs of dice rolled + 10
• Straight, which is a straight sequential value. You have three tries to achieve it. The scoring on this is:
  • First roll is 66 points.
  • Second roll is 56 points.
  • Third roll is 46 points.
  • Fourth roll onward is 0 points.
• Full house, which is three of one number and two of a different number, and has a score of the sum of all dice + 30.
• Carriage, which is four of the same pip, and has a score of the sum of all dice + 40.
• Yamb, which has all five dice of the same pip, and has a score of the sum of all dice + 50.

Next, there are four basic columns:

• Up, which must be filled starting with the ones and on down to Yamb.
• Down, which must be filled starting with Yamb and on up to Ones.
• Free, which can be filled in any order.
• Announce, which means players announce what they think their result will be.

There are four extra columns possible, too:

• Up-Down, which fills up from the bottom and top at the same time.
• Middle, which starts in the minimax section and fills in both directions at the same time.
• Hand, which each entry in the column can only be made after the first roll and no rerolls.
• Maximum, which can only be entered when the point value is close to the maximum value of that roll.

Play order is determined by rolling the five dice. The highest roller goes first and the lowest roller goes last.

Game Play

Each round starts with the first player. The player takes a turn by rolling all five dice, keeping whichever ones they want to keep. They then roll the unkept dice. Again, dice are potentially kept. They then roll again and keep whatever combined results were rolled of all the dice. If they do not get that value for the given column-row intersection, they must mark a 0. Otherwise, they mark the score for that intersection.

End of Game

Once all players fill out their columns, the game ends.

Each player totals their upper section. If a player gets a total of at least 63 points, they receive an additional 30 points. The players then total their lower section. This is their score.

The player with the highest score wins. In case of ties, roll dice to determine the winner.