After being tossed aside by the publishing company that directly asked me for Hands Off Me Booty!, I have decided to take my ideas and go into business for myself. Games with a large publishing cost like Friday Night Fragfest! or Kobolds! have been put on the backburner and I have begun developing a book of unique dice games to accompany Hands Off Me Booty! as my starting lineup. I am going to Origins this June to see what sells and what doesn't. It is reasonable that I instead publish my favorite dice game or two out of the book should Origins give me that sort of data.
Anywho, here's a new idea from the dice game book.
Lucky Sevens!
Players: 2-8
Components:
8 six-sided dice
writing instrument
score sheet
Object: The object of the game is to be the first player to reach exactly 100 points.
Starting the Game:
Each player rolls a die; the highest roller goes first and gameplay proceeds in a clockwise fashion. Mark the name of the player to go first with a star or X next to his or her name on the score sheet.
Gameplay:
A player begins his turn by rolling all eight dice. Combinations of dice whose pips add up to seven score as shown in the section Scoring in Lucky Sevens. Scored dice are set aside. Note that except at the very end of the game, a player does not have to score all dice that are eligible for scoring. So long as one Seven is scored on a roll, that player can keep rolling.
Should no combinations of dice whose pips add up to seven be present, that player earns no points this turn and play passes to the next player. This is called Busting.
If a player Scores with a roll, that player can decide to bank his current score for the turn or roll all of the currently unscored dice. If a player is left with exactly one unscored die, that player is allowed to roll all eight dice again. Should a player Score all eight dice, the player has Completed the Set and earns five bonus points and is allowed to roll all eight dice again.
When a player Banks his or her points, the next player in line can continue the previous player's turn. For example, if Steve has just scored 10 points and has three dice left, Susan can choose to roll the remaining three dice or start fresh for herself. Should Susan roll the three dice and score, she scores on top of the 10 points that Steve rolled last turn. This is called Stealing.
Endgame Etiquette:
When a player reaches 100 points, note that he or she is not obligated to choose the highest scoring roll. For example, if Susan has 98 points and her roll is worth two points one way and three points another way, it is totally valid for her to organize her Sevens in such a way that she scores two points. That being said, no player trying to reach exactly 100 can have a Seven among the unscored dice. If there is no way to avoid going over 100, that player has Busted and immediately loses his or her turn.
Scoring in Lucky Sevens:
2-die Seven: 1 point
(Ex. 3,4)
3-die Seven: 2 points
(Ex. 2,2,3)
4-die Seven: 3 points
(Ex. 1,2,2,2)
5-die Seven: 5 points
(Ex. 1,1,1,1,3)
6-die Seven: 8 points
(Ex. 1,1,1,1,1,2)
7-die Seven: 12 points
(Ex. 1,1,1,1,1,1,1)
Clearing a Set: 6 points
Choosing which scores to take is very important in Lucky Sevens. A player can choose to take high-scoring matches, but can sometimes be presented with an opportunity to roll all dice again.
Yes, I'm very aware of this.