I ran across Zilch as a kid, and it's still my favorite non-gambling dice game. It's very similar to Dice 10000 and Farkle.
Each player takes a turn consisting of one or more rolls of the dice. On a player's turn, they:
This table lists scoring combinations that can be set aside after a given roll of the dice.
Dice | Example | Score |
---|---|---|
⚀ | 100 | |
⚄ | 50 | |
⚀⚀⚀ | 1000 | |
⚁⚁⚁ | 200 | |
⚂⚂⚂ | 300 | |
⚃⚃⚃ | 400 | |
⚄⚄⚄ | 500 | |
⚅⚅⚅ | 600 | |
⚀⚁⚂⚃⚄⚅ | 1500 | |
4-of-a-kind | ⚂⚂⚂⚂ | 2 × 3-of-a-kind |
5-of-a-kind | ⚁⚁⚁⚁⚁ | 4 × 3-of-a-kind |
6-of-a-kind | ⚄⚄⚄⚄⚄⚄ | 8 × 3-of-a-kind |
In the table above, 4-, 5-, and 6-of-a-kind scores are provided as a multiple of the 3-of-a-kind score that's provided. The table below makes these scores explicit for easy reference:
Die Face | 4-of-a-kind | 5-of-a-kind | 6-of-a-kind |
---|---|---|---|
⚀ | 2000 | 4000 | 8000 |
⚁ | 400 | 800 | 1600 |
⚂ | 600 | 1200 | 2400 |
⚃ | 800 | 1600 | 3200 |
⚄ | 1000 | 2000 | 4000 |
⚅ | 1200 | 2400 | 4800 |
As indicated, these scores are simply doubling the score for each additional dice. The tables look a bit intimidating, but there's a simple logic to it once you see the pattern.
As players set aside dice, they may not "stack" them to make new combinations. For example if a player rolled a ⚀, froze it, and then rolled two more ⚀s in the next roll, the player may not combine the three ⚀s take make a ⚀⚀⚀ (worth 1000 points). Instead, the first ⚀ is worth 100, and, if frozen, the next two ⚀s are worth 100 each, for a total of 300 points.
Play continues in turns until one player gets 5000 (or more) points. When that happens, every other player gets one more turn to try and beat the high score so far. When the last player has finished their turn, the player with the highest score on the scoresheet is declared the winner.