The scorecard has thirteen boxes. You fill one box per turn, and once a box is used it stays used. Thirteen turns later the game is over and the totals decide it.

Each turn gives you three rolls

You roll all five dice, then choose which dice to keep. You roll the rest again, choose again, and roll a third time. After the third roll you must write a score into one open box.

You can stop early. If the first roll already gives you what you wanted, take it and move on.

The upper section pays the face value you collect

The first six boxes are Ones through Sixes. Each one scores the total of the dice showing that number and ignores everything else.

Four fives in the Fives box scores 20. The two dice showing something else count for nothing there. This is the part new players misread most often, because it looks like the box should score the whole roll.

The upper bonus is worth 35 points

Add up the six upper boxes at the end. If that subtotal reaches 63 you get an extra 35 points.

Sixty three is what you get from exactly three of each number. Three ones, three twos, three threes and so on. Every fourth die you collect builds a cushion against a box where you only managed two.

Three of a kind and four of a kind pay the whole roll

Three of a kind needs at least three matching dice. Four of a kind needs at least four. Both then score the total of all five dice, not just the matching ones.

So four sixes and a one scores 25 in either box. A high pair alongside your set is worth keeping.

The fixed scores pay the same every time

Four boxes pay a flat amount whatever the dice add up to.

  1. Full house pays 25. You need three of one number and two of another.
  2. Small straight pays 30. You need four numbers in a row, such as 2, 3, 4, 5.
  3. Large straight pays 40. You need all five in a row, either 1 to 5 or 2 to 6.
  4. Five of a kind pays 50. All five dice match.

Chance takes any roll at all

Chance scores the total of the five dice with no condition attached. It is the box that rescues a turn that went nowhere.

Keep it open as long as you sensibly can. Spending Chance early on a middling roll removes the safety net for later.

A zero is always allowed

If a turn ends with nothing useful you must still write a score somewhere, and that score can be zero. Choosing which box to zero is a real decision.

Zeroing a box you were unlikely to fill, such as Five of a kind late in the game, usually costs less than zeroing Sixes and giving up the bonus.