5000
Five dice, and every roll has to produce something that scores: a blank roll burns the whole turn.
Five dice and the same tension as Farkle: after every roll the player sets aside the and decides whether to stop or risk what is left. A roll with no scoring die in it ends the turn and burns everything gathered in it.
Two things differ. The first is the threshold: until a player has banked three hundred and fifty in a single turn there is nothing to record, and their careful hundred and fifty is simply lost. That makes the opening of a game far riskier than its middle.
The second is the big combination: 1-2-3-4-5 in a single roll of all five dice is worth fifteen hundred — nearly a third of the game in one throw.
Six-sided dice
Under these rules: Five dice.
Ordinary gaming dice, pipped from one to six.
The most widespread randomiser people have invented. Opposite faces add up to seven — not a rule of any game but a convention of manufacture, and the thing by which a die is recognised.
Rules of 5000
The start
Everyone rolls one die. The highest goes first; the lowest keeps the score.
A turn
The player rolls all five dice.
Every roll must contain at least one scoring die: a one, a five, or three of a kind. At least one of them must be set aside.
The player then chooses: bank what the turn has gathered and pass it on, or roll the remaining dice again.
If a roll contains no scoring die at all, the turn ends at once and everything unbanked from it is lost.
A hot roll
If all five dice have scored, the player takes all five again and carries on with the same turn, keeping what has been gathered.
Getting on the board
Until a player has gathered and banked at least three hundred and fifty in a single turn, their results do not enter the score. After the first such turn, any positive total may be banked.
Scoring
| Combination | Points |
|---|---|
| Each 1 | 100 |
| Each 5 | 50 |
| Three 2s | 200 |
| Three 3s | 300 |
| Three 4s | 400 |
| Three 5s | 500 |
| Three 6s | 600 |
| Three 1s | 1000 |
| 1-2-3-4-5 in one roll of five dice | 1500 |
End of the game
Once somebody has five thousand or more, everybody else gets one last turn to overtake them. The highest score then wins.
Worth knowing
The threshold and the target are given variously, as are the values of individual combinations: the common version is set out here. The game is a close relative of Farkle and in different households sits nearer to it or further away.
Glossary of terms
- A scoring die
- A one, a five, or a die belonging to three of a kind. The others score nothing and may not be set aside.
- Getting on the board
- The first recorded result. Until a player banks three hundred and fifty in a single turn, their points do not go into the score at all.