How to Play Zilch

You need: six dice, three different colours, a pair of each colour; a pencil and paper to score with; a group of friends, anywhere between three or twenty; a table or surface to throw the dice on; and relaxed hour or two.

Basic Scoring: Any 1 counts as 100; any 5 counts as 50; a single dice then has a 1 in 3 chance of scoring, and a 2 in three chance of not scoring; two dice have a better than 50:50 chance of scoring.

The play: Each person plays in turn, clockwise round the table; A turn consists of one or more throws of the dice; After each throw, the player scores the newly thrown dice; If none of them score, its the end of the turn and the score is Nil or Zilch; The player sets aside one or more of the scoring dice to add to his score for the round, and discards the rest; He or she can then choose whether to throw the discarded dice, and possibly add to the score, but risk getting Zilch, or to end the turn with the score already achieved; When all six dice are set aside to score, they all become available to throw again; The turn continues until the player opts not the throw again, or with zilch.

The twist: at the end of a turn that is not Zilch, the player declines to throw one or more dice; the next player has the chance of starting his round with that score, by throwing only the dice the previous player left unthrown; He may get zilch, throwing only one or two dice, he may inherit a good score; If the prize is not worth the risk, he can ignore it and start with six dice.

All the scores;

1 scores 100; 5 scores 50;

A run of 1 to 6 scores 1,000;

Three pairs scores 1,000

Three pairs with matching colours score 2,000

Three of a kind scores 100x face value; (three sixes are 600);

Four of a kind score 200x face value; (four fours score 800);

Five of a kind score 300x face value; (five threes score 900);

Only the dice thrown at one go count, dice set aside to score from a previous throw do not count;

After three Zilches in a row, a player loses 1,000 points.

(some of these scores need to be verified by someone who knows!)

How the Game ends.

The game ends when one player reaches 10,000 points or more, and each player has played one more turn. The player with the highest scoreis then the winner;