The Yahtzee family

Yahtzee is certainly one of the most widely known classic dice games in the world.  I'm sure we have all spent many hours enjoying it.  Yet it is just one of a group of other games where you roll five dice and score some combination of them.

The full history is covered pretty well on the Wikipedia page.  Yahtzee dates from the mid 1950s.  Before that, there was a well-known parlor game known as Yacht, with pretty much the same rules.  About the only things Yahtzee added were the top section bonus, three of a kind, and the small straight.

I put together a table of the different rolls, names and scores among some of the better known games in the Yacht family.

PatternYacht nameYacht scoreYahtzee NameYahtzee ScoreGenerala NameGenerala ScoreYatzy NameYatzy ScoreCheerio NameCheerio Score Hooligans NameHooligans Score
Ones Onessum of the 1s Acessum of the 1s Onessum of the 1s Onessum of the 1s Onessum of the 1s Onessum of the 1s
TwosTwossum of the 2sTwossum of the 2sTwossum of the 2sTwossum of the 2sTwossum of the 2s Twossum of the 2s
ThreesThreessum of the 3sThreessum of the 3sThreessum of the 3sThreessum of the 3sThreessum of the 3s Threessum of the 3s
FoursFourssum of the 4sFourssum of the 4sFourssum of the 4sFourssum of the 4sFourssum of the 4s Fourssum of the 4s
FivesFivessum of the 5sFivessum of the 5sFivessum of the 5sFivessum of the 5sFivessum of the 5s Fivessum of the 5s
SixesSixessum of the 6sSixessum of the 6sSixessum of the 6sSixessum of the 6sSixessum of the 6s Sixessum of the 6s
(Top Bonus)n/an/aTop Bonus (63+) 35n/an/aTop Bonus (63+)50

 n/an/a
Pairn/an/an/an/an/an/aOne Pairsum of the pair

 n/an/a
Two Pairn/an/an/an/an/an/aTwo Pairssum of the pairs

 n/an/a
Full HouseFull Housesum of all diceFull House25Full House30Full Housesum of all diceFull House*40 n/an/a
3-of-a-Kindn/an/aThree Of A Kindsum of all diceThree Of A Kindsum of matching diceThree Of A Kind*30

 n/an/a
4-of-a-KindFour-of-a-Kindsum of matching diceFour Of A Kindsum of all diceFour Of A Kind 40Four Of A Kindsum of matching diceFour Of A Kind*40 n/an/a
5-of-a-KindYacht50Yahtzee50Generala50 or 60Yatzy50Five of a Kind*50 n/an/a
5-of-a-Kind, Additionaln/an/aBonus Yahtzee100Double Generala100 or 120n/an/an/an/a n/an/a
Straight of 4n/an/asmall straight30n/an/aRun of 4*30

 n/an/a
Straight of 5see below
large straight40n/an/aStraight40

 Hooligan20
1-2-3-4-5little straight30as above40as Straight
small straight15

 n/an/a
2-3-4-5-6big straight30as above40as Straight
large straight20

 n/an/a
Any combinationChoicesum of all diceChancesum of all dicen/an/aChancesum of all diceSum*sum of all dice n/an/a

* Cheerio: scores with a star are only in the extended game.  Also, there is an option where ones are wild, in which case Ones through Sixes with no wilds count double, and any bottom section score with wilds counts half.

Generala: I have a seen a few extra rules for this one. In particular, if you roll any of the fixed patterns (Full House, 4 of a Kind, etc) on the first roll, it is worth 5 points more, and rolling a Generala on the first roll is an automatic win.

Hooligan: a few extra rules: you need to declare a category on your first roll or you must roll all five dice again on your second roll; and if you get five of the number you are after, you get a free roll or all five dice, scoring any extra matching numbers (so if you were going for fours and got 5 fours, roll all five dice, getting 2 more fours, so you would score 28 (7x4).

Now, these are all five-dice games.  There are certainly similar games with other numbers of dice:
- For 3 dice, see Crag
- For 6 dice see Maxi Yatzy.  The player can choose to forfeit one or two of the rolls in a turn and instead take re-roll markers that can be used in later turns.  More details here.

- For 10 dice, there are a few kinds of Back Yahtzee or Double Yahtzee where you try to fill in two objectives per turn.  In the version of Back Yahtzee described in (1), you cross off objectives that are met, score just the unmatched dice if not met, and play for low score overall.

I will try to return to this sequence of games in future posts.  There are hundreds of apps for these games, many with their own twists and optional rules and bonus schemes.  But for the real-world roll-em games you could play right now, I hope the above table helps shows how those games differ.

1) World's Best Dice Games, by Gil Jacobs, John H. Hansen Co, Taiwan, 1993



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