Farkle: How to play and what you need.
What is Farkle? A simple dice game where players compete to outscore their friends or their personal high score.
How do you play Farkle? Each player starts their turn by rolling six dice. From there, the player must bank points to continue the turn.
You bank points by having a scoring dice hand.
The scoring will be discussed more later. If you roll the dice and you are unable to bank any dice, then your turn is over. The result? A Farkle.
Once you bank dice you can immediately record your points on the score card or you can roll the non-banked dice to try and score more points. Be careful, because if your next roll does not yield bankable dice, your turn in this simple dice game is over and receive no points. The result? Another Farkle!
How do you win? In the game I played in preparation of this post, I simply played a set number of rounds. From here, I will attempt to beat this score using that set number of rounds.
The rules state that this fun and simple dice game ends once the first players hits 10,000 points. At that time, all other players may attempt to score one more time before final totals are made. The highest score wins!
How does the scoring work in Farkle? Below is a picture of the scoring system. It is very similar to Yahtzee, but there are limitations on how the points are formed. If you bank a number, it cannot be combined with the next roll to form a combo score. This makes getting a 3-of-a-kind much more difficult!
An example of the scoring in practice is below.
The 5 is worth 50 points. The 1 is worth 100 points. The 3 six's are worth 600. The 3 is worth nothing. All together the hand is worth 750 points.
How many dice do you need? Six dice. The standard game comes with six 16mm dice. This is a standard size for this type of game.
Do you need to purchase Farkle to play? Nope! The game is very basic. All you need when you're learning how to play Farkle are six dice, a piece of paper, and something to write with. So long as you can remember the scoring scheme you are ready to play. If you are looking for the green version I played with for this write-up it can be found here.
Don’t want to use a premade kit? No problem! Here is what I could’ve used from my go-to dice stash:
History of Farkle and AKA variations: The basis of the Farkle dice game? Simple: score points using common pair, triples, and straights. Thus, Farkle is less of a historical holdover and more a well marketed variation on an otherwise common dice game concept. This simple dice game is sometimes called Cosmic Wimpout, Greed, Zilch, Squelch, 10,000, and Hot Dice. Depending on who you last played this game with, the rules may have been slightly different, but the premise of how to play Farkle is the same. Roll some dice, score some points, have fun!
Disclaimer: Links in this article will take you to one of two places: A BrycesDice.com product page or an Amazon product page.