Joe Gamer

I don’t know what other names this game has, but on Facebook Apps, it’s FARKLE and I’m addicted.

Basically this is a dice game, similar to Yatzee where you attempt to score the most points off of a certain number of dice rolls. Here however you have six dice (d6′s for those of you wondering). There are ten rounds to score points. With each roll you may score points by setting aside dice. The more dice you set aside, the more points you score, but the fewer dice you have to score additional points as well. Points for a round are accumulated until they are banked or lost. So if your first roll results in 200 points, and your second roll results in 300 points, your points for the round becomes 500 points which you may bank and save or risk for morepoints.

If at any point during a round you cannot score any points,for instance you have scored two dice and are rolling four, the result of which is 6 – 6 – 4 – 2, all accumulated points for the round are lost; this is called a Farkle. I have another word I like to use. Intrestingly enough it also starts with the letter ‘F’.

On your first roll during a round you roll all six dice. Every die scored is removed from the pool to roll. Only certain dice combinations score points. You must score at least one die each roll during a round. Scoring is as follows:

• Ones and Fives score you 100 and 50 respectively.
• Three of a kind scores you 100 times the die value except for three ones which scores you 1000 (instead of 100).
• If you roll a three of a kind and additional dice of that same value, such as five 4′s, then you add the three of a kind score again for each additional die with the matching value. So in our case of five 4′s you would score 1200 points (400 for the three of a kind and 400 for EACH of the additional 4′s).
• Three unique pairs scores 750 and a full straight (1-6 no repeats) scores 1500 points. Of course these last two can only be scored on a roll of six dice.
• If you end up scoring all six dice in any number of rolls with no Farkles, you get to roll all six dice again keeping your accumalated score for all prior rolls.
• At any point in a round in which you have 300 or more points, you may bank all of your points for this round. This ends the round, all dice are returned to the cup, and the points for the round are added to your total.
• If you Farkle three times in a row, you loose 500 points.

The game is simple once you understand all of the rules and highly addictive.

My stratagy is to go for three of a kinds, especially with ones, fives, and sixes. If I do not get a three of a kind, I keep a single 1 or 5 and roll again. This maximizes the number of dice in my cup which significantly increases my chances for a three of a kind or at least another 1 or 5. I save anything over 450 points if I have less than 4 dice to roll, or anything over 300 if I have Farkled twice in a row prior.

~JoeGamer

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.