Dice games to play with friends

1. Mia (Mäxchen, Meier)

For those who love to bluff. In turn, each player rolls two dice under the cup, peeks without letting anyone see, and calls a score higher than the previous one, true or made up. Whoever receives the cup decides: believe it and roll in turn, or lift the cup. If a bluff is caught, the player who lied loses a life; if the score was true, the player who lifted loses one.

The higher die is the tens: a 5 and a 3 reads as 53, never 35. The order, from strongest to weakest:

1. 21 (a 2 and a 1): beats everything.
2. Doubles, from double 6 (66) down to double 1 (11).
3. All other scores, from 65 down to 31.

So a double 1 beats 65. Three lives each makes for a game of about fifteen minutes.

Play against the botsPlay with friends

No dice? On Lizumo your phone works as the cup, or everyone plays from their own phone by joining with a QR code. The full rules of Mia also cover the variants.

2. Dudo (liar's dice)

Bluffing on a grand scale. Everyone has five dice and a cup. All roll together and look only at their own dice. In turn, each player makes a bid about the whole table, for example "there are at least four 5s". The next player can raise the bid (more dice, or the same number with a higher value) or call dudo, "I don't believe it".

Then all the dice are revealed: if the bid was wrong, the player who made it loses a die; if it was right, the player who doubted loses one. In the classic version, 1s are wild. The last player with dice left wins. It's the traditional South American game, known in English as Liar's Dice.

Common variants, to agree on beforehand: if you bid on 1s themselves, the quantity is halved (from "six 4s" you can go to "three 1s"); when someone is down to a single die, you play a special round in which 1s are not wild; in some versions, a player who calls a bid exact and is right gets a die back.

Play against botsPlay with friends

On Lizumo you start with 3 dice each (you can choose from 1 to 5), 1s are wild, and when bidding on 1s half the dice is enough.

3. Ten Thousand Coming to Lizumo

For those who love to take risks. Roll six dice and set aside the ones that score: each 1 is worth 100, each 5 is worth 50, three of a kind is worth a hundred times its number (three 4s make 400) and three 1s are worth 1000. On every roll you must keep at least one scoring die.

Then you choose: stop and bank the points for the turn, or roll the remaining dice to score more. If a roll scores nothing, you lose everything you built up in that turn. If all six dice have scored, you start again with all six. The first to reach 10,000 wins.

The rules vary a lot from house to house, so decide them before you start. The most common variants are a straight from 1 to 6 (often 1500 points), three pairs in a single roll (often 1500, in some houses 750), four of a kind worth double three of a kind, and a minimum score, often 500, to "get on the board" the first time.

4. Pig

The simplest of them all. You only need one die. On your turn you roll as many times as you like and add up the numbers that come up. When you decide to stop, you bank the total. But if a 1 comes up, you lose all the points from that turn and pass the die.

The first to reach 100 wins. It can be explained in thirty seconds and it's perfect with kids too.

5. Chō-han Coming to Lizumo

The Japanese classic of even or odd. One player shakes two dice in a bowl or a cup and flips it over onto the table. The others say whether the total is even (chō) or odd (han). Then the cup is lifted and you see who guessed right.

In traditional Japan, Chō-han was a betting game. Here we describe a simplified variant played for points, with no money: whoever guesses right gets a point, you play to ten, and the player who shakes the dice changes every round. It looks like pure luck, but after a few rounds everyone swears they have a method.

6. Bonus with cards: Cheat Coming to Lizumo

If you have a deck instead of dice. All the cards are dealt out. In turn, players put down one or more cards face down, calling out their value and following the order (aces first, then twos, then threes…). Whoever thinks someone is lying shouts "Cheat!" and the cards are turned over.

If it was a lie, the player who put them down picks up the whole pile; if it was true, the player who doubted picks it up. The first to run out of cards wins.

Which one suits your group best?

• You want to bluff and laugh: Mia, or Dudo if there are only a few of you and you have plenty of dice.
• You want a battle of nerves: Ten Thousand.
• There are kids: Pig.
• You don't have dice: Mia on Lizumo, with your phone as the cup, or Cheat with a deck of cards.

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