Objective:

The winner is the player who has the highest total score at the end of a round

You Need:

• A set of playing cards
• A dice (or one each)
• A spare piece of card or paper you can cut up

Before You start:

• Agree how many score cards you will have, whether you are playing skill or no skill. Make enough score cards (about 2cm square is fine)

Example of working out your score:

If your dice says “3” and your playing card says “3d+1” then your score is 10, because 3×3+1=10

Playing “No Skill”

• Suppose you have agreed to 5 score cards each. Deal the players 5 playing cards each, which they put in a line in front of them (no cheating!!)
• Players take turns to roll the dice, and work out the score from the card, writing that score on the next small score card they own.
• When everyone has finished using their cards, total up the score cards and see who won.

Playing “Skill”

• Suppose you have 5 score cards. Agree a higher number of playing cards and deal those out.
• Each time a player rolls their dice, they can choose which playing card to use this turn, to work out their score. Once a playing card is used it is turned over. You won’t be able to use it again.
• You will find that some cards work well with large dice scores, some work well with smaller ones. Some cards (we called them “golden cards”) work brilliantly with sixes and can score as much as 49!!!

Making the playing cards:

It’s up to you how hard you make the algebra, but here are some ideas to get you started. You need about 20 cards.

• 2d+1
• d²-5
• 4-d
• d-3
• (d-1)²
• 3d+1
• …