Dice Game Rules

Introduction

This computer game is played by two players. It is the coding of a game that can be played by many players with six dice. Each player starts his or her turn by throwing the six dice, pulling aside good dice and throwing the remaining ones until all dice are held or the player is not confident of throwing a score. If the player rolls a hand with no scoring dice, the score for the turn is lost. The next player then has a turn and they race to, say, 5000 points.

The Applet play-area

The play panel is split into three areas:

to the right are player scores and control buttons.
at the bottom is a status/message area.
the felt, split vertically into play-area and hold-area (below the line).

The player's scores are maintained at the top of the control area. The buttons 'Throw' and 'Stick' are enabled and disabled according to the state of play and totals for 'Hand' and 'Roll' are updated as play proceeds. Roll totals the points pulled below the line on this roll: it will recalculate each time a dice is moved above or below the line. Roll is added to Hand when Throw is pressed. Roll and Hand are added to the player's total when Stick is pressed. The button 'Redraw' is used if the dice are not updated properly: It does not affect play.

Once the Applet has completely loaded all six dice will be displayed and boxed in white. The white boxing on a dice indicates that it is out of play. Dice are normally out of play when held or the player sticks or busts.

Starting play

Player 1 throws all six dice. The game continues from there. A rule not yet implemented is that all players throw the dice and the highest score takes the first turn.

Keeping dice

If the player throws a hand with no score his or her turn is ended, otherwise the player must keep some points and can keep all points. The player keeps any of the single dice Blue or Yellow, the groups of three (all one of) Yellow, Black, Green, Red or Silver, a group of four Blue, the group of six dice with different faces or all the same faces. According to the score table at the bottom of this page. The computer will notify the player if a hand of no score has been thrown.

The player slides he or she wishes to keep below the line, to the hold-area. The status message and Roll score will update accordingly. Dice can be slid back if the player changes his or her mind. To qualify as a group, the faces must be thrown in a single roll, i.e. a Blue or Yellow cannot have more Blues or Yellows added in subsequent rolls.

Sticking

The player is able to stick when he or she has collected points on a roll. The points are added to the total. The player cannot stick with point-scoring dice left in the felt area. The player must throw again if all six dice were kept from a single roll, i.e. six of a kind, all six different or two groups of three, etc., were kept.

Throwing

The player can throw when some points have been kept and there are dice left to throw. The player can throw back point-scoring dice. The player must throw again if all six dice are kept from a single throw.

Busting

Rolling no score means the player loses any points gained on this turn.

Point scoring combinations are shown below the play area.
You may have guessed that these instructions are incomplete and not too user friendly. Sorry for that!! I'll spend some time on them when I can.

Peter
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