Playing Yahtzee

[Miss Chicken]

When I learnt to play Yahtzee about 35 years ago, the instructions said that if you get a second Yahtzee you get a 100 point bonus and score in any vacant place such as four of a kind, straight etc or place it the number on the dice place I.e if you throw 5 sixes place it in the sixes box if that is empty.

Talking about it online today I was told that this is not a firm and fast rule and many people do not play this way. So I am asking people here 'which rule do you follow'.

And feel free to talk about the rules of any other board/card game if you like.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The rules from Hasbro here mention bonus Yahtzees. It's more or less as you said, except also that the "Joker Rules" say what you score in the box for where you write the bonus Yahtzee, and you can write it in any box that is empty. You must have already scored a regular Yahtzee to get a bonus Yahtzee.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

The couple computer based versions I've played give the second, third, etc. bonus.

None of them are official versions.

 

[bbailey861]

Loved playing Yahtzee with the kids. We had house rules - for example, you're six years old and your hands are small so you get to roll again to try for that large straight. "Yay!!"

 

[Mary Ann]

When my family lived in Montreal we had a cottage 100km north in ski country in the district of Ste-Faustin. My father loved playing board games but was a terrible loser, and he would often change the rules of the game halfway through to benefit him. As we were usually playing these games at the cottage he'd call them "the Ste-Faustin rules". To this day my brothers and I use that term, and even my kids use it any time someone changes the rules of the game during play.

 

[Kirby]

We never play with the bonus Yahtzee rule. On the rare occasion that it happens, it just makes for fun scenario for either one of the upper numbers, chance, or 3 or 4 of a kind.

 

[May 20]

I remember the rules as you remember them, Miss Chicken. That's how we played when I was a child. IIRC, those were the rules in the game, not house rules.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I am glad that to find out that I have been playing by the official rules.

I had a neighbour who changed the rules of backgammon. She insisted you needed the exact number to cast off a piece saying her rule made the game more interesting and fairer. I thought it made the game more of a game of luck and less of a game of skill.

 

[Captrek]

The rule I remember is that the Bonus Yahtzee only counted if you could score the roll as a non-zero in an empty box. I recall some confusion about whether it qualified as a full house, which sounds like a good candidate for a Ste-Faustin rule.

 

[Trekker4747]

The way you do it is how I remember it to, Ms. Chicken.

As for board game rules?

Taxes, bail money, and other non player-to-player money transfers going into free parking anyone?

 

[Crusher Disciple]

In Texas, all scoring disputes are settled by gunfire.

 

[Timewalker]

When I learnt to play Yahtzee about 35 years ago, the instructions said that if you get a second Yahtzee you get a 100 point bonus and score in any vacant place such as four of a kind, straight etc or place it the number on the dice place I.e if you throw 5 sixes place it in the sixes box if that is empty.

Talking about it online today I was told that this is not a firm and fast rule and many people do not play this way. So I am asking people here 'which rule do you follow'.

And feel free to talk about the rules of any other board/card game if you like.

I've never heard of this rule.

The way you do it is how I remember it to, Ms. Chicken.

As for board game rules?

Taxes, bail money, and other non player-to-player money transfers going into free parking anyone?

Yep. I play the Big Fish Games version of Monopoly now on the computer, and this is one of the ways you can customize the rules. That game also has options for "Sleight of Hand/Trick Dice" which allows you to choose which space to land on, on a one-time basis. This is really handy if you're trying desperately to get that last property to get a monopoly, grab a property to prevent someone else from getting a monopoly, or get past something that would otherwise be very expensive to land on. Other customizable options have it that you can do a one-time-only property grab, meaning you can get one extra house without paying for it, you can decide what kinds of money (if any) can be had by landing on Free Parking, do a one-time Rent Dodge (pay only half what you would normally owe - very handy if you land on either a green or dark blue property that has a hotel!), and whether or not you get 2x your salary (can be set at $200 or $400) if you land on GO.

One board game where we significantly changed the rules was Eurorails (a game where railroad tracks are built between major and minor cities in Europe and cargoes are carried to make money). The original rules called for connecting only so many of the major cities as a condition of winning; since this often means people don't bother building to the faraway cities, we changed the rule to say that all the major cities had to be connected. We also instituted an "environmental cleanup" rule to coincide with derailments. In RL, a train derailment often has severe consequences depending on what cargo gets spilled. So the rule was that if your train derails, you have to pay the same amount as you would if you'd been hit by the income tax card. There are other games in this series; we later included these house rules in all of them.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I don't think there is a board game I dislike more than Monopoly.

My favourite card game is Canasta. One woman I used to play against changed the rule concerning a frozen deck (You must have a pair in your hand that matches the top card in the discard pile before you can pick on the discard pile, as oppose to be able to pick up with one matching card and a wild card if the deck is unfrozen) This woman insisted that pair wasn't allowed to be the same rank of cards you have included in a meld. For example if I have a meld of 4 tens and a wild card in front of me, this woman tried to tell me I couldn't keep a pair of tens in my hand to use if the deck is frozen.

 

[Timewalker]

But that's part of the challenge. You just don't know if it's safe to play stuff you think your opponent can't pick up.

 

[Miss Chicken]

But that's part of the challenge. You just don't know if it's safe to play stuff you think your opponent can't pick up.

Exactly, when the deck is frozen you throw off cards that your opponents have melded hoping that they haven't kept a a pair in their hands knowing that with some of cards of that rank on the table there are fewer in the deck and in people's hands to worry about. You count how many of each card is laid down and determine if a pair in someone's hand is possible.

 

[Mary Ann]

Canasta is the only game where my father didn't regularly change the rules during play. My entire extended family played it, so his hands were tied where the rules were concerned. I never taught my husband or kids how to play it, which I must rectify. My brothers and I played several rounds when I visited them in November and I forgot how much I enjoy playing it.

I agree that your friend got that rule wrong, Miss Chicken.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'd totally love to learn Fizzbin.

in the district of Ste-Faustin.

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the technology...

 

[Timewalker]

Canasta is the only game where my father didn't regularly change the rules during play. My entire extended family played it, so his hands were tied where the rules were concerned. I never taught my husband or kids how to play it, which I must rectify. My brothers and I played several rounds when I visited them in November and I forgot how much I enjoy playing it.

I agree that your friend got that rule wrong, Miss Chicken.

Back when I was a teenager and finally old enough to start socializing with my grandmother's friends, she wanted me to learn a "grownup" card game so I could make up a fourth for when they didn't have enough people. I never could make sense of most of the games they liked (the ones with bidding, and trumps, etc.), but my dad taught me Canasta.

He later regretted it.

I'd totally love to learn Fizzbin.

I wonder if the "dark on Tuesday" rule applies during this time of year, if one is playing in the morning or evening. It's 8:30 am here and hasn't been light for very long. We don't have much daylight here this time of year.

 

[Trekker4747]

Canasta is the only game where my father didn't regularly change the rules during play. My entire extended family played it, so his hands were tied where the rules were concerned. I never taught my husband or kids how to play it, which I must rectify. My brothers and I played several rounds when I visited them in November and I forgot how much I enjoy playing it.

I agree that your friend got that rule wrong, Miss Chicken.

My mom and I play a variant of Canasta known as "Hand and Foot" and over our time of playing we've made-up and added a lot of our own special set of rules, usually we end up playing not until we have the necessary number of melds but until there's literally no more plays left in the game.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

I love Yahtzee. I get sooo excited when I roll doubles.