Holiday Gift Guide 2011: Farkle Dice Game

This widely played, wildly popular game of greed and goading has been around for centuries in one form or another. Commercial versions are available for $10 or less. The Patch Products version of Farkle is little more than 6 dice, a shaker, pad of score sheets, and rules.

It’s easy enough to create your own kit. Simply pack 6 dice, pen and paper, and print out some rules from a website like Farklerules.com before you go. Rules vary quite a bit from one region to another and even differ between 5- and 6-dice versions.
While the rules are too long to detail here, my fourth grader learned them in two minutes and loved the game (the game is good for 2 to 8 players, ages 5 and up).

Each player takes turns rolling six dice trying to score points. For instance, each 1 is worth 100 points, and each 5 is worth 50. A straight (1-2-3-4-5-6) is worth 1,000 points. If players score any points in the initial 6-dice roll, they can remove the scoring dice from play, and either bank their points or continue rolling. When a player does not get any points on a roll, it’s a “farkle.” Once a player farkles, they lose the points they accumulated in that turn and pass the dice to the next player. Warning: Farkle is known to be addictive. Good luck!