Rules
Thirteen turns, one scorecard category each. Per turn:
- Roll 5 dice - then tap any you want to keep and pick up the rest to re-roll. You get up to two re-rolls.
- Score the hand into any open category in your column - at any point, even after the first roll. Taking a zero in a hopeless category is legal (and sometimes right).
When every category is filled, highest grand total wins.
Scoring
Upper section - Ones through Sixes score the sum of matching faces. Total 63+ across the six boxes (an average of three of each) earns a +35 bonus.
Lower section:
- Three / Four of a Kind - sum of all five dice
- Full House - 25
- Small Straight (any 4-run) - 30
- Large Straight (5-run) - 40
- Yahtzee (five of a kind) - 50
- Chance - sum of all five, no requirements
Roll a second Yahtzee after scoring 50 in the Yahtzee box and you bank a +100 bonus - the hand still scores into another open category. (Simplified from the boxed joker rules: straights don’t get face-value substitution here.)
vs Yacht
We also ship Yacht, this game’s older, stricter ancestor: no upper bonus, no Three of a Kind or Chance multipliers, straights must be exact, and Full House demands precisely a triple + pair. Yahtzee is the forgiving pub-to-living-room evolution Milton Bradley boxed in 1956.
History
Yahtzee descends from Yacht and the Puerto Rican game Generala. The boxed version was popularised by Milton Bradley (now Hasbro) from 1956, allegedly invented by a Canadian couple to play aboard their yacht. The upper-section bonus is the game’s quiet genius - it converts the dull face categories into a 13-turn resource-allocation puzzle.
References