Identify this dice game (+ German regional word variation)
July 31, 2007 6:56 AM   Subscribe

Do you know the dice game that goes by the names "10000", "dadi a mano" or "nusht"? My friend learned it from his Canadian Mennonite family and said that nusht is low German for "nicht." Anyway, I digress. Do you know the game? What do you call it? Do your rules vary?
posted by billtron to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (14 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I played this game a few times at a friend's house. I believe they called it Zonk. In order to post a score at all, you had to at least roll 150. If you rolled and didn't score, everyone yelled "Zonk", and you'd have to add a quarter to the pot. If you roll and end up scoring with all of the dice, everyone would yell "AND ROLLIN!!". My friend's dad would do a gesture at this point too. He snapped near his face, and then sent his hand out in a horizontal waving action, I guess similar to a fish swimming on it's side. Sounds bizarre I know, but I still do the gesture to this day.
posted by o0dano0o at 7:14 AM on July 31, 2007


I've played Cosmic Wimpout many times (and own a set of dice of course), and according to the first link, it's apparently a variant of the game you describe.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:17 AM on July 31, 2007


We play a similar game, with a 350 minimum points to start, we just call it the dice game. It's used at the cottage to determine who gets the worst chores.

Basics of our game
- 350 points required to start, goal is usually 5,000, use 5 dies
- 1's are worth 100 pts, 5's worth 50 pts
- 3 of a kind is 100 times the value (three 6's is 600 pts)
- runs are 500 pts
- You start by rolling the 5 dies, any 1's or 5's are set aside and then you roll the remaining die. If you don't get any 1's or 5's you are out and you don't get the pts. You can stop at any time and take your points for that turn (except at start)
- You have to hit 5,000 exactly
- 5 of a kind wins automatically
posted by dripdripdrop at 7:20 AM on July 31, 2007


Yeah, in my house this was just called dice.
posted by methylsalicylate at 7:28 AM on July 31, 2007


Our version, called 'The Dice Game' was similar to dripdripdrop's but with some variations:

Basics of our game
- 1000 points required to meld, goal is 20,000, use 6 dice
- 1's are worth 100 pts, 5's worth 50 pts
- 3 of a kind is 100 times the value (three 6's is 600 pts), except for of 1s, where they're worth 1000.
- runs of 123456 in a single roll are 3000 points and you *must* roll again.
- three sets of pairs in a single roll (22 44 55) are worth 2000 points and you must roll again
- You start by rolling the 6 dice, any 1's must be set aside. Any other points scored are optional, but you must take some points with each roll by setting aside the dice used to score them. If you score with all 6 dice, you pick them up and begin again with all 6, while continuing to build on your previous score.

Other than needing a minimum 1000 points to start, and the must rolls big bonuses, you can stop your turn at any point and take your points. If you roll the remaining dice and there are no available points to take, your turn is over and you get no points for it.
- You have to hit 20,000 exactly

There's been at least one prevous ask.me thread about this game, btw, so you might want to try to search it out.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:51 AM on July 31, 2007


This is Nusht for us.
It is similar to dripdripdrop's description. You can also play that if a person does not use all the dice (they play it safe and don't risk losing the points they have so far) the next person can roll the non-point dice. If they get another five or one, they get the points (previous person's points plus the new ones or fives). If no new ones or fives, the turn is over and you get nothing.
posted by hala mass at 9:02 AM on July 31, 2007 [1 favorite]


We call it farkle

{www.smartboxdesign.com/farklerules.html}
posted by Rain Man at 9:04 AM on July 31, 2007


"I believe they called it Zonk. In order to post a score at all, you had to at least roll 150."

I've played a similar game, also called Zonk, but it was a dope-smoking game played with five dice, and you had to get three ones to get in. You could, like Yahtzee, hold on to any of the dice, and got three rolls. Scoring was similar, play was to 5,000, with ones counting as 100 a piece, and three-of-a-kind tripling whatever the regular roll was.

However, there were a bevy of complicated and arcane rules about drinking and smoking that accompanied it, with bong hits referred to as "B's." Each set of three of a kind had a different activity associated with it, and three ones (after the initial set) reduced your score and couldn't be re-rolled. If your score on any one of your three rolls would have totalled an exact multiple of 1000, your score went back to zero. Straights scored 100 for a "small," and 1000 for a large.

Mostly I'm trying now to remember what led you to have to do the bong hits, though I'm also trying to remember the things that made your roll negative instead of positive. Mostly I remember that there was a "Pantsless porch B" that meant you had to drop trou and hit the bong outside. There were also other occurences that led to yelling "Zonk!"

Man, I gotta get ahold of Mark Dundon, since he's the one who taught me the game. Hmm... Obviously, the marijuana didn't help me regarding the long-term retention of the rules...
posted by klangklangston at 10:23 AM on July 31, 2007


klangklangston: One of my pysch profs was an expert on state-specific learning. She'd probably suggest that you return to the mental state in which you first learned the rules in order to assist in your recall. Depending on whether it's ethical to tell someone to get high, I suppose.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:49 AM on July 31, 2007


We have always just called it "The Dice Game" or a variant called "Greed" where you could continue the previous person's roll once you got on the board (350 sounds about right - it's been a while.)
posted by Nodecam at 11:28 AM on July 31, 2007


Response by poster: jacquilynne, I tried looking for it on mefi, but didn't quite know what to search.

hala mass, where did you learn the game? was there ever an explanation for the name "nusht"?
posted by billtron at 11:31 AM on July 31, 2007


"One of my pysch profs was an expert on state-specific learning. She'd probably suggest that you return to the mental state in which you first learned the rules in order to assist in your recall. Depending on whether it's ethical to tell someone to get high, I suppose."

I'm not sure I could get that high and drunk without the assistance of others egging me on based on an elaborate set of rules by which I could abdicate all control over my sobriety.
posted by klangklangston at 11:35 AM on July 31, 2007


10,000
or
Greedy Pig
or
Sold at stores as Farkel
posted by The Deej at 12:18 PM on July 31, 2007


hala mass, where did you learn the game? was there ever an explanation for the name "nusht"?

I'm Mennonite and this is a common game to play in Canadian Mennonite circles.
"Nusht" is a Low German word, as you suggested in the question, that means "nothing." You roll the dice and if there are no points: nusht!
posted by hala mass at 10:52 PM on July 31, 2007 [1 favorite]


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