Buck Dice

This is a game for any number of players, using three dice.

Preliminaries
Order of play is established by a round in which each player throws a single die. The highest scorer becomes first shooter. The lowest scorer then throws one die, to determine a point number for the first game.

Objective
Players aim to score a buck or game (exactly 15 points). On achieving this score the player withdraws from the game, which continues until one player is left: the loser.

Play
Each player in turn takes the three dice, and each goes on throwing for as long as he throws the point number on one or more of the dice.

As soon as he makes a throw that does not contain the point number, he passes the dice to the player to his left.

Each player keeps count, aloud, of the number of times he has thrown the point number. Each occasion counts one point.

If, when he is nearing 15 points, a player makes a throw that carries his score beyond 15, the throw does not count, and he must roll again.

Special values
Some throws rate special values. Three point numbers in one throw (big buck or general) count 15 points. A player making this throw withdraws immediately from the game, irrespective of any score he has made previously.

Three of a kind that are not point numbers count as a little buck, and score five points.

Variation
Some players follow the rule that, when a player has scored 13 points, he rolls with only two dice; and when 14 is reached, with only one die.

Continuing play
Start of play rotates one player to the left after each game. The right to determine the point number also rotates in this way, so that it is always with the player to the starter’s right.

From 'The Official World Encyclopedia of Sports and Games'
© Diagram Visual Information Ltd 1979