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Zilch box art
1972 Ranked #19,518

Zilch

This push-your-luck dice game has players bank scoring dice, challenge the leader’s score, and win by holding the top total. Rolling without a score loses the turn’s points, while using every die lets the turn continue.

Dice Push Your Luck Dice Rolling Traditional Dice Games: Dice 10,000 games

Players

2-12

Play time

Not listed

Age

8+

Complexity

1.25/5

Rating

5.77

Harder to teach Low interaction Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 3.7/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.3/5

Low interaction

Player scaling 4.5/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 3.8/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

This is a fairly simple dice game in the same vein as Farkle or other games in the Traditional Dice Games: Dice 10,000 games family. Each turn players start with 6 dice and roll them all.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

This is a fairly simple dice game in the same vein as Farkle or other games in the Traditional Dice Games: Dice 10,000 games family. Each turn players start with 6 dice and roll them all. Each time a roll is made one or more scoring dice must be removed and the player can chose to stop with the total score they have accumulated or roll on. If no score is made on a roll, the player zilches and all the accumulated score for that turn (not from previous turns)is lost (like Can't Stop). If all the dice are used for scoring then the turn continues with all 6 dice again. Scores are 5=50 1=100 3 of a kind = kind X 100 On a 6 dice roll: 1,2,3,4,5,6 = 1500 and 3 pairs = 1000 (though six 6s can be 1200 from two triples of 600) To win a player knocks instead of rolling on their turn and each other player has one turn to pass the leaders score. Also there is an optional rule for the start: A score of less than 500 can not be kept until you are on the board and if a player Zilches on their first three turns they go negative whatever score they had before the final roll of their third turn and can subsequently stop at any score. The game is suspenseful as players roll diminishing numbers of dice against increasing odds. It can have longish down time unless you decide to have several players having their turns at the same time with different sets of dice. (faster but less suspenseful).

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–12
Best with
2–5
Play time
30 min
Age
8+
Complexity
1.3/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
(Uncredited)

Publishers

3
(Public Domain) Holdson S.E. Products Corporation

Linked items

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