Les Marmottes

A dice game played with six standard dice. Players take turns, accumulating points to an agreed winning score. After a player reaches the target score, each other player gets one more turn to possibly best them.

The game was invented as a simplification of similar dice games - easier to play while drinking beer in Swiss hiking destinations!

The Turn

The player rolls all six dice, and sets aside any scoring dice. Any dice with matching values are scoring.

If there are exactly two or four scoring dice showing, the player can opt to stop rolling - they then end their turn and keep their turn score, adding it to their total score. Otherwise, the player must roll all remaining nonscoring dice - or all six if no nonscoring dice remain.

Any roll which results in no new scoring dice loses all turn points and ends the turn!

Scoring

Any dice with matching values are scoring, and are worth the sum of their face values.

A player has two scores, their total score and their turn score. Turn scores are not added to the total until the player opts to stop rolling.

A full set of six matching numbers scores an additional ten times the face value of the dice - so six fives would be worth 50 extra on top of their standard 30 (5 x 6 + 50).

Example Scoring Turn

First roll:


So, the two two's are scoring - worth a turn score of four. The player could stop since they have two scoring dice, but opts to roll the remaining four nonscoring dice.

Second roll:


Okay! Two more twos, and two sixes. Now the player has a turn score of 20 (2 x 4 + 6 x 2). But since they can only stop when two or four scoring dice are showing, they must reroll all six dice.

Third roll:


They've only added two to their turn score, for a total of 22, but the player opts to stop and keep these points, adding them to their total score. Play now passes to the next player.

Example Failing Turn

First roll:


A good roll, four fours worth 16 turn points. The player could stop but opts to roll the remaining two nonscoring dice:


Bust! The players roll of two dice yielded no new scoring dice, so they have lost all their turn points, and play passes to the next player.