An Addictive High Stakes Dice Game

Looking for a fun and addictive game to play with your friends? Look no further than Farkel Party! The game is simple, the first player to get the highest points over 10,000 wins! The gameplay is still strategic because you need to decide if you want to be conservative by scoring points steady and slow or make high risk rolls to score big! Farkel Party by Legendary Games, has a quick playtime, easy rules, and plays up to six players. Let’s take a closer look a Farkel and see if it’s right for your table.

I grew up playing games with my Grandparents whenever I would visit.  We played many different games, but one of my Grandfather’s favorites was a game he simply called “dice”. There was hardly a visit that went by where he didn’t say “want to play some dice?”.  Much to my surprise I found almost the exact same game, and instead of “dice” it is called Farkel.

If you enjoy dice games, this is one you may want to try. It is a lot of fun, can be played with large groups and is good for people of all ages.

How to Play Farkel Party

Farkel Party is a press-your-luck dice game played with six, six-sided dice.

• Write each players name on the score sheet and choose a color dice with cup
• Each player roll a single die at the same time. Highest rolled is first player. Play continues to the left. Chose a score keeper or the person who rolled the lowest is the score keeper.
• A player rolls all six dice at once and must set aside at least one die that scores.
  • Scoring Die: a single die with ONE dot, a single die with FIVE dots, or any of the scoring combinations below.
• The player can roll the reaming dice not set aside but if the dice rolled are not eligible to be scored the players turn is over and no points are scored.
• If the player completes all six dice as scoring dice, they can choose to continue rolling by picking up all six dice. Be sure to keep track of the running total in your head or out loud!
• The player can continue to roll until they choose to score the dice or they have no dice that score also known as “FARKEL”.
• If any dice roll off the playing surface ALL eligible dice must be re-rolled.
• In order to get on the score sheet a player must have acquired 500 or more points in one single turn.
• After the initial 500 point requirement, a player can stop at any time including 50 points during their turn. .
• Play continues to the left until a player scores 10,000 points. Once a player scores 10,000 points, each player has one turn to try and beat their score.
• Highest score wins!

Farkel Party Scoring

The following combinations of dice are worth points in Farkel Party. You must get a combination on a single roll in order to score (you can’t build up to three 2’s for example). You can only get a straight on the first roll of a turn because it requires all six dice.

	Single die with 5	50 points
	Single die with 1	100 points
	Three one’s	300 points
	Three two’s	200 points
	Three three’s	300 points
	Three four’s	400 points
	Three five’s	500 points
	Three six’s	600 points
	Four of any kind and any pair	1,500 points
	Four of any kind	1,000 points
	Five of any kind	2,000 points
	Six of any kind	3,000 points
	Straight 1 – 6	1,500 points
	Three Pairs	1,500 points
	Two Triplets	2,500 points

Examples of How to Play

First player rolls: “four”, “three”, “five”, “six”, “three”, “five”

First player rolls remaining five dice: “one”, “two”, “one”, “two”, “one”

Player sets aside the one’s next to the five die from the previous roll. The current total is 350 points.

First player rolls remaining two dice: “three” and “two”

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Second player rolls their dice: “one”, “two”, “three”, “four”, “five”, “six”

In this case the player has three options: “one”, “five”, or straight (1-6). The player will most likely set aside the straight scoring 1,500 points. The player can choose to roll all dice again risking the 1,500 points. If the player is lucky they will add to the 1,500 points acquired. If the player is unlucky they will lose all the points.

Tips on Scoring

I like Farkel Party’s score sheet because it has a built in cheat sheet for the dice that score at the top. It also gives the score keeper different options of scoring. In the example below I took two turns and then added each players total. I indicate that it is a total line by placing a “T” to the left.

My personal preferred way of doing a total line is after about four rounds. It could be more or less depending on how large the scores are. This sheet is great because it lets the score keeper create their own personal preference. The score keeper can wait 3 turns to total or keep totals after each round.

It is not a requirement to record the zeros. The scores recorded do not need to align perfectly. I personally do not record zeros. Again, it is up to the score keeper! Organize and total the scores however you like. Warning be nice to the score keeper or the next game it might be you keeping score!!

Tips for Winning Farkel Party?

When someone reaches 10,000 points that triggers the end of the game, All of the other players get one more turn to try to beat the final score. The highest score after this final round is the winner. Here are some tips for winning:

• I never keep three 2’s unless it’s the only thing I have. It’s too many dice to tie up for too few points.
• Around 300 points is were you should consider stopping if you want to take a slow and steady strategy.
• If you manage to have all the dice score the odds are with you for rolling at least one more time. You get all six dice back, so there is a good chance you’ll at least get something that scores.

Can I play Farkel Party Online?

No, I am not aware of any place you can currently play Farkel online.

Is Farkle Party Worth the Money?

Honestly, if you have six dice and a pad of paper you can play by passing the dice around the table. The score can be kept on a sheet of paper. I like all the colors of the different dice and the cheat sheet attached to the score pad, so I’d recommend picking it up.

How Many People Can Play Farkel Party?

Farkel Party is a game that any number of people can play, but it is best with ten or less. If you have more people than that, optional rules are included for team play.

Where to Buy the Farkel Party Game?

This game could can be found on Amazon at the time of this writing, but you should be able to pick it up at Walmart or Target.

Other Games You May Like If You Like Farkel Party

There are some other great dice games you may want to try if you’re a Farkel Party fan. Not all of these games accommodate as many players as Farkel Party, but some of them I like even more if I have a smaller group.

Twice as Clever

This is a fantastic game that will be getting it’s own full post soon. It’s the third installment in the “clever” series of games. Roll the dice, then place them into the matching colored area, create difficult chain-scoring possibilities, and rack up the points. Every die that’s smaller than the chosen one may be utilized by other players, ensuring that everyone stays in the game at all times.

Qwixx

A fast-paced dice game for 2-5 players where all of the players are engaged no matter which player’s turn it is. In this game each player has a score sheet with four different colored rows with the numbers 2-12. On each turn the active player rolls two white dice and a number of colored dice. Any player can mark off the sum of the white dice on any row of their sheet. The active player can take the sum of one of the white dice and any one of the colored dice. The trick is, once you’ve marked off a number you can no longer mark off any number to the left of it. You get points based on how many numbers you can mark off in each row. Great quick game, takes about five minutes to teach and about 15 minutes to play.

Roll For It

Another game that is quick to teach and play. Flip up four cards which each contain a picture of a set of dice and a point value. All players roll at the same time and one by one place dice matching the pictured dice next to each card they want to try to win. On the next turn all players roll their remaining dice trying to get what they need to complete their card. Want to pull your dice back and try another strategy, you can, but you have to pull ALL of your dice back and skip a turn. We play this one a lot when we want something light.

Final Thoughts

I like Farkel Party for a lot of reasons. It’s a great family game that accommodates a large range of age groups. It’s quick to teach and any number of players can join so it’s good for parties and large groups. It’s a game you can play for half an hour or half a day. This is a great game to take if you are traveling or camping because it encourages the family to come together during down times. For me, there is also something a bit nostalgic about Farkel Party, so this game will probably always be on our shelf.