8 Dice Games for Adults That You and Your Friends Will Love

Who says you need elaborate boards and intricate pieces to have a good time? With just a pair of dice, perhaps a charcuterie board and some fun drinks, and, of course, a few good friends, you can host a memorable gathering in your home — or even make it a monthly tradition.

These dice games will help you throw an inexpensive and easy get-together that will give you and your pals something to laugh over besides the latest trending TikTok, while also bringing out your competitive streak. And, I promise, these fun party games are all simple to learn — so you can focus on catching up rather than keeping track of rules.

Bunco is a fun group dice game where the objective is to be the first person or team to reach 21 points. And you don’t need to have much on hand for this quick game of accumulating wins (or buncos!). Ideally, you’ll have multiples of four playing; you’ll seat each four at a different table, with one table designated as the head table. Your tables will change throughout the game but, at the moment, your teammate is the person you’re sitting across from. The other two — those are your opponents. 

• Three dice
• Score card
• At least four players

1. Roll all three dice. You’ll earn points if you roll the number that is the same as the round. For round one, that’s one. Round two, two. And so on. 
2. Keep rolling as long as you’re moving clockwise around the table and the number of the round keeps being rolled. The round ends if it’s round one and you’ve rolled a two, three, and five, for example, or if one team reaches 21 points or rolls three ones, for example, which would be a Bunco!
3. At the end of each round, the winners move to the next table. The game ends at round 6, with the team with the most points winning.

As the name indicates, in this game, the object is to avoid rolling a 7. Doing so will end your turn and give your opponent(s) a chance to get to the highest score first. And that’s it! This one is blissfully simple and easily played with as many people as you have around.

• Two dice
• Score card
• At least two players

1. Set a winning score you’re trying to reach (let’s say it’s 200). Roll the dice, write down your running throw score, and stop once you’ve thrown a seven.
2. Then, it’s the next player’s turn — until they throw a seven. One note: If you throw two fives or any doubles, you’ll score double the number (or, in the case of two fives, you’ll score 10 points).
3. Continue tallying up your score with each turn and the first player to 200 (or whatever you set as your set score) wins.

Similar to Bunco, Slam is a three-dice game that keeps moving as long as you’re rolling a specific number — but in this one you want to get out of the game. The goal is to get to 15 points and get out of the game — but not to go over. If they go over 15 on a turn, then that turn doesn’t count. 

• Three dice
• Score card
• At least four players

1. The first player rolls one die, and whatever number they roll becomes the “slam.”
2. Player one then rolls all of the dice, hoping to get at least one slam and records their score as they go. For every slam, they score a point, and they keep rolling until they get three without a slam.
3. Each player then takes turns rolling the dice, hoping they get at least one slam. Two slams in a turn gets 5 points, while three slams in a turn is an instant 15. The last person standing, aka the last player that hasn’t reached 15, loses.

At least two players and three dice — that’s all you need for Going to Town. And luckily, the game play is equally simple. That means kids (and adults) of all ages will be able to pick up the rules — and even get competitive about them — quickly!

• Three dice
• At least two players

1. Decide on how many rounds you want to play (let’s say 10 for example’s sake).
2. Take turns rolling all three dice. For each round, each player’s turn consists of rolling all three dice, keeping the highest number.
3. Then, the player rolls two dice, again keeping the highest number.
4. The player finally rolls just one die, keeping that number. The final tally is their score for that turn. Then, it passes to the next player.
5. At the end of 10 rounds, or however many you decide to play, the player with the highest score wins.

In Run for It, players use six dice to try to get straights (or runs, as they’re called here). The goal is to get the biggest straight from each roll — and you’re literally rolling the dice each time to see if you can top your last one! Each run must begin with a one, so look out for rolls with no ones, which means your turn is immediately over.

• Six dice
• At least two players

1. The first player rolls all six dice and looks for runs that begin with the number one. Each number that is part of a run scores five points. So if you roll a 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, and 6, you’d have a run of 1, 2, 3, and score 15 points. But you can only have one run per turn, so 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, and 3 can only count for 15. Meanwhile, if you roll 1, 3, 3, 5, 5, and 6, you don’t get any points, but you can keep the 1 and roll again to try for another run.
2. If you get a small run (say, 1, 2, 3) and want to re-roll to get a bigger run, go for it — but you may end up with no run at all, at which point you get zero points.
3. If you don’t roll a 1 but you do roll three of a kind of any number, you can try again for a run.
4. Once you have a run you want to stick with, record your points and allow the next player to go. The first to 100 wins.

Have an abundance of dice sitting around? Then you can play this fast-paced game of luck! Ship, Captain, Mate, and Crew seems easy enough at first, but the trick is that you must roll certain dice numbers in a certain order, which all comes down to chance. It’s a quick game, and you’ll know quickly whether you’re even in the running to have the biggest fleet.

• Five dice
• Dice cup
• At least two players, ideally five or more

1. Players will take turns shaking five dice in the dice cup.
2. Over the course of three shakes, the player tries to get a six, which represents the ship; five, captain; four, mate; and the last dice represent the number of crew on your ship.
3. The trick is that the six must roll first, followed by the five, and so on. 
4. The winner gets the ship, captain, mate, and the highest number of crew.

If you have an artistic group of friends — or a group of friends that’s up for anything — then Beetle is the dice game for you. This game involves a stroke of luck more than it involves realistic figure drawing ability, but you’ll get to combine those skills as you race to complete a full beetle drawing.

• One die
• Blank paper and pens for each player
• At least two players

1. The first player rolls the die and will draw a beetle body part that matches with the number on the die. The next player will do the same and so on through all the players. One is the body, two is the head, three is a leg, four is an eye, five is an antenna, and six is the tail (who knew beetles have a tail?).
2. The order of affairs adds a level of complication. You must roll a one first, so that you beetle can have a body. Then, you must roll a two before you add the eyes and antenna. 
3. Taking those two caveats into consideration, the first player to complete a full beetle wins.

If you have one die and two people, you have everything you need to play Pig. This quick game has players battling it out to reach 100 points with repeated rolls of the die on a single turn. But there’s a trick to the game. If you roll a one, you lose all your points from that turn. This turns the game into a gamble — when do you roll again, and when do you decide to take the points and pass the die?

• One die
• At least two players

1. One player rolls the die, tallying up points with every roll.
2. This player can roll as many times as they’d like on a single turn; however, if and when they roll a one, they lose all the points from that turn. 
3. If you’ve rolled multiple sixes, for example, you may decide to hold, rather than risk rolling a one and losing your points. 
4. When a player decides to hold, the die goes to the next player, and the cycle repeats.
5. Once a player reaches 100 points, there is a winner!