Anyone who knows me and my Yahtzee ways will testify that I'm a bit of a purist. When I play Yahtzee I like the good old fashioned game as designed by Edwin Lowe and published by Milton Bradley in 1956. I'm not one for variations of a classic game or stepping outside the rules.
There is, however a variant that I do entertain from time to time, and that's Forced Yahtzee. It is really called Forced "Yatzy" as it's a variation of the Scandinavian game Yatzy, which is an incredibly similar version of the Yahtzee we play. I'll just call it Forced Yahtzee for my own ease, but I thought I'd mention it in case some smart arse wanted to pompously correct me.
Below you will find the full rules, as you won't be seeing it in the Rules & Regulations for reasons we'll get in to. Then I'll give you a brief explanation of what I think are the good and bad points of this particular variation. I'm not in any particular rush to try all the Yahtzee rule variations, but I have played this one so I thought I would at least mention it in case you had not come across it before. Anyhoo, let's get into it.
Forced Yahtzee Rules
General
Players take turns rolling five dice. After each roll, the player chooses which dice to keep, and which to reroll. A player may reroll some or all of the dice up to two times on a turn. The player must put a score or a zero into the score box each turn. The game ends when all score boxes are used. The player with the highest total score wins the game.
In this variant the players must score in exactly the same sequence as listed below, starting with Ones, then Twos, etc.
Upper Section
Ones: The sum of all dice showing the number 1.
Twos: The sum of all dice showing the number 2.
Threes: The sum of all dice showing the number 3.
Fours: The sum of all dice showing the number 4.
Fives: The sum of all dice showing the number 5.
Sixes: The sum of all dice showing the number 6.
If a player manages to score at least 42 points in the upper section, they are awarded a bonus of 50 points.
Lower Section
One Pair: Two dice showing the same number. Score: Sum of those two dice.
Two Pairs: Two different pairs of dice. Score: Sum of dice in those two pairs.
Three of a kind: Three dice showing the same number. Score: Sum of those three dice.
Four of a kind: Four dice with the same number. Score: Sum of those four dice.
Small straight: The combination 1-2-3-4-5. Score: Fixed 15 points.
Large straight: The combination 2-3-4-5-6. Score: Fixed 20 points.
Full House: Any set of three combined with a different pair. Score: Sum of all the dice.
Chance: Any combination of dice. Score: Sum of all the dice.
Yatzy: All five dice with the same number. Score: Fixed 50 points.
Additional
Two Pairs and Full House must have different numbers so that the combination 1-5-5-6-6 will score 22 as Two Pairs, but 1-5-5-5-5 will score nothing in that category because the two pairs must be different.
(Rules Credit: Niklas Baudy)
Now you know the rules, the question that needs answering is should you bother with? Well, before I offer my two cents (purely because I can't help myself), I will say that it can't hurt to give it a go. Don't just trust my judgement, I can't always be trusted and people often disagree with me, so find out for yourself.
The good thing about Forced Yahtzee is that after a good few intense matches of competitive Yahtzee and making all those do or die, cutthroat decisions it's nice to have a casual game of Forced Yahtzee to wind down with. It's fun enough and it requires a lot less thought. If you read my post about playing Yahtzee with your kids, you would know that I encourage Forced Yahtzee as an introduction to Yahtzee for the little ones that find original Yahtzee a bit beyond their means. This is where I think it excels. Most of the decision making is done for you so the little mites can concentrate on building their numeracy skills.
The downsides to Forced Yahtzee is that it requires a lot less thought and decision making. Yes, I'm aware I'm repeating myself, but the thing that makes Forced Yahtzee good for a wind down and for kiddies is the same thing that makes it a bit "light". By light I mean there's not a whole lot to it. Like I said, it's fine for a round or two, but it soon gets tiresome. It's also infuriating. There's nothing worse than rolling a Yahtzee when you're forced to score twos knowing that in a real match you would have just given yourself a great advantage... grrr. It also requires zero skill, which means it has zero scope for competitive gameplay. If Original Yahtzee is 50% luck then Forced Yahtzee is 98% luck, and I don't like that. I like a game where I can make a positive impact on my result, and not solely rely of the will of the gods.
These are only my opinions of course, and you're welcome to disagree. There are people who I play with that, perhaps not prefer, but enjoy Forced Yahtzee much more than I do. But personally I think it's because I play with a few grown ups, yes actual adults that prefer not to have to think. But, hey, even I don't like thinking sometimes.
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