Liar's Dice
Or, “The Dice Game That’s Actually Worth a Crap”
Designer: Unknown
Publisher: Public Domain
# of Players: 2-8
Play Time: 15-30 Minutes
BGG Rank/Rating: #155/7.04
Weight: Light
Before I really get started, I want to make it clear that this review is not of any particular published version of Liar’s Dice, but is rather a discussion of the game in general and the impact that it has had on my gaming group. Richard Borg apparently did an excellent job of designing a couple versions of this game (Call My Bluff and Liar’s Dice itself), which won him the Spiel des Jahres and the Deutscher Spiele Preis in 1993, but I have never actually played any of these (or most other) published versions.
For purely aesthetic and financial reasons, I chose to purchase a copy of the movie tie-in Pirates Dice. I had heard and read good things about Liar's Dice in the past, so I wanted to give it a try and Wal-Mart had tons of the things on sale. After reading about alternative and additional rules on BGG, I introduced it at my BoardGame Night back in February. It was an instant hit, and has become by far the most-played game amongst the Hypermind BoardGamers.
Components and Setup
All you really need to play this game are a bunch of 6-sided dice and some sturdy, opaque cups. There are several versions of the game out there with different appearances and themes (like I said, I have the cool piratey cups and dice... they've even got little skulls-and-crossbones instead of aces!), but you could get the same effect with a bunch of old plastic tumblers and mismatched dice.
Each player gets a cup and five dice (although there's no reason that you couldn't have more dice, I suppose). We usually roll a single die to figure out who goes first, but I suppose you could arm-wrestle for it or something like that if you wanted to. And that's it! You've just set up for the game.
Basic Gameplay
Players start by shaking their cup filled with dice, then slamming it, open end down, on the table. Everybody then carefully peeks at their dice. Starting with the first player, everybody then makes increasing bids about the dice that everyone in the game have rolled. Each successive player must increase the bid by either the number of dice alike or the value on the dice.
For example, the first player may bid "4 threes". The second player could then bid "5 threes" or "4 fours". They could not bid, however, "3 sixes", because neither of the values can ever drop. Note that players are not limited to just bidding the next step up either; they may increase the bid by any amount they wish. To continue the example above, the second player could also bid "12 sixes" if they wanted to.
Remember that players are bidding not just on their dice, but rather on the entire pool of dice rolled by all players. To do well, it is necessary to keep a count on how many total dice are still in the game. We've never formally addressed how open this information is in our group, but "cool kids" would never ask people how many dice they've got left, so keep up with it.
In every version that I'm aware of, the "ones" are usually called "aces" and are considered wild when determining the number of a particular value in the dice pool. For example, if there were a total of 6 threes and 5 aces rolled in a round, the effective number of threes rolled would be 11. Therefore, each other number has a 1 in 3 chance of being rolled, and probability says that about 1/3 of the dice rolled in a round should have any particular number.
At some point in the bidding, one of the players will finally realize that there is just no way that the last bid could be made. In that case, instead of increasing the bid, they challenge the last bidder. This is usually done by saying, "I doubt it", "Dudo", "No Way!", "You're full of crap", "Show me what ya got, big boy!" or some other similar statement. At that point, all players reveal their dice and the bid is evaluated. If the number of dice of the face in question is equal to or greater than the bid, then the player making the bid wins the round and the person who challenged loses one die (it is removed from the game). If the number of dice with that face is less than the bid, the bidder instead loses one die. Whoever loses the round then bids first in the next round.
For example, let's say that a player bid "9 sixes". All the dice are revealed and there were 4 sixes and 4 aces rolled. The total number of sixes would be 8, so the bidder would lose one die. If, instead, there had been 5 sixes (or more) and 4 aces rolled, the first player would have made their bid and the challenger would lose the die.
Bidding Aces
It is also possible to bid aces alone instead of just using them as wilds. This is the only time that a bid can ever go down in number or face value. Since there will be no wild number to help out the aces, you can essentially bid half as many dice when bidding aces. So, when converting a regular bid to an aces bid, you divide the last bid by 2 and then either round up (in the case of an odd bid) or add one (in the case of an even bid). For example, if the last person bid "8 sixes", you could bid 5 aces (which is 8/2+1). If the original bid was "9 sixes", you could still bid 5 aces (9/2 rounded up). Note, however, that you can not bid aces as the first bid in a round unless you only have one die left!
To increase an aces bid, you can always just increase the number of aces bid. You can also, however, convert back to any other number. In this case, you just have to double the number of aces bid and add 1, and it can be of any face value that you wish (because anything is higher than an ace). In other words, a bid of "3 aces" could be followed by a bid of 7 of any face value.
For those of you who have played before, YES I KNOW that this is more brutal than the rules in other versions of the game, which allow you to just divide by 2 (and not add 1) when converting from an "even" normal bid to an aces bid. To me, that seems like you haven't really increased the bid at all, so we've always played (and enjoyed) this version since the beginning.
Other Variants
There are tons of other rules out there in many different versions of the game. One of the most notable (and common) variants includes making the bidder lose a number of dice equal to the difference between the bid and the actual number of that value rolled. For example, if I bid "7 threes" and there were only 3 threes, I would lose 4 dice. This makes for a quicker game, but one where people feel a lot less able to bluff, which I personally do not care for.
Another wrinkle I've heard of is that whenever a bidder makes his bid exactly, all other players (not just the challenger) lose one die.
The Latin American version (Perudo or Dudo, for example), players can call for a "Pickle" round (also called an "obliging" round). In this round, only players with only one die can look at their dice (the other players have to bid "blind"). There is no wild die in the round, and players may not increase the value of the face originally called. For example, if on the last round I lost down to one die, I could call "Pickle!" When we rolled, only I and other players with one die left could look at what we had, and then I would make a bid, say "2 fives". The other players could then only continue to raise the number of fives; they could never raise the bid to sixes. Players may only call for one "pickle" round in the game (usually the round when they first have only one die).
I could go on, but just check out the internet and BGG in particular for other versions and variants.
What I think…
In general, Liar's Dice is like poker except easier, quicker, and more accessible. You still have to use the information you have, calculate the odds, and then make or read people's bluffs. As far as strategy goes, there are a few simple things that I've gathered:
1) Raise the value of dice rather than the number of dice. All things being equal (assuming you don't have 4 of the same number under your cup, for instance), each face value has the same chance of being rolled, so increasing the value is safer. This also applies to bidding aces, so don't hesitate to switch to aces.
2) As a general rule, remember that each "regular" face value has a 1 in 3 chance of being rolled on each die. So roughly 1/3 of the dice will probably have any particular value. In the early and mid-game, I roughly estimate that I am usually safe to count on every other person having at least one die that I need. So If I'm playing with three other people and I have 3 sixes under my cup, I feel pretty comfortable bidding "6 sixes".
3) Raise the bid enough so that it won't get back around to you again. In other words, if the bidding is still pretty low when it comes to you, go ahead and jack it up to the upper end of the safe range, just so that there is less chance for it to get back to you when things may not be as safe anymore. Plus, this tends to have an intimidating effect on the next player, and they might assume that you have a really good roll and be afraid to call you on it.
4) Work on reading people. Infer whatever you can from people's bids, but be careful not to put too much stock into it. If possible, look for "tells" that will give away if a person if bluffing or not.
Liar's Dice is such a pure and elegant game. It is the perfect opener or closer, and with 2-4 people can be a great filler as well. It's varied enough that you can also play it or hours without getting bored. Unlike most other dice games which fall to the overwhelming influence of blind luck (see my review of To Court The King, for example), Liar's Dice succeeds because its randomness is applied almost equally to all of the players. In fact, the random dice roll serves only as the background for the many skills involved in the game, some of which are cognitive (knowing probabilities and estimating odds), psychological (reading your opponents, deciding how to use bids to manipulate them), and social (making a bluff look believable and a good bid look shaky).
The Verdict!
• Rules: The rules are simple and easy to pick up.
• Downtime: Virtually no downtime, bidding is fast and rounds go quickly.
• Length: We average about 25 minutes for a whole game involving (on average) 7 people
• Player Interaction: It's all about bluffing, reading, and intimidating other players.
• Weight: Light
• GamerChris’ Rating: For a near-perfect game, I give it a near-perfect 9.
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