How to play Crag

Crag is a small, fast member of the Yatzy family, played with just three dice and a score sheet of thirteen rows. Draw the sheet yourself: ones to sixes plus the seven combination rows. It suits two to five players and is over in about fifteen minutes.

On your turn you roll all three dice. You then have one reroll: throw again with as many of the dice as you like, or stand on what you have. There is never a third roll.

Then enter the result in an open row on your sheet. Each row is used once, so the game lasts thirteen rounds. If nothing fits, you write a zero in a row you are willing to sacrifice.

The rows look like this:

• Crag: a pair plus a third die bringing the total to 13, so 6-6-1, 5-5-3 or 4-4-5. Worth 50 points.
• Thirteen: a total of 13 with no pair, so 2-5-6 or 3-4-6. Worth 26 points.
• Three of a kind: worth 25 points.
• Low straight: 1-2-3, worth 20 points.
• High straight: 4-5-6, worth 20 points.
• Odd straight: 1-3-5, worth 20 points.
• Even straight: 2-4-6, worth 20 points.
• Ones to sixes: the sum of the dice showing that number.

After thirteen rounds each player adds up their sheet. There is no bonus, so the highest total wins. With only one reroll the margins are tight, and a crag or two usually decides the game.

Some groups allow two rerolls instead of one, giving three rolls as in Yatzy. That makes the game gentler and works well with kids. Others play several games back to back and add up the totals, since a single game is so quick.

If you like the format but want five dice and more rows, regular Yatzy is the natural next step. Yacht is another simple relative without a bonus.

Almost everything is smaller: three dice instead of five, one reroll instead of two, and fixed values that are quick to write down. A full game takes about a quarter of an hour, so Crag works well as a filler or as the last game of the evening.

Yes. As in Yatzy you must score something every round, and if a crag never shows up, the row eventually takes a zero. Many players sacrifice crag or thirteen early when the dice refuse to cooperate, and lock in the safe points in the number rows instead.