What's Needed to Play a game of Balut:
* 2 or more players
* 5 throwing dice
* Balut scorecards (1 for each player)
* Pens
Objective of a Game of Balut:
* To score the most points by rolling the best dice-throw combinations. The player who accumulates the most points through 28 rounds of play wins the game.
General Guidelines for Balut:
* Each player is given a Balut scorecard.
* Each player takes his turn to roll 5 dice (limited re-rolls are allowed according to the rules of the game) and record his score on the Balut scorecard.
* There are 7 categories of dice-combinations, and 4 attempts at each category, and so each game lasts 28 rounds.
How a Game of Balut is Played :
Each game lasts 28 rounds. Each round is played in this manner:
* The player rolls all 5 dice
* The player is given the choice to reroll any or all of the dice to arrive at a satisfactory combination. He may reroll twice.
* The player records the score of his roll on his Balut scorecard. To do this, he must choose in which category to record his final dice-combination. There is no option to pass.
Towards the end of the 28 rounds, it becomes more and more likely to get low scores. No player is allowed to 'pass' his turn, since rolling a bad combination and being forced to record it essentially allows others to get ahead in points, which makes it possible to determine a winner. |
Portion of the Balut scorecard where rolls are scored
There are 7 categories to which dice-throws can be assigned:
Four's, Five's, Six'es, Straight's, Full House's, Choice, and Balut -- represented in the rows in the table above. The four columns represent Rolls 1 through 4, since each of the 7 combinations requires 4 rolls in order to complete the game. |
![[GIF]](../ffpg-allimages/Balut-Scorecard.gif){kind=link}