If you guys remember the famous DRAUPADI CHEERHARAN, you would also know the reasons for such a heinous crime committed at the Dyut Sabha.
Well well, interestingly enough it was a game of dice that was played by the Pandavas and the Kauravas, in which Yudhishthira lost everything while gambling, including her wife, Draupadi.
And as a consequence of losing, Duryodhana got a chance to avenge his hurt ego by shaming and molesting Draupadi.
Dice Games have been quite popular since the beginning of times, and so have people gambling alongside playing the game.
Let’s read about what is a game of dice, the history/origin of the game of dice, and the most popular games of dice played across the world.
What is a Game Of Dice?
Game of Dice is a game that is played using dice.
It is often used in the reference to gambling games as it is a very popular form of gambling in casinos and among gamblers. (GAMBLERS CONTENT TO BE LINKED HERE)
History and Origin of the Game Of Dice
The name ‘Dice’ comes from a combination of words from French and Latin, namely “De” and “Datum” respectively, and the words meaning ‘something that is played or given.
And gradually these words took the form of what we now call ‘Dice’.
The Game of Dice has been around this world for a very long time.
It is one of the oldest forms of gambling. (FIRST PILLAR CONTENT TO BE LINKED HERE)
But the origin of the game of dice has been dated back to one of the oldest Hindu religious stories, named Mahabharata, which is about 2000 years old, where people in ancient times played Chaupar.
The first of the dice was made and believed to be a source of magic and was used to predict divinity and future outcomes by the ancient people. Also, the people believed that the way the dice fell was due to some godly influences. And those dice were the knucklebones taken from various animals such as sheep, buffalos, cows, etc.
The later ancient dice were made from bones and ivory, bronze, rocks, crystals, alabaster, onyx, and other types of natural materials available to mankind in nature.
The ancient dice that are quite similar to the modern dice have been found in Egyptian tombs and Chinese history during excavations.
Royal Game of Ur, Teetotums, Chaupar, and other various forms of dice games was quite popular in ancient times but it was just a game until Galileo, Cardano, and a few other mathematicians came into the play scientifically approaching and researching the probability of winning and the probability of the various number outcomes in the 16th century.
It was due to them that we now study Probability as a separate concept in mathematics that talks about the probability/possibility of the chance occurrence of a particular event or an outcome.
There have been different versions and beliefs about the origin of the dice and its invention, such as A famous Greek Tragedy Dramatist, Sophocles suggested that the game of dice was invented by Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, who is historically associated with the seize of Troy; whereas Herodotus, a famous greek historian, and geographer from Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey) suggested that the game of dice were invented by the Lydians during the rule of King Atys. However, both of these claims have been rejected by a lot of archaeologists in their research and findings on the origin of the game of dice.
Talking about modern dice, are usually made out of cellulose or plastic.
The modern dice are basically of two types:
i. The perfect dice/The casino dice: These dice are handmade and sharp-edged with a tolerance of 0.00026cm. These dice are used in casinos and gambling halls.
ii. The imperfect dice: These dice are softened and rounded at the corners and are mainly machine-made. These dice are used to play certain board games or social games.
The Most Popular Games Of Dice that are Played across the World
1. Craps/Seven Eleven
Craps, also known as seven-eleven is a game of dice in which the betting is done on the outcome of the dice rolls by the players involved.
In this game, players can bet money on any bank account or other assets that can be liquidated.
2. Yahtzee
Yahtzee is a game of dice created by an American Board Game Manufacturer, named Milton Bradley Company or Milton Bradley, the owner of which was Milton Bradley himself.
It was a company that took over Mcloughlin Brothers, who were the former leading board games manufacturer in the US.
The game of dice, which was Yahtzee was coined and marketed by Edwin S. Lowe in the year 1956. This is a similar game of dice to Yatzy.
3. Liar’s Dice
Liar’s Dice is a game of dice where it is about deceit and manipulation and the ability to recognize deception and manipulation. It requires two or more players in which each player is provided with a set of dice and all the players roll the dice the first time, at the same time then the bids are made and then the players roll the dice the final time.
Liar’s Dice first came into existence back in the 15th century and later on spread and getting popular in other European countries and American countries.
4. Bunco
Bunco, also known as Bunko and Bonko, is a game of dice played in groups, requiring a minimum of four groups consisting of four people each.
In this game, the groups roll the dice three dice, consequently in a round of six and they try to score the maximum points possible.
So, in this game, Bunco is said to have happened or acquired when a person rolls three-of-a-kind numbers, and all those three numbers match the round number.
5. Farkle
Farkle, also known as Farkel, is a game of dice similar to the game of Dice 10000.
The origin of Farkle dates somewhat back to around the 1980s.
This game of dice was first marketed by Legendary Games Inc. under the name Pocket Farkel.
There are pre-established rules for playing Farkle but the outcome has variations.
6. Dice 10000
Dice 10000, also known as 10000 Dice, 10000, Ten Grand, Greed, 5-Dice, and Dix Mille, is a game of dice that involves 6 dice.
Quite a similar way of play as in Farkle, this game of dice also goes by other names such as Zilch, Bogus, Boxcar, Dice Game, Crap Out, Zilchers, and Foo.
7. Sic Bo
Sic Bo, also known as Hi-lo, Dai Sui, Tai Sai, or Big and Small, is a game of dice that is played using three dice.
Sic Bo is a game of Chinese Origin, the meaning of which is Precious Dice, is a popular gambling game in Asia, while it was the Chinese immigrants who brought and spread this game of dice in the US, somewhere around the twentieth century.
8. Ludo
Ludo, derived from the Latin word meaning play, is a game of dice, that is partially a game of chance and partly a game of skill and strategizing where a minimum of two people participate to play.
Ludo is a modernized version of the game of dice played in ancient Indian cultures, which went by the name of Pachisi/Chaupar/Chopad/Chaupad.
9. Dice Chess
Dice Chess is a game of dice that is used to manipulate and change the gameplay by altering the moves that are available to the player with a pair of ordinary dice.
There are a lot of different forms of dice chess.
10. Dominoes
Dominoes (INSERT LINK HERE_DOMINOES) is a game of dice, where it is tile-based.
Each of the dominoes is a rectangular tile, with each end marked with a number in dots or blank.
11. Cee-Lo
Cee-Lo, also known as See-Low, Four-Five-Six, The Three Dice Game, Roll Off, Chinchiro, Three-Six Leopards, or Chinchirorin is a game of dice that uses three normal dice.
This game of dice does not have one but a few fixed sets of rules except for a few things that are common in all those separate rule sets.
12. Midnight
Midnight, also known as One-Four-TwentyFour, or 1-4-24, is a game of dice that uses six dice for play.
13. Bar Dice
Bar Dice is a game of dice usually played in a bar or a pub where two or more players use a cup and five dice to play in order to make the one losing pay for their next round of drinks.
14. Zombie Dice
Zombie Dice is a game of dice invented by Steve Jackson Games in the year 2010.’
It is a party game, of which the digital app version is also available.
15. Shut The Box
Shut the box, also known as Batten down the Hatches, Canoga, or Trick-track, is a game of dice that is usually played in groups of two or four for bets and risks.
Conclusion
Though these are not the only games of dice that people play around the world, however, these are the most common ones and talking about how to play these games, there are different rule sets for the different types of dice games, and though some dice games are quite similar to each other, they still differ in some respects.
