Looking for a high-stakes game to play on the high-seas!?
Presenting: Liar's Dice, a game of chance and deception played by pirates, most notably by the crew of lost souls serving on Davy Jones' ship the Flying Dutchman.
Grab some d6s, some cups, and some friends (or just hold the players at your table hostage)!
Every player puts five d6s in their cup, shakes it up, and slams it down to create a hidden "hand" of dice.
After sneaking a peek at their hand, the first player bids, which goes something like this:
"Alright, ya dirty landlubbers, I say there be at least SEVEN TWOS under ye blasted cups!"
The turn passes clockwise to the next player, who has the chance to either raise or challenge the previous bid.
A raise can be either in face value or quantity:
"SEVEN TWOS, ya say? Well, after lookin' at me loot, I say it's more like there's there's SEVEN THREES in these here cups!"
or maybe
"SEVEN TWOS? Well, everyone knows how yella-bellied ya arrr, so I say there's EIGHT TWOS!"
The other option, to challenge, puts the original bidder on defense:
"SEVEN TWOS?! Yer outta yer dang mind, ya stinky scallywag! Why, if there's seven twos in these cups, I'll scrub the poop deck for a week! That's right, I say you're a LIAR!"
If a challenge is made, all cups are lifted and the dice are revealed. If the original bidder was correct in their claim (at least as many of the face value are showing as were bid), the bidder wins and the challenger loses. Otherwise, the challenger wins and the bidder loses.
The player who loses a round walks the plank and loses one of their dice. The loser of the last round starts the bidding on the next round and the game continues until only one player has any dice remaining.
There are plenty of additional variations and modifications available online; you can break this one out the next time you and your table are three sheets to the wind.
