Tiotusen Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Tiotusen is the Swedish version of the push-your-luck dice classic known elsewhere as Farkle or Zilch. You roll six dice, set aside whatever scores, and decide over and over whether to bank what you have or risk it on another throw. One bad roll wipes the whole turn out. The first person to 10000 points forces the end of the game.
Overview
Tiotusen is the Swedish version of the push-your-luck dice classic known elsewhere as Farkle or Zilch. You roll six dice, set aside whatever scores, and decide over and over whether to bank what you have or risk it on another throw. One bad roll wipes the whole turn out. The first person to 10000 points forces the end of the game.
Setup
You need six dice, a cup if you like, and something to write on. Any number from two upwards works, though four to six keeps the waiting short. Decide who starts by each rolling one die; highest goes first, and play continues clockwise.
How to play
Roll all six dice. Look at what came up and set aside at least one scoring die — you can set aside more, but never a die that scores nothing. Then choose: bank the running turn total and pass the dice on, or roll the dice you did not set aside and try to add to it.
If a roll produces no scoring dice at all, you bust. The entire turn total vanishes and you write 0 for that turn. This is the whole tension of the game: a turn worth 1200 is worth nothing until you actually write it down.
Combinations only count within a single roll. Two ones rolled separately are 200, but they never become a triple after the fact.
Scoring
Per roll:
- Each single 1: 100
- Each single 5: 50
- Three of a kind: 100 x the face value, so three 2s = 200, three 3s = 300, three 4s = 400, three 5s = 500, three 6s = 600
- Three 1s: 1000 (the exception to the rule above)
- Four of a kind: double the triple (four 4s = 800, four 1s = 2000)
- Five of a kind: four times the triple (five 4s = 1600, five 1s = 4000)
- Six of a kind: eight times the triple (six 4s = 3200, six 1s = 8000)
- Full straight 1-2-3-4-5-6: 1500
- Three pairs: 1000
- Anything else: nothing
Dice used in a set are not also counted individually — three 1s is 1000, not 1000 plus 300.
Your first written entry has to come from a turn worth at least the opening minimum, usually 1000. Turns below that are recorded as 0 until you break through; afterwards any amount can be banked.
Ending the game
As soon as a player's running total reaches or passes the target, every remaining player takes one final turn. Highest total after those turns wins, so a player at 10400 can still be overtaken. Ties are broken with one extra turn each.
Common variations
Groups vary widely on the opening minimum — 350 is common in the south of Sweden, 1000 in tournament-minded circles. Some tables require the exact target to be hit, so overshooting 10000 means the turn scores nothing. Others allow a player to continue a busted turn instead of starting from zero.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | First to target |
|---|---|
| Played to | 10000 points by default |
| Score sheet | Counting up to or down from a limit |
| Typical round score | 0 – 3000 |
| Negative scores | Possible |
| Worth knowing | One cell per turn. A busted turn is entered as 0. Negative entries are only needed if the three-bust penalty is switched on. |
Tiotusen — score sheet
Worked example
Settings: targetScore: 10000, openingMinimum: 1000, bustPenaltyRule: 1000,
hotDice: true, finalRound: true.
Players: Anna, Ben, Cara.
Entries are the points banked that turn. A turn that busts is entered as a penalty.
| Turn | Anna | Ben | Cara |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1050 | 0 |
| 2 | 1200 | 350 | 1500 |
| 3 | 2500 | 0 | 800 |
| 4 | 1000 | 1200 | −1000 |
| 5 | 3000 | 2000 | 2200 |
| 6 | 2400 | 1500 | 1000 |
Turns 1 and 3 for Anna and Cara show the opening rule: a player who has not yet opened
must bank at least 1000 in a single turn, so a turn worth less than that scores 0
rather than a partial amount. Cara's turn 4 is a bust under bustPenaltyRule: 1000,
costing her 1000 rather than simply scoring nothing.
Running totals:
| After | Anna | Ben | Cara |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1050 | 0 |
| 2 | 1200 | 1400 | 1500 |
| 3 | 3700 | 1400 | 2300 |
| 4 | 4700 | 2600 | 1300 |
| 5 | 7700 | 4600 | 3500 |
| 6 | 10100 | 6100 | 4500 |
Anna crosses 10000 on turn 6. With finalRound: true every other player gets one
more turn to overtake her before the game closes.
Expected standings the moment Anna crosses: Anna 10100 (rank 1), Ben 6100, Cara 4500.
finished: false until Ben and Cara have each taken their final turn — this is
the distinction between target.raceTo with and without a final round.
What this catches:
Crossing the target does not immediately end the game when finalRound is on.
An implementation that returns finished: true on the crossing denies everyone else
their last throw, which changes who wins in real games.
The opening minimum suppresses the whole turn, not the excess. Anna's turn 1 was worth something under 1000 and scores 0 — not the amount she actually rolled.
Busts can be negative. Cara's −1000 is a real entry, so allowNegative must be
on and the running total must be able to go down. A scorer that clamps at zero
produces a different game.
Tools for Tiotusen
Set up the way this game wants them.
House rules and settings
Every table plays Tiotusen a little differently. These are the 8 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Play to: what is the default in Tiotusen?
The score a player must reach to trigger the end of the game. 10000 is the classic length; 5000 makes a game that fits in about half an hour.
Default: 10000. Adjustable from 1000 to 20000 in steps of 500.
In the app: “Play to”.
Minimum to open: what are the options in Tiotusen?
Before your first entry counts, one single turn has to be worth at least this much. Until you manage it you stay on zero, no matter how many small turns you bank.
Default: 1000 points. Four options:
In the app: “Minimum to open”.
Three busts in a row: what are the options in Tiotusen?
Some groups punish a cold streak. If you fail to score on three consecutive turns, this amount is taken off your running total.
Default: Lose 1000 points. Three options:
In the app: “Three busts in a row”.
Hot dice: on or off in Tiotusen?
If every one of your six dice has scored, you may pick all six up and keep rolling, adding to the same turn instead of having to bank.
Default: on.
In the app: “Hot dice”.
Full straight (1-2-3-4-5-6): what is the default in Tiotusen?
What a single roll showing all six different faces is worth.
Default: 1500. Adjustable from 0 to 3000 in steps of 50.
In the app: “Full straight (1-2-3-4-5-6)”.
Three pairs: what is the default in Tiotusen?
What a single roll of six dice forming three separate pairs is worth.
Default: 1000. Adjustable from 0 to 3000 in steps of 50.
In the app: “Three pairs”.
Four, five and six of a kind: what are the options in Tiotusen?
How sets bigger than three of a kind grow. Doubling is the usual Swedish way, so four fours is 800, five fours 1600 and six fours 3200.
Default: Each extra die doubles the triple. Three options:
In the app: “Four, five and six of a kind”.
Give everyone a last turn: on or off in Tiotusen?
When someone passes the target, every other player gets exactly one more turn to try to beat them. Turn this off and the first player past the target wins immediately.
Default: on.
In the app: “Give everyone a last turn”.
Variants of Tiotusen
Short game
Play to 5000 with no opening minimum. Roughly half the length and much friendlier to newcomers.
Six of a kind wins
Rolling six identical dice in one throw wins the whole game on the spot, whatever the scores are.
Stealing
You may pick up the dice a player busted with and continue their turn total at your own risk instead of starting fresh.
Tiotusen is also known as
10000, Tio tusen, Farkle, Zilch, Dice 10000. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.