420 Rulebook

Table of Contents

PLAY
OBJECT OF THE GAME
REROLL RESTRICTIONS
GO OVER AND RESET
MULTIPLAYER 420
DESIGN NOTES
AUTHOR'S NOTE

PLAY

Starting with Red, players begin by rolling all four of their own dice, forming their hand. On each of your subsequent turns, you must reroll 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the dice in your hand, and add them back into your hand - one roll per turn. SEE REROLL RESTRICTIONS BELOW.

OBJECT OF THE GAME

The goal is for the dice in your hand to total exactly 20. No more, no less. For example, (6, 5, 5, 4) is a winning hand. It's possible to win the game on your first turn, with a probability of 2.7% - about 1 in 37 plays.

REROLL RESTRICTIONS

4 dice: You can always reroll 4 dice.
3 dice: You can only reroll 3 dice if the remaining die has a value of at least 5.
2 dice: You can only reroll 2 dice if the remaining 2 dice sum to at least 10.
1 die: You can only reroll 1 die if the remaining 3 dice sum to at least 15.

GO OVER AND RESET

If your hand sums to 21 or higher, on your next turn you must reroll all four of your dice (reset).

MULTIPLAYER 420

420 can actually accommodate any number of players. Randomly choose Player 1. Succeeding turns proceed clockwise. In successive rounds, the new Player 1 is to the left of the previous Player 1.

The round winners drop out, one by one, and the last remaining player buys the drinks.

DESIGN NOTES

I wanted to invent a simple dice game. No score sheet. No poker chips. Just dice. And then simple rules. No combinations to memorize. No bids, no bluffs... No showdowns or tiebreakers.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Feel free to publish this rule sheet and to program the game of 420. No licensing fee or royalties are expected. However, please don't change the name or the rules, and please attribute the game to me, Mark Steere. My other games can be found at marksteeregames.com.