Criss-Cross
Written by Howard Fosdick © BestFreeNewGames.com
Overview: Criss-Cross is an unusual game you can play with up to 10 participants. You can even play it as a solitaire.
Players and Equipment:
1 to 10 players. 2 dice. A pen or pencil and this score sheet for each player:
(Print PDF score pad here, or print JPG score pad here.)
Goal: To win the most points by creating patterns on your personal score sheet.
Background:
In this game you will roll the two dice and announce their sum. But a sum of 10 always counts as a 0, 11 counts as a 1, and 12 counts as a 2.
Thus, the resulting Digit for any roll will range from 0 to 9:
| Sum of Dice | Digit |
|---|---|
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 8 | 8 |
| 9 | 9 |
| 10 | 0 |
| 11 | 1 |
| 12 | 2 |
Prior to Play: Each player rolls the two dice and places the resulting Digit in his center green square.
Play:
The first player rolls the two dice and announces the Digit.
Each player writes that number in any of the 24 boxes contained within the area described by the blue outline.
In turn, each player will roll the dice, announce the Digit, and allow each player time to record that number in one of his boxes within the blue outine.
So after two dozen rolls of the dice, all players have completed the 25 boxes inside their blue outline. The game ends.
Goal:
The goal is to enter Digits in your boxes to create patterns in each row and column that score points:
| ---Pattern--- | Points |
|---|---|
| 5 Equal Digits | 10 |
| 4 Equal Digits | 6 |
| 3 Equal Digits | 3 |
| 2 Equal Digits | 1 |
| Sequence of 5 Consecutive Digits | 5 |
Example: any row or column that contains 3 equal digits scores 3 points. The digits do not have to be adjacent to one another. They only have to be present in the row or column.
Consecutive Sequence digits do not have to be in order. Example: 4-6-5-7-3 scores 5 points. 0 can only be used as the lowest or highest digit in a sequence. That is, 0-1-2-3-4 and 6-7-8-9-0 each score 5 points. But 7-8-9-0-1 does not score.
You can score for more than a one pattern in a row or column. Example: two pairs in a single row or column scores two points total. Example: a pair and a triplet in the same row or column scores 4 points.
After you complete a row or column, fill in your score for it in the box outside the blue outline.
When the game ends, fill in your grand total in the red box. The player with the highest total score wins.
Example:
Here's an example game in progress:
So far, the player has scored 1 point for a pair in his first row, and 5 points for a Sequence on his third row. His only column score is 3 points for the triplet in his third column.
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Parties:
This is a good party game that accomodates up to 10 players. To speed things along, randomly pass out scoring sheets in which the center Digit (the green box) is already filled in. Also, it's faster and easier to just have one player roll and announce the Digits, rather than passing the dice around in a large group.
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Tips for Play:
This game might be easy if you had to worry only about rows, or only about columns. It's the interaction between the two, and your effort to optimize that, that make this game challenging. To get a high score you need contributions from both rows and columns.
It's helpful to know the probability for any particular Digit coming up in a single roll of the dice:
So both your repeating digits and sequences are more readily scored with the higher Digits. You've got better chances of scoring repeating 7's than a line of 2's.
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Variants:
"Criss and Cross" -- Obtain two separate totals: one for your rows, and one for your columns. Your lower result is your score for the game. If there's a tie, the higher scores break it.
Being forced to pay such close attention to both rows and columns forces you into a tricky balancing act. It's a more intense game than simple Criss-Cross.
"Criss Versus Cross -- In this two-player variant, both players use a single score sheet. One player scores only from the rows, and the other scores only from the columns. Lots of interaction in this version, and defensive moves to thwart your opponent count as well as your own scoring.
-----------------------------------Sources: These rules were compiled from internet sources and the book "Dice Games: Properly Explained" by Reiner Knizia.
-----------------------------------License: Feel free to print, copy, and distribute these rules, so long as you retain this paragraph. Written by Howard Fosdick © 2024, distributed under Creative Commons License BY-ND. HOME