Bona Fortuna

Invented by Howard Fosdick © BestFreeNewGames.com

Overview: In this game you roll dice to create combinations that score points. It's similar to commercial dice games like Yahtzee ®, Kismet ®, and Yamslam ® -- except that it's more exciting and requires more judgement. Plus, it's free!

For: Two to four players with five dice. Print a copy of our Score Sheet to make it easy to keep score.

Objective: To obtain the highest score.

Phases: The game is played in two phases.

Phase I: Roll to see who goes first.

In each turn, a player can roll dice a maximum of three times.

Each time he rolls, he optionally sets aside one or more dice that will not participate in his next roll. His goal is to create one of the dice combinations (or melds) listed on the Score Sheet by the end of his three rolls.

After his three rolls, the player must write a score into one of the boxes on his Score Sheet.

Scoring:

The melds for which a player can score are listed down the left-hand side of the Score Sheet. Inside the parentheses after each meld is its scoring value.

A player can enter his score for his turn in either of two columns -- his left-hand column or his right-hand column (labeled Doubled on the Score Sheet).

For example, a Big Straight entered in a player's left-hand column scores 40 points, while a Big Straight entered into his right-hand or "Doubled Column" scores 80 points.

As the game progresses, a player will have fewer and fewer boxes into which to enter scores. He may even find himself unable to attain certain melds. In this case he is forced to record a score of 0 for that meld.

Phase I ends when all players have entered some value (or 0) into each box of their two columns. (This requires 18 turns for each player).

For the row in the Score Sheet labeled 3-of-a-Kind or Full House, a player can score for either one meld or the other. Thus, he must choose whether to score for 3-of-a-Kind or a Full House in those boxes.

For the rows labeled 6's, 5's, and 4's, you record the sum of the dice showing that number. For example, if you end your turn with two 6's, you could score 6+6 or 12 points in your left-hand column. Or alternatively, if you placed that in your Doubled Column you would score 6+6 times 2, or 24 points.

Phase II - the "Doubling Round": At the conclusion of the Phase I, total and record the players' scores. Whoever has the lowest score takes the first turn in Phase II.

In Phase II, enter all scores in the columns labeled Doubling Round on the Score Sheet.

Phase II play follows the same rules as Phase I -- except that only one player can score for each meld. The other player(s) will score 0 for that meld.

For example, Player A takes a turn and scores for 4-of-a-Kind. All Phase II scores are doubled, so he scores 40 times 2 or 80 points for that meld. He writes that value into his Doubling Round box for that meld.

Since only one player may score for each meld in Phase II, his opponent(s) must record a score of 0 for the 4-of-a-Kind meld in their column(s).

In Phase II, only after numbers have been entered in the three scoring boxes for 6's, 5's, and 4's can a player enter a 0 for any other meld.

When a player is forced to write a 0 for any meld at the end of his turn, all other player(s) also score 0 for that meld as well.

Bonuses: Note the three lines labeled Bonus in the Score Sheet.

In Phase I, players score a bonus when they achieve positive scores for each of the three melds listed above that Bonus in the Score Sheet. Players score separate bonuses for both their regular score column and their Doubled Column.

For example, record all three kinds of Straights without a 0 among them in your Doubled Column, and you score an extra 30 point Bonus.

Note that Phase I Bonuses are never doubled. So even if you obtain all three straights in your Phase I Doubled Column, the bonus is still 30 points.

To score the bonus for the 6's, 5's, and 4's category, a player needs a total of 45 or more points for those three rows in his left-hand column -- or a total of 90 points or more to score that bonus in his Doubled column.

In Phase II, a player scores a bonus only if he alone scored all three of the melds required for that bonus. Phase II bonuses are always doubled, just like all other Phase II scores.

Scoring Summary:

Meld:	Points:	Description:

5-of-a-Kind	50	Any five dice that show the same number -- Examples: 1-1-1-1-1 or 4-4-4-4-4
4-of-a-Kind	40	Any four dice that show the same number -- Examples: 1-1-1-1 or 3-3-3-3
3-of-a-Kind --or--- Full House	15 --or--- 30	Any three dice that show the same number -- Examples: 2-2-2 or 3-3-3 --or----------- Three of any one number, and two of any other number -- Examples: 2-2-5-5-5 or 6-6-6-1-1
Bonus	40	For successfully completing all three melds above
Big Straight	40	All five dice in sequence. Either: 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6
Small Straight	20	Four dice in sequence. Either: 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5, or 3-4-5-6
Mixed Straight	15	Three dice in skip straight sequence. Either: 1-3-5 or 2-4-6
Bonus	30	For successfully completing all three melds above
6's	Total of 6's	Total of all 6's rolled -- Examples: 6-6 (12 total), or 6-6-6 (18 total)
5's	Total of 5's	Total of all 5's rolled -- Examples: 5 (5 total), or 5-5-5 (15 total)
4's	Total of 4's	Total of all 4's rolled -- Examples: 4-4 (8 total), or no 4's at all (0 total)
Bonus	20	For a total of 6's, 5's, and 4's of at least 45 points. Or a total of at least 90 points for the Doubled column.

Print our PDF Score Sheet. Or copy & paste to print the Scoring Sheets below...

Bona Fortuna Scoring Sheet -- 2 Players --

	Player 1:	Player 1 Doubled:	Player 2:	Player 2 Doubled:	Doubling Round - Player 1:	Doubling Round - Player 2:

5-of-a-Kind (50)
4-of-a-Kind (40)
3-of-a-Kind (15) ---OR--- Full House (30)
BONUS (40)
Big Straight (40)
Small Str (20)
Mixed Str (15)
BONUS (30)
6's (total 6's)
5's (total 5's)
4's (total 4's)
BONUS (20) (45+ or 90+)

TOTALS:
GRAND TOTALS:

Bona Fortuna Scoring Sheet -- 4 Players --

	Player 1:	Player 1 Doubled:	Player 2:	Player 2 Doubled:	Player 3:	Player 3 Doubled:	Player 4:	Player 4 Doubled:	Doubling Round - Player 1:	Doubling Round - Player 2:	Doubling Round - Player 3:	Doubling Round - Player 4:

5-of-a-Kind (50)
4-of-a-Kind (40)
3-of-a-Kind (15) ---OR--- Full House (30)
BONUS (40)
Big Straight (40)
Small Str (20)
Mixed Str (15)
BONUS (30)
6's (total 6's)
5's (total 5's)
4's (total 4's)
BONUS (20) (45+ or 90+)

TOTALS:
GRAND TOTALS:

Tips for Play: Dice games of this kind are often called "category games". The basic idea is that players must score in each category of their scoring chart by obtaining each of the required melds.

There exist a couple dozen category dice games. They include well-known commercial games such as Yahtzee ®, Kismet ®, and Yamslam ®. You don't have to buy anything to play ours, and given its greater scope for strategy and choice, we think it more interesting than the commercial games.

Bona Fortuna presents several features that distinguish it from the pack:

In Phase I, players must decide in which column to record their scores, the left-hand column or the Doubled Column. This additional level of decision-making enhances the role of strategy. Good choices here, based on a sound understanding of odds, greatly increase a player's chances to win.
Phase II creates direct competition between players. Either you score for a particular meld, or I do. One of us grabs the points, while the other scores zilch!
And of course, points are doubled during the Doubling Round. So the excitement builds.
The Doubling Round maintains suspense until the end of the game because the winner will rarely be known before then. Competing games sometimes lose excitement early because it's apparent who will win well before the game concludes.
The Doubling Round gives lagging player(s) a decent chance of catching the prospective winner. Other category dice games give them little opportunity to bounce back and win.
Scoring for the categories called 1's, 2's, and 3's -- present in most category games -- has been eliminated. This shifts the focus to the more exciting "poker-style" melds higher in the Score Sheet.

Google and you can find the odds for scoring the various melds. Your chances of tossing The Bomb (5-of-a-Kind) in one turn is about 4.6%. That's roughly once in every 21 turns.¹ So, statistically speaking, each participant is theoretically due one Bomb per game.