How to play Pip Parlor, the five-dice game

What the five-dice game is

Pip Parlor is AllFun's version of the classic five-dice scoring game, a family favourite played with five dice and a scorecard of thirteen boxes. Each turn you roll up to three times, keeping the dice you like between rolls, and then you must write a score in one box. Every box can be used only once, so after thirteen turns the card is full and the higher total wins. The skill lies in deciding what to chase and where to put a roll that went wrong.

Playing Pip Parlor on AllFun

In AllFun Pip Parlor, choose Solo to beat your best score, Rival to play a computer player (Nova, Pixel, Mako or Vega, at Easy, Normal or Hard), or Friends for two to four people sharing one device. The Daily dice gives everyone the same rolls each day, so scores compare fairly. Online games are for two, through Play Online or a link to a friend, with the server rolling every die and 30 seconds a move.

Tap Roll, tap a die to keep it, and roll again. Every open box shows what it would score now, and the best one glows. In Solo and Rival games, one Extra roll and one Lucky nudge, which turns a die to the face you choose, are free each game.

The rules

A turn

Roll all five dice. Keep any and roll the rest, then once more if you like: three rolls at most. Then fill one empty box. If the dice fit nothing you need, you still choose a box and score zero there.

The upper section

Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives and Sixes each score the total of the dice showing that number: four 5s in the Fives box are worth 20. If these six boxes add up to 63 or more, you get a 35-point bonus. Sixty-three is exactly three of each number.

The lower section

• Three of a kind and Four of a kind: at least that many alike; scores the total of all five dice.
• Full house: three of one number and two of another, 25 points.
• Small straight: four in a row (1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5 or 3-4-5-6), 30 points.
• Large straight: five in a row (1 to 5 or 2 to 6), 40 points.
• Five of a kind: all five dice alike, 50 points.
• Chance: any dice at all; scores their total.

Extra fives of a kind

Once your Five of a kind box holds 50, every further five alike adds 100 points, and the roll can fill any open box, counting in full even in Full house or a straight. A zero in Five of a kind means no extra bonus later.

Six tips for higher scores

1. Plan for the bonus. Three of a number in each upper box makes 63. Four 5s or 6s give you room to come up short on Ones or Twos.
2. Keep dice that serve many boxes. Three 5s work for Fives, both kinds, Full house and Five of a kind. A lone 6 kept for Chance works for almost nothing.
3. Chase open straights. A run of 2-3-4-5 completes the large straight with a 1 or a 6; a run with a gap, such as 1-2-4-5, needs one exact number.
4. Save Chance for a rescue. It turns a hopeless late roll into twenty-odd points. Filling it early with a weak total throws that away.
5. Scratch cheaply. When you must take a zero, Ones costs at most 5 points. Five of a kind is a fair choice late in the game if you have not been close.
6. Count what is left. In the last turns, keep only dice that can fill a box you still have open.

A short history

Rolling dice for poker-style hands is an old pastime. The form with five dice, three rolls and a thirteen-box card spread widely in the mid-twentieth century and is now a family classic.

Five-dice game FAQ