There are several categories of skill games. For example, card, board, tile, word, dice and puzzle games. Within these categories are specific games.

This article presents a mix of five Tile and Dice games to explore.

Many of these games will be a new discovery to you while others, you will remember fondly, but have not played recently. This preview will jog your memory and perhaps persuade a return to the games you loved to play.

The 5 games listed will briefly describe the rules/goal of the games along with skill gamerisms-terms, definitions or phrases associated with the game.

Skill games receive plenty of space at gamerisms.com that describes and defines the 11 challenging skill games/types of Chess, Backgammon, Checkers, Rummy, Billiards, Darts, Puzzle, Word, Tile and Dice Games plus Other Card Games.

We begin with two familiar and popular tiles games played worldwide-Mahjong and
Dominoes.

1) Mahjong is set with 4 players seated at a table representing the four winds–North, South, East, and West. All tiles are placed face down and after shuffling, each player selects 36 tiles. The winning player completes a hand before anyone else. This completed hand would have four sets of three tiles in a suit.

Mahjong tiles have 3 divisions: Suits, Honor, and Flowers.
Suits: can be Stones, Bamboo, or Characters depending on what the tile represents. Honor: suit is further divided into Wind tiles and Dragon tiles.
Flower: suit has flower tiles such as plum, chrysanthemum, orchid, and bamboo.
Players use various types of bids. If money is placed on the bid, the loser has to pay the score difference between him/her and the winner.
The winner earns 20 points. The other players win points based on the type of tiles they have. Each tile has a certain amount of points.

2) Dominoes: the aim of the game is to discard all tiles before other players.
The winner then racks up points based on the other players\’ remaining tiles.
At the start, all tiles are face down, shuffled and each player selects 7 tiles.
After the first player places their domino tile, the next player must match the pips at either end of that domino and place the tile accordingly. If a player does not have a match in hand, he/she must choose from the domino pile not selected by other players.
Domino Terms:
Ace: dominoes with only 1 dot, pip or spot.
Block or Jam: no player can make a move or advance.
Deuce: term for a domino with 2 dots/pips.
Dot/Pip/Spot: numbers on a domino tile.
Double or Doublet: tiles with same number on each side.

gamerisms.com lists 10 popular Dice Games played worldwide: Poker Dice, Yahtzee, Boggle, Bunco, Farkel, Kismet, Stack and Shut the Box. Sic Bo and Craps complete the list. For this preview, the skill games of Poker Dice, Boggle and Kismet are described.

3) Poker Dice
The Dice used in the game is a six-sided cube displaying cards instead of numbers. Each of the six sides represent Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten and Nine used to form a Poker hand in order of rank. The winner of the game rolls the best poker hand.
After ante, each player rolls five dice in turn and plays for the best combination with maximum points in different rows.
Each player takes three rolls of the dice and can save any one dice from the previous roll. Once a dice has been placed aside, it cannot be rolled again for that player’s turn.
At conclusion of the game, the player with maximum points wins the game.

4) Boggle
This classic game consists of 16 dice cubes marked with a different letter of the alphabet on each of the 6 sides of an individual dice.

Scoring is determined by the number of words consisting of 3 letters or more that are formed after a player\’s roll.
Words can be formed by joining letters up, down, side-to-side and diagonally. The longer and more unusual the words the higher your score.

5) Kismet
Luck meets skill with the tri-colored dice game of Kismet.
The game is played with 5 tri-colored dice and scoring is determined by color and number combinations rolled.
Players roll any or all dice one, two or three times looking for dice combos formed according to a designated scoring category. Players fill 15 scoring boxes and add bonuses for their total game score. The player with the highest total score wins the game.

Are you ready for the roll of a dice or the click of a tile for your next skill game choice?

Author Bio: Gayle Mitchell is the publisher/webmaster at gamerisms.com, the games glossary-quiz site for passionate sports, casino, skill and video game players. Detailed Tile games and Dice games glossary/quiz units are at the site. Subscribe to gamerisms sports and games blog to receive updates for the games we love to play.

Category: Recreation
Keywords: tile games, dice games, skill games, mahjong, dominoes, poker dice, boggle, kismet