Some Basic Terminology for Boolean Dice Games
To make the games easier to describe, we're going to adopt some basic
terminology for the games. Most games assume that players are sitting
on comfortable chairs around a flat table with room to roll dice; use
your best judgement for adapting games to other scenarios.
- Black-up
- A die is Black-up if the topmost face is black (has no
round sticker).
- Color
- The Color of a die is the color of the topmost face.
- Constrained
- If a game is Constrained, it means that you are not
allowed to get up from your seat before the game is over!
(If you are sitting on chairs,
consider using the Crokinole "butt-cheek" rule -- you cannot move
your chair and must keep at least one "cheek" on the chair at all times.)
It also means you may not touch most dice (unless you Possess
them).
- Display
- To place a die so that other players may View it.
Possession of the die is unchanged.
- Examine
- To inspect a die fully (all six faces). You may touch it and/or
pick it up.
- Nudge
- To turn a die 90 degrees so that a different face is on top.
Getting the bottom face to the top requires Nudging twice.
- Possess/Possession
- Taking a die. When the die is in your Possession, you may
Examine it freely. You may also hide it from the view of other
players. If other players ask you how many dice you possess, you
must answer truthfully, but you are not obligated to divulge the
identity of those dice.
- Reveal
- To take a die and turn it upside-down, showing all players the
bottom face of the die. You may not Examine the die
unless explicitly allowed to.
- Roll
- To roll a die. In general, you may not Examine or
Reveal a die that you roll unless it is in your Possession.
- Shift
- To move a die without showing anyone the bottom face. You may
turn it to look at the other faces.
- Split
- This is an easy way of splitting one set of dice into two groups of
five dice each, where one group has five Black-up dice and the
other has five White-up dice.
Roll all 10 dice. If five are White-up and
five are Black-up, you're done. Otherwise, pick whichever
Color there's the least of, and put those dice in one pile.
Re-roll the other dice until there are 5 or less of the other
Color. If there are exactly 5, you're done. Otherwise, put
those dice of the other Color into a second pile, and reroll the
rest until they split appropriately.
- Surrender
- To lose Possession of a die. Sometimes the die is
Surrendered to another player (who then gains Possession
of it); sometimes it is just Rolled.
- View
- To look at a die (without touching it or leaving your seat).
You may crane your head in an attempt to see more of the die.
- White-up
- A die is White-up if the topmost face is white (has a
round sticker).