Ship, Captain and Crew (6-5-4)

In Ship, Captain and Crew, you get up to three rolls with five dice each round. You need a 6 (the ship), then a 5 (the captain), then a 4 (the crew), in that order. Once you have all three, the two remaining dice are your cargo, and their total is your score. Whoever has the most points at the end of the round wins – everyone else takes a sip.

All you need are five dice and a dice cup. Roll to see who starts. After that, everyone gets one turn, and the round ends with the last player.

• Order: You can only keep a 5 once you have the 6, and a 4 only once the 6 and 5 are down. If several matching numbers come up in one roll, set them all aside at once.
• Keep rolling: Roll the remaining dice again until your ship is complete or your three rolls are used up.
• Cargo: Once you have ship, captain and crew, the two leftover dice count. That’s between 2 and 12 points. Without a full crew, you score zero.
• Rerolling cargo: If your ship is complete after the first or second roll, you can use your remaining rolls to reroll both cargo dice – the new result counts, even if it’s worse.
• Ties: If several players share the top score, only they roll again until one pulls ahead.
• Drinking: Everyone except the winner takes a sip. The next round starts with the player to the right of the previous starter.

An example: you roll 6, 5, 3, 3, 1 and set aside the 6 and 5. On your second roll with three dice you get 4, 2 and 6. The 4 completes your crew, so your cargo is 2 + 6 = 8. With your third roll, you could gamble on the cargo again.

Variations

• Only the last drinks: Instead of all losers, only the player with the lowest score drinks.
• The captain hands out: The winner rolls one die, and the number shows how many sips in total they get to hand out to the others.
• Shifting cargo: You can keep one cargo die and reroll only the other.
• Bow to stern: Collect 1, 2 and 3 instead of 6, 5 and 4.

Tips

Rerolling the cargo usually only pays off at six points or less. In American bars, the game also goes by 6-5-4, Destroyer or Clickety Clack, and it works just as well played for points without drinks.