Kismet (dice game)

Kismet is the trademarked name of a commercial dice game introduced in 1964. E.William DeLaittre holds the trademark on the game, originally published by Lakeside Games, and currently produced by Endless Games. Marketed as "The Modern Game of Yacht", the game is played similarly to Yahtzee, with a few variations; the most notable difference is that in Kismet, the sides of the dice have different colored pips.

Game contents

A standard Kismet game set comes in a predominantly green box marked with the Kismet logo; a black elongated rectangle containing six white diamonds, each containing the letters of the word "KISMET". The box logo also contains the words "IT IS FATE" inside the bottom of the logo.

The box itself contains a set of five dice. The dice are white, with colored pips; 1 and 6 are colored black; 2 and 5 red; 3 and 4 green. The box also contains a dice-throwing cup, a pencil, and a pad of official scorecards. Additional scorecards are available for purchase from the manufacturer.

Overview of the rules

As in similar dice games, players take turns rolling five dice. Each player can take up to three rolls per turn, in order to create a scoring combination. On the second and third rolls, the player may hold dice from the previous rolls in order to create better scoring combinations. At the end of the third roll, the player must enter a score into an open field on his scorecard. If the player cannot make a score, he or she must enter a zero into an open field.

corecard

Each player keeps a running tally of their rolls on a scorecard. The scorecard is laid out in two sections, the Basic Section and the Kismet Section.

Basic section

The Basic Section of the scorecard plays similarly to Yahtzee's Upper Section, in that you score points for each number on the dice. There are six categories: Aces (ones), Deuces (twos), Treys (threes), Fours, Fives, and Sixes. Each of these categories is scored by adding the total of dice that match the category. For example, after the third roll (3, 4, 4, 6, and 4) a 12 can be scored in the Fours section (the value, 4, multiplied by the number of dice, 3), a 3 in the Treys section (3x1), or a 6 in the Sixes section (6x1), if those categories are still open.

As in Yahtzee, a bonus of 35 points is earned with a minimum of 63 in the Basic Section. However, Kismet provides a scalable bonus; a score of at least 71 but no more than 77 earns a bonus of 55 points; and 78 or more, the bonus is 75 points.

Kismet section

The Kismet Section is scored based on creating dice combinations similar to poker hands. It is in this section that the colored dice come into play, as they determine scoring criteria below:

Rolling subsequent Kismets

Kismet does not provide for bonus points for multiple five-of-a-kinds. After scoring a Kismet, a subsequent five-of-a-kind can be used as a "joker", which can be scored in any open category in the Kismet Section (except the Straight category), or the appropriate number category in the Basic Section if it has not already been scored. Scoring occurs as the category specifies.

The twist of rolling a second Kismet comes in games where two or more people are playing; in multi-player games, if one player rolls a second Kismet, all other players must take a zero in the first open category (closest to the top on the scoresheet) in the Basic section, or the Kismet section if all Basic section boxes have been filled. The opponents also lose a turn, and the player who rolled the second Kismet rolls again. This applies to subsequent Kismets as well. This is where the name of the game comes into play; rolling multiple Kismets, "it is fate" that they most likely will win.