A dice game popular with pirates of the Caelum Galaxy.
There are many names for this popular dice game, such as Doubting Dice, Dudo, Perudo, Liar's Dice, Mexacali, Call My Bluff, "pirate's dice," "deception dice," and so on. But regardless of the name, Bluff requires two or more players and is typically played with a set of five 6-sided dice for each player. Since players must keep their dice concealed from other players, one dice cup for each player is recommended.
The game is played over multiple rounds. The first player for the first round is determined by mutual agreement or by all players rolling two dice with the highest roller becoming the first player. Play then proceeds clockwise around the table.
How to Play
To begin each round, all players roll their dice simultaneously. Each player looks at their own dice after they roll, keeping them hidden from the other players. (If any dice has landed on top of another, the player must roll all their dice again.)
The first player then states a bid consisting of a face ("1's", "5's", etc.) and a quantity. The quantity represents the player's guess as to how many of each face have been rolled by all the players at the table, including themselves. For example, a player might bid "five 2's."
Each subsequent player can either then make a higher bid of the same face (e.g., "six 2's"), or they can challenge the previous bid. (Note that there are a large variety of bidding variations that can be used. We'll describe some of them below.)
If the player challenges the previous bid, all players reveal their dice. If the bid is matched or exceeded, the bidder wins. Otherwise the challenger wins.
If the bidder loses, they remove one of their dice from the game by placing it in front of their dice cup.
The loser of the previous round begins the next round.
(In the event that the game comes down to two players with only a single dice each, bids are then made on the sum of both dice instead the quantity of faces rolled.)
Example of play:
Bob, Lauren, Steve and John are playing a game of Liar's Dice. Bob is the first player. After they have all rolled and looked at their own dice, Bob begins by bidding "three 4's."
Play passes to Lauren, who makes a higher bid of "five 4's."
Play passes to Steve who bids "seven 4's."
Play passes to John, who challenges Steve's bid. Because the bid has been challenged, all players lift their dice cups to reveal their dice. There are six 4's showing, so John wins because Steve's bid was not matched or exceeded. Steve would have won if there had been seven or more 4's showing.
Because he lost the round, Steve takes one of his five dice and places it in front of his dice cup. It will not be used for the remainder of the game.