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.TH CUBES 6 "cubes 5.1" GMP "UNIX Gaming Manual"
.SH NAME
cubes \- single- or multi-player dice game
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.\" sccsid: @(#)cubes.6 5.1 (G.M. Paris) 89/01/22
.\"
.\"
.\"
.\"	cubes 5.1  Copyright 1988 Gregory M. Paris
.\"		Permission granted to redistribute on a no charge basis.
.\"		All other rights are reserved.
.\"
.\"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B cubes
[
.BR \- < options >
] [
.B name
]
.SH OVERVIEW
The game of
.I cubes
is a dice game played with five dice.
.PP
Players take turns rolling the dice.
Points are scored by rolling one or more scoring combinations.
Any time a roll fails to produce at least one scoring combination,
that player's turn is over and no points are added to his score.
Each time a roll produces one or more scoring combinations,
the player has the choice to hold or roll again.
If he holds, his turn is over and
the sum of points accumulated during the turn are added to his score.
.PP
The first player to reach 10,000 points is declared the winner
and the game ends.
At that point,
the score of each player is recorded in the score file.
Another program,
.IR cuberank (6),
can be used to display the score file,
ranking all
.I cubes
players from best to worst.
.SH "THIS MANUAL PAGE"
.nf
The rest of this manual page contains the following sections:
.sp 1
.in +0.5i
.B BEFORE PLAYING
.B ROLLING AND REROLLING
.B SCORING COMBINATIONS
.B STANDARD VS. BLITZ GAMES
.B GETTING ON BOARD
.B GETTING OFF BOARD
.B OVERTIME GAMES
.B MORE DOCUMENTATION
.B AUTHOR
.in -0.5i
.fi
.SH BEFORE PLAYING
Although
.I cubes
provides prompts and error messages,
gives help messages in response to the ``?'' command,
counts the points, determines the winner, and enforces the rules of the game,
it's a good idea to at least scan all of this manual page
before starting your first game.
.PP
Another friendly piece of advice is, ``Don't quit!''\ 
It's possible to leave the game before it's over,
but you'll probably get a lousy score recorded in the score file.
If you become a regular
.IR cubes
player, you'll appreciate the fact that you
didn't start off with a crummy ranking because you quit.
.SH "ROLLING AND REROLLING"
The first roll of each turn is made with all five dice.
If no scoring combinations come up,
the player's turn is over and no points are added to her score.
.PP
If one or more scoring combinations show,
she may choose to hold or roll again.
If she holds, her turn is over,
and the sum of the points of all showing combinations
are added to her score.
.PP
If she chooses to reroll,
she risks losing the points scored so far this turn.
Points due to each reroll are added to those of previous rolls,
but none of them are added to her score until she holds.
.PP
Unless all five dice scored on the last roll,
the player will reroll less than five dice.
If more than one combination scored on the last turn,
she can pick up some of the dice that scored and reroll them along
with the dice that didn't score.
If any scoring dice are picked up in this way,
the points due to them are given up,
but rolling more dice increases the chances of scoring
on the next roll.
At least one scoring combination must be left behind.
Such dice left behind are referred to as ``held'' dice.
.PP
Rerolling can continue as long as dice score each time.
Whenever all five dice have scored,
the player gets to reroll all five dice.
.SH "SCORING COMBINATIONS"
A list of scoring combinations and what they're worth
are displayed on the screen when playing
.IR cubes .
A more complete description of each scoring combination
is described below.
In the descriptions,
the word ``face'' is shorthand for face value.
For a one the face value is ten,
and for two through six,
the face value is the same as the number of spots.
.IP Points 12
Description
.IP "face * 300"
.I Five of a Kind
is one of two combinations that can include previously held dice.
.I Five of a Kind
is all five dice showing the same face.
This combination can occur any time the dice are rolled.
When held dice are part of this combination,
the points they earned as part of previous combinations are forgotten.
All five dice score.
.IP "face * 200"
.I Four of a Kind
is four rolled dice showing the same face.
This combination can occur only when four or five dice are rolled.
Four dice score.
.IP "face * 100"
.I Three of a Kind
is three rolled dice showing the same face.
This combination can occur when three, four, or five dice are rolled.
Three dice score.
.IP 1500/750
A
.I Straight
is an uninterrupted sequence of five numbers,
either one through five or two through six.
If all five dice are rolled to produce a
.IR Straight ,
the combination is worth 1500 points.
If it takes more than one roll to complete a
.I Straight
(thus using held dice),
the combination is worth 750 points.
All five dice score.
.IP 400
A
.I Small Straight
is an uninterrupted sequence of four numbers.
The possibilities are one through four, two through five, or three through six.
This combination can occur only when four or five dice are rolled.
Four dice score.
.IP 100
Any
.IR One ,
not part of another combination, is a scoring combination unto itself.
A
.I One
can occur at any time.
Each
.I One
is a scoring die.
.IP 50
Any
.IR Five ,
not part of another combination, is a scoring combination unto itself.
A
.I Five
can occur at any time.
Each
.I Five
is a scoring die.
.IP 0
Any
.IR Joker ,
not part of another combination, is a scoring combination unto itself,
but unlike the
.I One
and
.IR Five ,
a single
.I Joker
is not worth any points 
(that's why a
.I Joker
has no spots, looking more like a big zero).
However, the face value of a
.I Joker
is a whopping thirty, thus making
.IR Three ,
.IR Four ,
and
.I Five of a Kind
in
.I Jokers
worth 3000, 6000, and 9000 points respectively.
.B Note:
on your system
.I cubes
might not be configured to use dice with
.I Jokers
on them, and even if so configured,
will play only about one of six games with
.IR Jokers .
If the game is to be played with
.IR Jokers ,
you will be notified when the game begins.
You may think of
.I Joker
dice as having thirteen sides,
with two of each of the faces one through six,
and a single
.I Joker
face.
.SH "STANDARD VS. BLITZ GAMES"
On your system,
.I cubes
may be configured to play two different types of games:
.I Standard
and
.IR Blitz .
.I Standard
games are to 10,000 points.
.I Blitz
games are to 7,500 points.
You will be told what kind of game you're playing
at the beginning of each, but
.I cubes
always displays this information on the screen during play.
.SH "GETTING ON BOARD"
Similar to
``Jack or better to open'' in poker,
.I cubes
requires each player to score at least 500 points in a turn
to ``get on board.''\ 
Each player is not allowed to hold with less than 500 points
until he completes a turn that scores 500 or more points.
Sometimes it takes several turns to reach this magic threshold,
but once reached,
on subsequent turns the player is free to hold with less than 500 points.
.SH "GETTING OFF BOARD"
Similar to getting on board,
there is a threshold to get off board.
Getting off board means crossing 10,000 points in a
.I Standard
game, or crossing 7,500 points in a
.I Blitz
game.
As with getting on board,
500 or more points in a turn are needed to get off board.
It may take several turns to accomplish this feat.
.SH "OVERTIME GAMES"
There is a possibility that any game of
.I cubes
can go into overtime.
This is because there is an additional requirement to winning a game,
beyond crossing the 10,000 point or 7,500 point threshold.
That requirement is that the winner's score must exceed
the second place player's score by at least 250 points.
Until that happens, the game continues as usual.
.SH "MORE DOCUMENTATION"
This manual page is intended to be a short and sweet introduction to
.IR cubes .
There are many finer points about
.I cubes
that you may wish to learn about
once you become familiar with the game.
The manual page detailing these points is in section 6
and is called
.IR cubes.long .
There are also two auxiliary programs designed to keep you
up to date on the status of
.I cubes
and its players.
The relevant manual pages (in section 6) are
.I cuberank
and
.IR cubestat .
.SH "AUTHOR"
Greg Paris <gmp@rayssd.ray.com>
DataMuseum.dk

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