Yamb rules: how to play Yamb (Jamb)
Yamb, also written Jamb, is a dice game from the former Yugoslavia and a close relative of Yahtzee. You roll dice up to three times a turn and write each result into one cell of a scorecard. The twist is the columns: each one has its own rule for the order cells may be filled in.
House rules vary from table to table. This page covers the core of the game and points out where Dicetron does things its own way.
What you need
Five or six standard dice, a pencil and a Yamb scorecard. With six dice, only the best five count toward any row. Dicetron uses six.
A turn
- Roll all the dice.
- Hold the dice you want to keep and reroll the rest. You get up to three rolls in total.
- Score the result in one empty cell your column rules allow, or cross out a cell for zero if nothing fits.
The game ends when every cell is filled. Highest total wins.
The scorecard rows
The rows split into three sections: the upper section (Ones to Sixes), the middle section (Max and Min), and the lower section of combinations.
| Row | What you need | Score in Dicetron |
|---|---|---|
| Ones – Sixes | Any dice showing that face | Sum of those dice |
| Max | As high a total as possible | Sum of the dice |
| Min | As low a total as possible | Sum of the dice |
| Three of a Kind | Three dice the same | 10 + face × 3 |
| Straight | Five in a row | 1–5: 40 · 2–6: 50 · 1–6: 60 |
| Full House | Three of one face and two of another | 30 + sum |
| Quads (Poker) | Four dice the same | 40 + face × 4 |
| Yamb | Five dice the same | 50 + sum |
A combination you don't have scores zero in that row.
The upper section bonus
Most tables pay a bonus when Ones to Sixes add up to a threshold, often +30 for reaching 60. In Dicetron the upper section is multiplied by ×1.5 once it reaches 75, and buying upper masteries raises both the threshold and the multiplier.
The Max − Min row
The middle section is where Yamb gets interesting. Its score is the difference between your Max and Min rows multiplied by the number in your Ones row: Ones × (Max − Min). A good Ones row and a wide gap between Max and Min is often the largest number on the whole card. Dicetron calls this section the Engine, and it pays nothing until all three cells are filled.
The columns
A Yamb scorecard has several columns, and each one restricts the order you can fill it in. You choose which column to write in every turn.
Down
Top to bottom, Ones first and Yamb last. No skipping.
Up
Bottom to top, Yamb first and Ones last.
Free
Any row, in any order.
Announce
After the first roll, declare the row you are going for. That turn, you can only score in that row.
Many tables add more: a hand column that must be scored on the first roll, a column played from the middle outwards, or a column that must be announced before rolling. Dicetron plays two columns at once each round, Free plus one of Down, Up or Announce, so each roll has two different jobs.
Crossing out
When no allowed cell is worth writing in, you cross one out and it counts as zero. Choosing which cell to give up is a big part of the strategy. In Dicetron a zero counts as a cross, and three crosses in one round end the run.
Yamb vs Yahtzee
Both games use dice, three rolls and a scorecard of combinations. Yamb adds the column rules, the Max and Min rows with their multiplier, and the announce column, so the same roll can be right for one column and wrong for another. That makes a Yamb game longer and the choice of where to write much heavier.
Play Yamb as a roguelike
Dicetron keeps these rules and wraps them in a run: every round has a score target, every third round has a boss that bends one rule, and a shop between rounds sells upgrades that change how your scorecard pays. It is free on Android.
