Dice Games
Like the board games section theses games are possible games played with dice. It cannot be said for certain that these are games that were played in the 9th-11th century with these rules but they are possibilities.
Mia
This is a dice game played with long dice which have the 1 and 2 opposite each other. I was taught this game by old Norwegians who claim it is a Viking dice game. Its quite possible as the dice required to play this game are found archaeologically. I have never found the rules written down anywhere except on the website of another re-enactor who was there when we both learned to play it. The rules look horrifically complicated, but its a glorified version of cheat.
All players start the game with three lives. The first player rolls the dice without revealing what was rolled. This initial player then has three choices of what to announce to the others:
• Announce truthfully what has been rolled,
• Announce (by lying) a greater value than that rolled.
• Announce (by lying) a lesser value than that rolled.
The dice values are ranked by multiplying the higher value of the two by 10 and adding the lower value to produce a two digit number. All possible results are ranked in order as follows: 21, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 54, 53, 52, 51, 43, 42, 41, 32, 31. The highest roll, 21 (called Mia) is followed by all the doubles ranking from 11 up to 66, and then subsequently ranked as the highest two digit number.
After the initial player has announced their call, the dice are passed to the next player without revealing the values thrown. This player now has three choices:
• Believe the caller and roll the dice again in an attempt to roll something better.
• Call the last caller a liar and look at the dice. The passer loses a life. However, if the dice show a greater or equal value, the challenger loses a life.
• Pass the dice to the next player without looking at them, relieving the original caller of any forfeit of lives, and taking responsibility for the call himself.
Players must either announce a greater value than the previous one called or pass the dice without looking and take responsibility for the current called value. Should the dice be passed all the way back to the original caller of a throw, that player must choose one of the following two options:
• Call the previous caller a liar.
• Call a higher two digit value, either not rolling or re-rolling the dice.
If Mia (21) is either rolled or announced, then the player who is to lose a life, loses two.
The last player with a life, wins the game.
