Generala Dice Game Rules
Generala is a dice game for 2-6 players. A game typically takes 25-35 minutes, and the recommended age is 6+.
Rules for Generala: Five dice and eleven categories, with premiums when straights, full houses and poker land on the first roll. Generala is also known as General.
Setup
Generala is Latin America's take on the Yatzy family. You need five dice, preferably rolled from a cup, and a score sheet with eleven rows that you draw yourself: ones to sixes at the top, then straight, full house, poker, generala and double generala. Two to six players is ideal.
How to play
On your turn you roll all five dice. Set aside the ones you want to keep and reroll the rest, up to two more times. After at most three rolls you enter the result in an open row on your sheet.
Each row is used only once. If nothing fits, you cross out a row and score zero there. The game ends when every player has filled all their rows.
Scoring
The upper section works like in Yatzy: you enter the sum of the dice showing that number, but there is no bonus. The combinations have fixed values:
- Straight: 1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6, worth 20 points
- Full house: three of a kind plus a pair, worth 30 points
- Poker: four of a kind, worth 40 points
- Generala: five of a kind, worth 50 points
- Double generala: a second five of a kind, worth 100 points
Servida: the first-roll premium
What gives Generala its own character is the servida rule. If a combination lands straight out of the cup, on the very first roll of your turn, it is served and worth more: a straight scores 25 instead of 20, a full house 35 and a poker 45.
A generala servida is the big one. In most rule sets, five of a kind on the first roll wins the whole game on the spot.
Winning
When all rows are filled, each player adds up their sheet and the highest total wins. The exception is the generala servida, which ends the game immediately with victory for the player who rolled it.
Similar games
Yacht (alias Cheerio, Yot or Yam)
The 1938 game Yahtzee grew out of, with twelve rows, five dice, three rolls and no upper section bonus.
Yatzy (alias Yatzi)
Roll five dice three times, fill the fifteen rows on the sheet and chase the 50 point bonus in the upper section.
Yamb
The Balkan take on Yatzy, played on a grid of four columns filled downwards, upwards, freely and on announcement.