The Yahtzee Manifesto

Part I

Yahtzee Theory

Do you remember the first time you played a game of Yahtzee? Maybe as a kid at grandma’s house, on your honeymoon, or playing Yahtzee online, a player’s introduction to the game is a beautiful thing. That nervous anticipation as the dice rattle in the cup. Intense tactical decision-making that will inevitably follow. The pure rationality of mathematics supporting the entire edifice. And the pure unbridled joy of rolling a Yahtzee is what makes the game a unique experience for gamers of all ages.

A player’s very first Yahtzee game game should be magical. Logical probabilities, odds and statistics can wait. Direct id stimulation with high doses of pleasure and entertainment should be the primary concern.

But not everyone’s first time is worth remembering. Like a bad trip, losing one’s Yahtzee virginity can often be a confusing mess. But with supportive comrades in dice, the game is sure to become a personal favorite for most open-minded players.

New players should be nurtured so their love of the game can develop naturally. Make the gaming table a safe space for all rollers where the inherent equity and fairness of the game can shine through. A positive and uplifting first experience often leads to a lifelong cherished hobby or even profession.

But the benefits of Yahtzee are immense and varied. The sheer beauty of logic, strategic development, and the unpredictable randomness of chance are but a few. The beginner embarks upon a journey into a new land of dice-based diversion and recreation. Enjoy the ride.

Yahtzee Karma

The beginner is a highly interesting player for further observation. A new face can enliven any game of Yahtzee, especially if you are accustomed to playing with the same group of people. But the first-timer can tap into their primal consciousness to uncover entirely new depictions of reality. Maximizing your high score is not an end to itself. On a deeper level, the beginner acts as a karmic weather-vane.

Karma is the concept of life’s moral actions influencing future events. Suffering the consequences or reaping the rewards of one’s own good or bad deeds. In the early phases of Yahtzee exposure, which we will define as being between one and twenty games played or until the player begins to develop a primitive strategy, a beginner’s gameplay typically mirrors the current status of her karma.

Do not think a small sin will not return in your future lives. Just as falling drops of water will fill a large container, the little sins that steadfast accumulate will completely overwhelm you.  - Buddha

A newcomer to Yahtzee falls into one of two categories. Either she does very well or she does very poorly. As is to be expected, the initial results are not due entirely to chance. The condition of the player’s karmic baggage is the primary determinant to her initial success in the game. Yet this is not as simple as saying that a good person will do well in Yahtzee and an evil person will do poorly. The amounts of energy and enthusiasm that are brought to the Yahtzee table will have a direct and immediate effect upon the beginner, and all players in general.

It is not uncommon to see a player roll a Yahtzee Bonus in the first game she has ever played. Often dismissed as beginner’s luck, the phenomenon has deeper roots. Even if she comes to the table unsure of the rules or lacking a basic strategy, provided that she is enthusiastic to undertake a new endeavor, maintains a positive attitude throughout the game, and has the will to succeed, then all of that good karma will manifest itself in the dice.

On the other hand, a player who is reluctant to try Yahtzee, quickly becomes bored with the gameplay, or is too fidgety will not draw upon the karmic forces of the universe, thus yielding a rather lackluster score. It is vital, therefore, when introducing a new player to the game of Yahtzee or if you are considering taking up the game yourself, to approach it with an open mind and a zealous heart. In this manner you can maximize not only your score, but also your overall sense of well-being.

Suffice it to say that when you closely observe the play of a beginner to the game, her life will read like an open book. Dreams, hopes, and deepest fears will all come to the surface. Due to the level of inexperience, the beginner will not realize that Yahtzee is a powerful tool for reaching true self-awareness. Except in the natural born Yahtzee player, the beginner will fail to utilize the introspective powers of the game and treat it as simply as a trivial pursuit. The rest of us must pursue the game with diligence and a calm mind.

It’s beautiful to watch a beginning Yahtzee player blossom into an expert, as advanced new strategies and styles are incorporated into their games. Experience grows knowledge of local playing conditions, rolling surfaces, and game equipment. Implementation of house rules can lead to a home-field advantage.

Yahtzee can easily become a daily habit, but it’s the rare addiction that only only has upsides. So go ahead and get hooked. Play every day if you can, either tabletop or Yahtzee online. Your game will mature more quickly but mastery only comes with time and playing powerful opponents with varying styles of play.

Unless one identifies the beginner as a natural, no effort should be made to indoctrinate her in the subtleties of the game or its intimate relations to karma and the psyche as this may prove to be overwhelming. In dealing with the beginner, it is most prudent to let her Yahtzee prowess develop on its own accord. If she fails to develop a passion for the game, do not force the issue.

In most cases, the beginner is not at an appropriate stage of spiritual development or she fears using Yahtzee as a looking-glass into her soul. Given time, and with a bit of luck, our beginner will mature and return to the game with a renewed sense of vigor. The bottom line is to have fun. Develop the game at your own pace. And consider and cosmic insights to be icing on the cake!

The Game’s Ancient Origins

To gain a deeper comprehension of Yahtzee theory, one must begin at the beginning.  Today, Yahtzee is the most popular dice game in the world but it took a lot of time and effort to reach the pinnacle of tabletop gaming perfection. It evolved in fits and starts, overcoming many obstacles along the way. A better understanding of the game’s long history will enlighten nort only the beginning player, but even grizzled veterans with years of experience.

Dice have been used for millennia as a means of recreation and gambling. They were the world’s first random number generators, paving the way for the introduction of games of chance. Who invented Yahtzee? The answer isn't clear. Examples of ancient dice games show up in the historical record from civilizations all around the world, including Egypt, Iran, and India. The invention of dice games led to a golden age in human advancement, spurring on the development of mathematical concepts like probability and game theory.

The use of dice predates recorded history so their precise origins are difficult to pin down. Archaeological evidence suggests that the six-faced cubes we know today were hand-crafted upgrades to a natural source of proto-dice game pieces: the knucklebones of sheep or goats. Prehistoric peoples took advantage of the shape of the animals’ astragalus – one of the bones that make up the ankle joint – to generate random numbers for fun and profit. The bones could only land on one of four sides, and these were often marked with numbers just like modern dice.

Throwing knucklebones may have started as a fortune-telling method, as many early societies saw great power in the chance occurrences created by dice. But over time gameplay became their most popular use. Most of these ancient games have been lost to time but a rare few survive and continue to be played in some form still today. For example, the Roman game Tali, which could be played with either knucklebones or true dice, is considered to be an early ancestor of Yahtzee.

Tali, in turn, may have been influenced by an even earlier game, known as Ya-Tsee. It had been played on the Tibetan steppes and throughout the wider Himalayan plateau for thousands of years, rumored to have been imported from China. Details of the game are scarce but it is believed that Ya-Tsee was developed by the first disciples of Lao Tse, author of the Tao-Ching, the foremost book of Taoist philosophy. It may have been used to attune a player’s karmic forces with the universe. Monks would use dice to perform the rites of Ya-Tsee, benefiting dually from simple amusement and a much deeper focus of one’s inner life-force.

The most well-preserved artifact from these early days is a set of five yak bone dice nestled inside a leather pouch. Historians believe that the game gradually transitioned from a popular pastime that the general population enjoyed into one that was used primarily by a small group of elites during sacred rituals or religious rites. As a consequence, Ya-Tsee’s popularity as an everyday activity declined but its gameplay elements were spread throughout the region, waiting to reemerge once again.

Yahtzee in the Modern Era

Yahtzee’s modern day resurrection is thanks to two independent events in the 1940s. The Leister Game Company in Toledo, Ohio saw its popularity rise during World War Two as fuel shortages and financial belt-tightening prompted families to spend more time at home. As the company noted:

Now that gas rationing has ushered in a back-to-the-home movement, material for home entertainment and for those informal occasions when neighbors and friends drop in is in great demand.

Among the many games and novelties that Leister produced during this era was Yatzie, released in 1943. While not quite the game that we know today, Yatzie was a precursor that was included in a boxed set called Luck – 15 Grand Dice Games. It would be familiar to a modern Yahtzee player as there are only a few minor differences in the rules and scoring combinations. Yatzie did not have a Three-of-a-Kind, for instance, and both Straights required five sequential dice.

Luck, distributed by Toledo’s National Association Service became a regional success, but the other games in the set did not manage to form a lasting impression on the gaming public. Dice games such as Floradora Sextette, Black Cat, and Help Your Neighbor have been mostly been confined to the dust bin of history.

The stage had been set but the game as we know it today would not exist without a unique mind to bring it to life. When we think of corporate visionaries, certain names spring to mind: Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Elon Musk, Walt Disney. But the greatest innovator of them all is not a household name. Edwin S. Lowe, the man who popularized modern Yahtzee, has rightfully earned a place in the pantheon of corporate genius. From humble beginnings selling games door-to-door, Lowe’s dice-inspired legacy is worth billions today. And more importantly, his many contributions to the world of gaming have put smiles on the faces of generations of gamers.

Edwin S. Lowe, at the age of 18, immigrated to the U.S. from Poland with his family in 1928. As the Great Depression took hold, he found work as a traveling salesman. On a trip to Georgia the following year, his eyes were opened to the wide world of gaming probability on a visit to a local county fair. He encountered a booth where people paid a nickel to play a game called Beano, which involved covering a numbered card with beans. The probabilities were modest – only 12 cards and 12 potential number combinations – but Lowe was looking much further. He chatted up the booth operator and managed to buy a few of the game cards.

When he returned to his home in Brooklyn, New York, he introduced the game to a group of friends. It proved to be a hit, although one player kept yelling Bingo! instead of Beano! when she got a winning card. Bingo immediately appealed to Lowe’s natural sense of branding and the name stuck. He decided to market the game commercially under his fledgling toy and game business, the E.S. Lowe Company. Years later, he recalled how the game’s re-brand changed the course of his career: I cannot describe the sense of elation which that girl’s cry brought to me, all I could think of was that I was going to come out with this game and I was going to call it Bingo.

His first business venture into the gaming world would prove to be a major success, as Bingo quickly became an ubiquitous staple in American schools and churches. By 1934, an estimated 10,000 bingo games were being played across the country each week. The E. S. Lowe Company employed 1,000 workers to crank out new Bingo game cards, which initially were released as 24-card sets. With the assistance of a Columbia University mathematician, the company came up with new 6,000 Bingo cards, all with non-repeating number combinations. The game’s popularity soared as a result, teaching Lowe a valuable lesson: greater possibilities lead to greater