Originally posted by Mattica2000 on that 'other site'
Despite its hokey name, here's a dice game that has quite a bit of strategy. Give it a go, and let me know what you think.
Trolley Volley
*Required: 6 6-sided dice, 2 people
*Objective: Be the first to reach 25 points.
*Scoring:
**a trolley of length 3 (1,2,3 or 2,3,4 or 3,4,5 or 4,5,6) = 1 point.
**a trolley of length 4 (1,2,3,4 or 2,3,4,5 or 3,4,5,6) = 3 points.
**a trolley of length 5 (1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6) = 5 points.
**a trolley of length 6 (1,2,3,4,5,6) = 7 points.
Trolley Volley has a similar flow to volleyball (hence part of the name). One person is offense, and as such they are the only one who can score. The other person is defense, and their goal is simply to re-gain the offensive position.
Play follows any number of volleys or rounds. The following is a description of a single round.
The offense player has four dice and the defense has two. Both players roll their dice simultaneously being careful not to lose track of what dice are theirs. Offense is attempting to make a trolley or a straight (in poker terminology) of either 3, 4, 5, or 6 numbers in a row (see scoring above). A successful trolley must make use of at least one or both of the defensive player's dice. The defense player is attempting to prevent this or to get any three of a kind (again, where at least one is from the defensive player), which would trump or derail any of the opponent's trolleys. After the first simultaneous roll, the offense player must first decide which of his/her four dice to re-roll. They can choose to stay or re-roll 1, 2, 3, or all 4. After they pick up their dice to re-roll, defense makes the same decision on their two. Both players then simultaneously roll their chosen dice, and the volley is now complete (yes, that's a short volley!). Based on the dice values, the players determine whether the offense scored a successful volley or not. If not, then the players switch roles.
Derailing
Derailing occurs when the defense achieves a three of a kind. This may or may not be a part of the offense's trolley. For example, let's say after the second roll of dice the final dice values are: 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5 (the defense rolled the two four's in italics). Even though the offense got a nice trolley of 2, 3, 4, 5, the defense wins the volley since it created a three of a kind block ( 4, 4, 4).
That's basically it. There is some fun strategy in what to re-roll here and there can be several rounds where no one scores, but the combined play of the two players makes the game quite fun.
Example Round and Strategic Thinking
Offense rolls: 1, 3, 5, 6
Defense rolls: 2, 5
Offense has to choose what to re-roll. Two-of-kinds are bad to leave on the table since they can easily lead to a three-of-a-kinds, but offense knows that defense won't likely leave the 2 for them to use. Thus, the 1 will be stranded from a likely trolley, so offense may re-roll 1 and 3 despite the common 5. Defense will see the opportunity with the double 5 and re-roll the 2 in hopes to get that third five. on to round2!
Offense rolls: 3, 3 (in addition to the 5, 6 left from 1st round)
Defense rolls: 4 (and 5 from 1st round)
Offense wins 3 points for a 3, 4, 5, 6 trolley and gets to go again.
