Tutto

It’s probably no surprise to anyone that we have seen quite a few board and card games being brought out over the past few weeks. This weekend it’s been the turn of Tutto, and entertainingly simple push your luck game.

The rules are simple, you roll six dice and score if you roll three of a kind or a one or a five. Put the scoring dice to one side and decide whether to roll the remaining dice or end your turn. If you decide to end your turn, you get the points scored so far but if you roll again without scoring anything, all points for that turn are lost.

There are also cards to mix things up a bit and to encourage players to go for a “Tutto”, or full house, which is what you get when you manage to score with all six dice.

The game is played over a number of rounds until someone reaches a set number of points — or until it’s time to do something else.

The game is simple, fun and well balanced as evidenced by the fact that different playing styles — from very cautious to very reckless — can all be successful. Reckless means always going for a Tutto and alternating between scoring nothing and getting a massive bonus. More cautious players don’t allow themselves to be tempted by the bonus and steadily progress towards a win.

With my own approach I tended to strike a balance between the two extremes — which is probably why I kept losing.