Rules of Play
Box of 420

Board game · 2025

420

In 420, players sit across from each other at an initially cleared table. The two players, Red and Blue, take turns maintaining a "hand" of four dice of their own color. Starting with Red, players begin by rolling all four of t…

Players
2
Duration
5 min
Age
5 and up
Complexity
—

Mark Steere · Mark Steere Games

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In brief

In 420, players sit across from each other at an initially cleared table. The two players, Red and Blue, take turns maintaining a "hand" of four dice of their own color.

Starting with Red, players begin by rolling all four of their own dice, forming their hand. On each of your subsequent turns, you must reroll 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the dice in your hand, and add them back into your hand. Each die is rolled at most once per turn.

The goal is for the dice in your hand to total exactly 20. No more, no less. For example, (6, 5, 5, 4) is a winning hand. It's possible to win the game on your first turn, with a probability of 2.7% - about 1 in 37 plays.

Reroll restrictions 4 dice: You can always reroll 4 dice. 3 dice: You can only reroll 3 dice if the remaining die has a value of at least 5. 2 dice: You can only reroll 2 dice if the remaining 2 dice sum to at least 10. 1 die: You can only reroll 1 die if the remaining 3 dice sum to at least 15.

Additionally, if your hand sums to 21 or higher, on your next turn you must reroll all four of your dice (reset).

Multiplayer 420420 can actually accommodate any number of players. Randomly choose Player 1. Succeeding turns proceed clockwise. In successive rounds, the new Player 1 is to the left of the previous Player 1. The round winners drop out, one by one, and the last remaining player buys the drinks.

Design notesI wanted to invent a simple dice game. No score sheet. No poker chips. Just dice. And then simple rules. No combinations to memorize. No bids, no bluffs... No showdowns or tiebreakers.

—description from the designer

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