Knister / Wurfel Bingo

Plays: 5Px1.

The Game

Knister is a simple game with very minimalistic components - two dice, paper and pencils. The box says it supports 1 to 12 players, but really you can play with as many people as you want.

Every player gets one sheet like this. This is your player board. The game is played over 25 turns. Every turn two dice are rolled. Add up the numbers to get a total, and everyone must fill this total in one of the spaces on his player board. You fill the 5x5 grid. Each of the five rows, each of the five columns, and the two diagonal lines, will score points in a poker-like manner. If a line contains two of the same number, it scores 1pt. If a line has three of the same number, it scores 3pts. You can see the rest on the left side of the photo above. The last two combos are straights. A regular straight gives you 8pts. A straight without a 7 gives you 12pts. It is not easy to make a straight without a 7. It would need to be either 2-3-4-5-6, or 8-9-10-11-12. The two diagonal lines (in a slightly darker shade of blue) score double, so you would want to prioritise making good combos with them.

The rules say everyone takes turns to roll the dice, but it doesn't really matter who does the die-rolling. Unless you think some people have lucky hands. Or cursed hands.

The Play

One of my diagonal lines had five 7's, which was worth 10pts. Diagonal lines scored double, so I was getting 20pts for this. My first column had four 4's, and I would score 6pts. I was too busy and hadn't had time to write down the scores. I only had one space left now, and I was hoping to get a 5, so that I could get a straight for my fourth row. The game may be simple, but there are quite a few things you need to consider when filling in the blanks. You need to consider the row and the column, and sometimes the diagonal lines too. You try to make every row and column and diagonal line score well. You try to keep your options open. Sometimes when you get a bad number, you need to think about which row and column to sacrifice.

My final score was 50. Some rows and some columns scored 0 because I couldn't make any combo for them. It was a pity that my other diagonal line scored 0. Wasted opportunity. In this game, since two dice are being rolled, you know the most likely number is 7, and the least likely 2 and 12. So there is some basis when you fill the grid.

The Thoughts

Knister is the kind of simple and clever game that makes you think: hey I could have designed this myself! But you didn't. I really admire this design.

There is zero player interaction. This is literally multiplayer solitaire. But this is such a simple and short game we really shouldn't be complaining about it being multiplayer solitaire. Just sit down and enjoy puzzling it out. It's a good filler that works for any number of players.