All Johnny's Dice Club Official Zonk Rules

What is Zonk?

Zonk is a game played with 5 or 6 dice. The All Johnny's Dice Club plays the 6 dice version. The object of the game is to collect as many bonuses (or B's) as possible. You have 21 turns in order to get B's. There's no limit to the number of B's you can get per turn.

There are other variations of this game called "10000" and "Cosmic Wimpout." Zonk is different in that there is more of an emphasis on B's than points. Even if you've played zonk before, our rules are a little different in order to add more strategy to the game.

Starting Up

The play starts out when you roll all six dice by clicking the Roll button. When rolling, you roll for points (points are used to get B's). The scoring you can get on the first roll is as follows:

For each 1 - 100 points
For each 5 - 50 points
Three of a kind (2,3,4,5, or 6) - dice roll * 100 points (e.g. three 4s is 400 points)
Three 1s - 1000 points
Additional occurrences of the same number from a previously counted three of a kind - 100 points **
1-2-3-4-5-6 - 2000 points
6 of a kind (MEGAS!) (2,3,4,5, or 6) - dice roll * 1000 points (e.g. six 3s is 3000 points)
6 1s (MEGA-ONES!) - 10000 points

** This means that if you roll four 6s, you get 600 for the first three 6s + another 100 for the fourth (for a total of 700). As long as the 6s are kept for points, any 6 rolled after that is another 100 points until all six dice are picked up and rolled again. After that, a single 6 goes back to being worth nothing.

Keeping Dice

After the first roll, you take a look at the points that you have and decide which sets of points you want to keep. Three of a kinds are very good and you will definitely want to keep them. Single ones and fives are sometimes better to pick up and roll again in hopes of getting another three of a kind. To keep a die, just click on it. Once you keep at least one die, the Roll button will become enabled again.

If you don't roll any points on the first roll, this is called a newbie. It gives you one B, but it is scored as a zonk (zonks will be explained next)

Zonk

If you do not roll a newbie, you continue to roll the dice. Every time you roll the dice, you must score points and keep at least one die. If you roll the dice at any time and don't score any points, that's a zonk and you lose all the points for that round. If you manage to roll the dice so that all six dice are kept and on the bottom line, you roll all six dice again and keep getting more points.

Points

For every 1000 point barrier that you are able to cross, you get a B. The strategy of the game is to know when to stop and take the points before you zonk. It is possible to cross multiple thousand point barriers during a turn and therefore get multiple B's. For example, if you have 1700 points at the beginning of your turn and roll a 1400, you crossed both 2000 and 3000 and therefore get two B's.

Note: You must have at least 1000 points to 'Break the Ice' in the scoring. After posting a score of over 1000 to start off, you are able to take less than 1000 points in the following turns.

Frames

The game is divided up into frames. Every three zonks contitutes a frame (think three outs in an inning). If you were able to cross a 1000 point barrier during that frame, the frame is 'earned' and you will get a B on the third zonk that finishes the frame. If the frame is not earned, the third zonk does not give you a B. An important strategy is to make sure you cross a 1000 point barrier when you have two zonks in an unearned frame.

If you roll a newbie for the third zonk in a frame, you get two B's, regardless of whether the frame was earned or not.

Special Rolls

Go for 1000

The Go for 1000 button will become active when you are one die away from 1-2-3-4-5-6 after your first roll. Pressing this button will allow you to roll the one die that there are two of. If it rolls the right number to give you 1-2-3-4-5-6, you get 1000 points and you roll all six dice again.

Rolling 1-2-3-4-5-6 after the first turn

Let's say you rolled a 1 on your first turn, picked up the other five dice and then rolled 2-3-4-5-6. This will give you 750 points (but you no longer have the 100 from the first 1 you rolled). This can also occur if you have a 1 and a 5 and you roll 2-3-4-6. The points are always 750 whether it was four of five dice rolled.

The Scoreboard

As you play, the scoresheet on the right side of the page will tally your results. When you score points, it will put your total points for the game in the table and indicate how many B's you got during the turn [e.g. 1200 (+1)]. If you zonk, it will put a Z in the table along with a (+1) or (+2) if you got a newbie and/or finished a frame. Special zonk annotations will appear if you zonk with 5 dice or 6 dice, or if you zonk when going for 1000.