What is the difference between Yahtzee and Yatzy?

Yahtzee and Yatzy share five dice, three rolls and the 63-point upper bonus threshold - then the scorecards go their separate ways.

Quick answer: They're siblings, not twins. Yahtzee has 13 categories with fixed scores for combos - Full House 25, Small Straight 30, Large Straight 40. Yatzy, the public-domain Scandinavian version, has 15 categories including One Pair and Two Pairs, scores its straights at 15 and 20, and its Full House as the sum of the dice.

Same idea, two rulebooks

Yahtzee is Hasbro's trademarked American version; Yatzy is the public-domain game every Scandinavian household grew up with. Both use five dice, three rolls per turn, an upper section of Ones through Sixes, and a bonus for reaching 63 up top - 35 points in Yahtzee, 50 in Yatzy. The five-of-a-kind roll caps both cards at 50 points.

Where the cards differ

Yatzy runs 15 categories to Yahtzee's 13, adding One Pair and Two Pairs. Its straights are fixed runs - Small Straight is exactly 1-2-3-4-5 for 15 points, Large Straight exactly 2-3-4-5-6 for 20 - whereas Yahtzee's straights are any four or five in a row for 30 and 40. And where Yahtzee's Full House pays a flat 25, Yatzy's scores the sum of all five dice, so a 6-6-6-5-5 house is worth far more than a 2-2-2-1-1.

Which should you play?

If you learned on the boxed American game, start with Yahtzee; if you grew up in Northern Europe, Yatzy will feel like home. The pair categories make Yatzy slightly gentler on bad turns, while Yahtzee's fixed straight scores reward the chase. When you want more of everything, Maxi Yatzy adds a sixth die and 20 categories.

Play Yatzy

Related questions

What is Maxi Yatzy?

Maxi Yatzy is the six-dice big brother of Scandinavian Yatzy, with 20 categories including Three Pairs, the Villa (two triples), the Tower (four of a kind plus a pair) and the Full Straight. The upper bonus pays 100 for reaching 84, and six of a kind - a Maxi Yatzy - scores 100.

Where does Yahtzee come from?

Yahtzee descends from a family of older dice games - Yacht, Generala and the Scandinavian Yatzy among them. Entrepreneur E. S. Lowe acquired the game from a Canadian couple who played it aboard their yacht, and marketed it as Yahtzee from 1956. Milton Bradley bought Lowe's company in 1973, and today Hasbro owns the trademark.

How do you play Yahtzee?

Each turn you roll five dice up to three times, setting aside any dice you want to keep between rolls. Then you score the result in exactly one of 13 categories on your scorecard - each category can only be used once. After 13 turns the card is full, and the highest total wins.