Liar's Dice

Owner:

Bowman (formerly Joel)

Solution:

HARD EIGHT

GC Notes:

GC to update day-of-game.

Presentation:

The teams will enter a room to find a group of dealers, each with one table in front of them. The dealer invites them to come sit at the table and play a game of Liar's Dice with him.

At the table are three instances of three cups with 10 colored dice (one instance has three cups of red dice, one three cups of has blue dice, and one has three cups of green dice) in each, along with the dealer who has a cup with 10 of his own dice (which are black).

Off to the side is a set of 4 games of Liar's dice, which are introduced by a person standing near them as 4 of the "Greatest Games" of Liar's Dice, played between the same 3 players each time. These dice, too, are red, blue or green.

Walkthrough:

The teams will quickly notice that they cannot beat the dealer in a game of Liar's Dice, as he has 10 6s, and all of their dice have no 6s on them. Therefore to beat the dealer they must find another way.

Upon looking at the "Greatest Games" on display, teams should notice that each of the positions on the player's dice can be translated into an encoding. The red player uses braille, the green player uses Morse, while the blue player uses the sum of the numbers on the top of the dice to get a letter (1:A, 2:B, 3:C, etc.). Taking all the letters from each color, then sorting the groups of 4 letters in RGB order, will get teams the phrase SPELLCHEATER.

From here teams need to find a way to spell cheater and show it to the dealer. They do this using their dice, although they can't just spell letters with their dice. Each team must use the same encoding on the dice they have as the player from the examples, and position the dice in a way such that the dealer can read the encoding in his direction. (e.g., A team at the red dice instance must spell the word "cheater" using BRAILLE that faces the dealer in orientation)

Once the dealer sees them spell 'CHEATER', he gets offended that they would accuse him of being dishonest, and gives them another rule: "8. Before starting a new game, one member of your team can choose to either be the new dealer, or can swap dice with the dealer."

The only way for a team to win is to choose to be the dealer, forcing the old dealer to either challenge their bet of 10 6s and lose, or try to bet higher and lose to a challenge from the next player. Choosing to take the dealer's dice will result in the dealer betting 10 6s, and winning anyways.

Once the dealer is eliminated, he mentions how he has been bested, then gives the players a sheet of paper with a poem about betting in Craps. The poem gives multiple clues that the author always makes the same bid in Craps, which is two 4s. The answer to the puzzle is the term for betting two 4s in craps, which is called a HARDEIGHT.

Hinting:

  • If teams get stuck after only playing with the dealer, suggest that they look at the game displays off to the side

  • If they've already looked at the displays but don't know what to do with them, hint that they are looking for a message in the dice

  • If they still can't find the message, hint that each color dice uses its own encoding

  • If they have all the letters but can't get a message, suggest that they use the color of the dice to order the letters into a message

  • If they have SPELL CHEATER, this should act as a partial answer

  • If they don't what to do with that message, hint that there is really only one person they could spell this to

  • If they don't know how to spell it, hint to look at the color of their dice, and compare it with the games off to the side

Data:

Rules:

  1. Ten six-sided dice are used per player, with dice cups used for concealment.

  2. Each round, each player rolls their dice under their cups and looks at their new hand while keeping it concealed from the other players. The first player (always the dealer) begins bidding, picking a face and a quantity. The bid represents how many of the chosen face value the player believes are showing under ALL the cups, not just their own. The play then rotates clockwise.

  3. Each player has two choices during their turn: make a higher bid, or challenge the previous bid (typically with a call of "Liar"). Raising the bid means the player may bid a higher quantity of the same face, or any quantity of a higher face (allowing a player to "reset" the quantity).

  4. If the current player challenges the previous bid, all dice are revealed. If the bid is valid (at least as many of the face value are showing as were bid), the bidder wins. Otherwise, the challenger wins. The loser of a bet is eliminated from the game.

  5. The game ends when all but one player is eliminated, with the remaining player being declared the winner.

  6. At any time, the players at the table may reset the game.

  7. When the dice are revealed after a challenge is made, players can show pride in their dice by arranging them however they wish

  1. BONUS RULE - At the start of a round, any one of the players can choose to either go first, or swap dice with the dealer.

Poem given after beating the dealer:

I make Craps bets

I love to roll those dice!

So improbable, so nice!

And since I want the prize,

I can’t bet Snake Eyes.

Oh yes, I want to be one of the Craps stars,

So I won’t be betting a Natural or Boxcars.

Never! I always bet on the same thing,

Then roll my wrist, and let the dice sling.

I’m hoping for two of those sweet 4’s,

Yes, I will bet this roll forever more

It’s not Easy, but it’s this bard’s fate,

And that’s why I always bet a ____-_____