Fromage á Trois

a quick-playing dice game for three to five players

by Jonathan Leistiko

inspired by a comment by Ben Gibbs and Malisa Dijacimo

Object

Gather clusters of similar cheeses, either from the Cheese Shop, or from the other mice.

You need

• A set of Fromage á Trois dice (25 dice). 25 normal six-sided dice will work just fine (see Note, below).
• Paper and pencil to keep score with.

Note: You can play this game with normal six-sided dice. If this were a commercially published game it would use 25 custom dice with the following die faces: Gouda (red), Swiss (white w. black circles), Bleu (white with blue lines & spots), Cheddar (yellow), American (Orange wrapped slice), Brie (white/yellow pie wedge). You can print out this die-to-cheese reference sheet to help you.

Setup

Put the Fromage á Trois dice in the center of the table. This is the Cheese Shop.

If you're using nrmal dice, put the reference sheet near the middle too so you can refer to it during play.

The player who ate cheese (diary-free "cheese" counts as cheese) most recently goes first.

Play

On your turn:

• Take up to five dice from the Cheese Shop and roll them. These dice are your Shopping Cart.
• Keep any two of the dice you rolled or take a homogenous set (two to five dice) from one other player.
  • The player you took dice from may take the same number of dice from your Shopping Cart to replace them or may score one point for each die you took.
• If you can take one die each from two other players that give you three different cheeses in exactly the same proportions (ex: Two gouda, two brie, two cheddar), you may. You’ve scored a Fromage á Trois! Score nine points, return all of the dice that are part of the Fromage á Trois to the Cheese Shop, and end your turn.
  • Players you took dice from to make your Fromage á Trois may take dice from your Shopping Cart to replace them or may score three points each.
• If you end your turn with three or more identical dice, return all of your matched (sets of 3+) dice to the Cheese Shop. Score one point for each die you return.
• Unused dice in your Shopping Cart return to the Cheese Shop at the end of your turn, but you keep dice you've kept and not scored.

When you're done your turn, play passes to your left.

Example
A has 2, 2, 3, 6
B has 2, 5, 6
C has 3, 3, 4, 5
The Cheese Shop has 14 dice

It’s B’s turn. B rolls five dice and gets 1, 1, 2, 3, 6. B keeps the double 1s. Now B has 1, 1, 2, 5, 6. B takes a 2 from A and a 5 from C, making a Fromage á Trois with 1, 1, 2, 2, 5, 5. B immediately returns those six dice to the Cheese Shop and scores nine points. Because B took dice from A and C to make the Fromage á Trois, A and C each get to take a die from the Shopping Cart or score three points. A chooses to score three points instead of taking a die from the Shopping Cart. C chooses to take the 3 from the Shopping Cart so they can have 3, 3, 3, 4, 5 at the start of their turn.

At the end of B's turn:

A has 2, 3, 6 and three more points
B has 6 and nine more points
C has 3, 3, 3, 4, 5
The Cheese Shop has 16 dice

Ending the Game and Winning

• If you end your turn with 20 or more points, each other player gets one more turn and the game ends.
• If the Cheese Shop has 7 dice or fewer at the end of a player’s turn, the game ends immediately.
• The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Ties go to the player who took a turn least recently.