Amigos

Goal of the Game

Be the last remaining with at least 1 die in play. If you succeed in being the last player standing, no matter how many dice you have, you win!

Setup

Each player starts with 5 standard 6 sided dice, with numbers 1 through 6.

A "1" is known as a "Paco". A Paco counts as a wild card or joker - it can count as any other number. (On BGA, the Pacos are depicted as birds on the dice.)

Based on the number of players, the game begins with a different number of dice in play at the start:

This is important to note at the start of a game, since you'll be making guesses based on all the dice on the table.

Playing a round

All players roll their dice, and check to see what they rolled.

The first player (randomly selected) starts with an opening bid; they call a face value and a number of dice. This bid takes into account all of the dice on the table. The player can either try to make an educated guess and try to be really close to the truth, based on their own hand, or they can try to bluff and lure other players into losing a die.

Important: An opening bid can never begin with a bid of pacos (ones), unless a player is Palifico (which will be explained later).

After a bid is placed, the turn is passed on to the player on the left. This player has 2 options:

1. If they think that the previous bid is true, then they must increase that bid.
2. If they think that the last bid was false, they can call "Dudo" ("I doubt")

Option 1: calling Dudo

As soon as Dudo is called all players reveal their dice. All dice that match the bid are counted, including Pacos.

The bid is correct if the number of dice, with the correct value, is higher or exactly the same as the bid. In this case the player who called Dudo was wrong to have doubted, and loses one die.

For example, let's say Bob calls "Dudo" on Abe's bid of four fives (four dice with the number five showing). When all the dice are revealed and counted up, there are 3 fives and 2 pacos. This counts as 5 fives, so Abe was safe with his bid. Bob loses a die for the rest of the game.

The bid is false if the number of dice, with the correct value, is lower then the bid. In this case the player who called Dudo was correct to doubt the bid and the player who placed the bid has to admit they were overstating things, and loses one die.

Example: If Abe has called 6 fives instead of 3 in the same scenario, his bid is over the number of fives in play (only 5). If this is the case, Abe loses a die instead.

The moment a player loses their last die, that player is out of the game.

Option 2: increasing the bid

If a player does not want to call Dudo, they must make a higher bid of their own. To increase a bid a player has to choose one of the following options:

1. increase the number of dice, thus the value stays the same (ex. raising a bid of 2 threes with one of 3 threes)
2. increase the value on the die, thus the number of dice stays the same (ex. raising a bid of 2 threes with a bid of 2 fours or 2 sixes)
3. reset the value on the die by choosing Pacos. To do this, the number of Pacos bid has to be at least half the number of dice currently bid, rounded up. (ex. replacing a bid of 5 sixes with 3 Pacos)
4. raise the value from a Paco to another number. To do this, the number of dice bid needs to be at least double the number of Pacos plus one. (ex. replacing a bid of 3 Pacos with 7 threes)

Changing the bid to Pacos is a way to make lower die values reachable again, at the expense of quickly raising the number of dice being bid.

Once a new bid has been established the turn is passed on to the next player to the left, and play continues until someone calls Dudo. When Dudo has been called and a player loses a die, the player that lost a die starts a new round. If the player that lost a die is out, the player to the left of the eliminated player starts the next round instead.

Palifico

The moment a player has only one die remaining, this player has reached "Palifico". This triggers a special round. During this round, Pacos no longer count as jokers, and an opening bid can be of Pacos. However: during this round the value on the dice cannot be increased during bids. The value of the dice is locked in until someone calls Dudo. After this round, the game returns to normal, regardless of whether the Palifico player still has one die left.

Optional rules

Calza!

A player can call out a Calza (the bid is exact) before another player places a new bid or calls Dudo. Anyone around the table (except the player who made the bid) is allowed to call out Calza. If the player that called out Calza was correct (the bid is exactly the same as the number of dice on the table) they regain one of their lost dice (if the player only had one die, then the next time they fall to having only one die will not trigger another Palifico round. One per player per game.). However, if the player was wrong, they lose a die. In either case the player who called out Calza will start the new round.

The lost dice are visible

When the lost dice are visible the game is slightly easier as you do not need to memorize how many dice are still in the game, which helps to inform how high one can reasonably bid.