Game profile: Yamslam, Roll to Win

November 8, 9:54 AMPittsburgh Board Game ExaminerRobert Moyer

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Product image from Blue Orange Games.

Classic games may never die, but they do get tweaked and rearranged until a new game is born. In 1938, Edwin Lowe took the basic concepts of the classic card game Poker, replaced the cards with dice and Yahtzee – a classic in its own right – was born. Seventy-one years later, Thierry Denoual takes the concept even further Yamslam, Roll to Win.

Published by Blue Orange Games, Yamslam’s rules will be very familiar to Yahtzee fans. Each player rolls five dice up to three times per turn. After the first and second roll, the player determines which dice roll to keep, and which to reroll. After the third roll, they score points based on the dice combination.

Like Yahtzee, the goal is to match dice as you would match cards in poker. Match two pair and you score five points. Three of a kind scores 10 points. A small straight (1-4 showing on four dice) scores 20 points. And so on.

Here is where Yamslam and Yahtzee part ways. In Yahtzee, you write down the score on a pad and paper. In Yamslam, you collect chips for the combination you roll. For example, if you roll a full house (three of a kind plus two of a kind), you receive a 30 point chip. Since there are only four chips of each combination, the fifth person who rolls a full house will not be able to collect a chip and thus not score any points.

The other primary change between Yahtzee and Yamslam are the latter’s two toned dice. In Yamslam, half of the dice sides display black pips, the other half display red pips. This allows for a combination that Yahtzee doesn’t support. Namely, you can’t draw a flush (all five dice are the same color) in Yahtzee, but you can in Yamslam. And it will net you 25 points.

Fans of Yahtzee should give Yamslam a look. The game may not be a completely new experience, but the tin case it comes in is attractive and makes the game extremely portable. The use of chips instead of pen and paper makes the scoring easier, and overall play feels faster than the original. You can set this game up in less than a minute and you’ll be done in about 15 which makes Yamslam a wonderful warm up game for 2-4 people at your next board game party.

For more info: Read the rules at the Blue Orange Games website.