Mia

Mia is a simple dice game with a strong emphasis on bluffing and detecting bluff.  You need two dice and the ability to hide the dice from the other players.

Play/ Rules

All players start with six lives. (determine a way to keep track: pennies, matches, beer cans, a die, etc)

The first player rolls 2 dice and keeps their value concealed with a bucket, blanket, behind a tree or other device. The player then has three choices:

• § Tell the truth and announce what has been rolled.
• § Lie and announce a greater value than that rolled.
• § Lie and announce a lesser value.

The concealed dice are then left where they were and the next player has three options:

• § Believe the passer.  The new player moves to look at the dice and decides whether to re-roll them or keep them, and must announce a higher value.
• § Call the passer a liar and look at the dice. If the dice show a lesser value than that announced, the passer loses a life and the receiving player starts a new round. However, if the dice show a greater or equal value, the new player loses a life and the next player starts a new round.
• § Pass the dice to the next player without rolling or looking at them, announcing a higher value. This relieves the original passer of all responsibility. This choice rests on the assumption that the previous player announced a lesser value than he/she rolled, which may be a sensible choice if he/she wants to get at a player further down the line.

Note that each player must always announce a value greater than the previous value announced, unless he/she is passed a Mia in which case the round ends.

If Mia is announced, the next player has two choices:

• § He/she may give up without looking at the dice and lose one life.
• § He/she may look at the dice. If it was a Mia, she loses two lives. If it wasn’t, the previous player loses one life as usual.

The first player to lose all his lives loses the entire game. Generally, the loser must buy the next beer.

Scoring

Unlike most dice games, the value of the roll is not the sum of the dice. Instead, the highest die is multiplied by ten and then added to the other die. So a 2 and a 1 is 21 and a 5 and 6 is 65.

The highest roll is 21 and called Mia. The next is all the doubles from 11 up to 66, and then back down again. The complete order of rolls, from highest to lowest, is as follows:

21, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 54, 53, 52, 51, 43, 42, 41, 32, 31