Mine Shaft

How to Play Mine Shaft

Object: Be the first to bank $20 by filling Gold, Silver, and Iron veins with dice — while sabotaging your opponent with Thieves and Dynamite.

Each Round

The dice pool is drawn and rolled — you get 2 dice, the computer gets 3 (or vice versa, alternating who's "first" each round). Then you and the computer take turns, one action at a time, until every die in the pool has been claimed.

Your options each turn

• Collect a color — take every die of one color from the pool and slot each one into the matching column (Gold, Silver, or Iron) at the spot for its number. A number you already have, or a full column, sends that die back to the bag instead.
• Hire a Thief — spend one of your Gold dice, roll a d6, and add it to that Gold die's number. 7-9 steals one die from your opponent's board; 10-12 steals two; under 7 fails (and you still lose the Gold die).
• Place Dynamite — once you have 4 dice in your Dynamite column, spend one to block a number your opponent hasn't filled yet in one of their columns. They can't fill or clear that number until they roll it away.
• Clear Dynamite — if your board has a Dynamite block on it, roll all the dice in your own Dynamite column. Any that match a blocked number clear it. Either way, those dice go back to the bag afterward.

Filling a column

Gold, Silver, and Iron each hold up to 4 different numbers (any 4 of the 6 faces — you don't need every number, just four distinct ones). A full column pays out at the end of the round: Gold = $3, Silver = $2, Iron = $1 — then it empties and starts over.

Dynamite, illustrated

Winning

The first player to reach $20 wins immediately. Glossary: a "vein" here just means one of your Gold/Silver/Iron columns.

This and other original games can be found in the book 36 New Dice Games by Kenneth P. Langer.

Mine Shaft

How do you want to play?