¶ Knucklebones
Knucklebones is a dice duel for two players, run by the Dice Master, who stands in the street outside the Cat’s Lair tavern in north-west Britain. You each fill a small grid of dice: match dice to score big, and knock out the dice in your opponent’s matching column. Both players put in the same stake, and the higher score takes the pot.
¶ How to start
- Walk up to the Dice Master and pick Play Knucklebones from the dialog, or say the Dice Master’s name followed by
knucklebones. - To read the rules in game, choose Knucklebones rules, or say the name followed by
knucklebones rules. The How to play book icon on the table window opens them too. - The table window lists the open challenges, your own challenge, and the last games played.
Opening a challenge
- Pick a stake button, or type an amount in the Amount box.
- Press Open challenge to let anyone near the table accept it.
- Or type a name in the Player box and press Challenge a player. Only that player can accept, and they must be near the table.
- Your stake is taken as soon as the challenge opens and held safely until the game ends. The gold comes from your backpack first, then from your bank.
- You can press Cancel challenge at any time before someone accepts, and your stake is refunded to your bank balance.
Accepting a challenge
- Press Accept on any challenge in the list. You pay the same stake, and the game starts right away.
- You and the challenger both need to be near the table.
- You can’t accept your own challenge, or one opened by any other character on your account.
You can’t open or accept a challenge while you are dead or in combat. You can only have one challenge or game at a table at a time.
¶ How to play
Each player has a grid of three columns, three dice high. A random player goes first.
- On your turn you’re given a die (shown as Your die).
- Choose one of your three columns. Press its Col button or click the column, and the die drops into the first free slot.
- Knock out: your die removes every die of the same value in your opponent’s same column.
- Your opponent then gets a die and takes their turn.
- The game ends as soon as either player’s grid is full. Then the higher total wins.
¶ Scoring
Each column scores every die’s value times the number of matching dice in that column. Your score is the total of your three columns.
| Column | Score |
|---|---|
| 4 4 2 | 4+4+4+4+2 = 18 |
| 4 4 4 | 4×3×3 = 36 |
| 6 3 1 | 6+3+1 = 10 |
Matching dice add up fast, so stacking a column is strong. It also makes that column a target, though: one die of the same value in your opponent’s matching column wipes the whole stack out.
The game also stops after 60 moves in total. If that happens, the higher score wins.
¶ Stakes and fees
| Stake per player | 1,000 to 100,000 gold (some tables may allow a different maximum, shown in the window) |
| Quick stake buttons | 1,000 / 5,000 / 10,000 / 25,000 / 50,000 / 100,000 |
| Pot | Both stakes together (2 × stake) |
| House fee | 5% of the pot, taken only when someone wins |
Before you open a challenge, the window shows the pot, the fee and what the winner takes. For example, a 10,000 gold stake makes a 20,000 pot. The fee is 1,000, so the winner gets 19,000.
¶ Winning and payouts
- Win: you get the pot minus the 5% house fee, added to your bank balance. A system message confirms the amount.
- Draw: if the totals are equal, both stakes are refunded in full to your bank balances and no fee is taken.
- Lose: your stake goes into the winner’s prize.
- When the game ends, you can press Rematch to challenge the same player for the same stake (they need to still be at the table), or Back to Table.
- Big wins are announced by the Dice Master.
¶ Good to know
- Turn timer: you have 30 seconds per move. If you run out once, a move is made for you. If you run out twice in a row, you forfeit the game and the pot.
- Stay close: keep within 15 paces of the Dice Master while you play. If you’re away for 90 seconds (too far, logged out, dead or in another region), you forfeit. If both players leave, the game is cancelled and both stakes are refunded.
- Resigning: the Resign button asks you to confirm. Resigning forfeits the game, and your opponent wins the pot minus the house fee.
- Unaccepted challenges: a challenge nobody accepts is cancelled after 10 minutes and your stake is refunded. It’s also refunded if you log out while it’s open.
- Server restarts: any game or open challenge running during a restart is cancelled, and every stake is refunded.
- Refunds: whenever a challenge or game is cancelled, stakes come back in full with no fee, paid to your bank balance.
- Busy tables: each table runs up to 3 games at once and holds up to 6 open challenges. If it’s full, try again shortly.
- Only stake gold you’re happy to lose.