Shut the boxes

Presentation and rules

Shut the boxes is a very simple dice game where the objective is to pull down the tiles nombered from 1 to 9.

Physically, the games is a board containing tiles numbered from 1 to 9 hunged along a higher bar, so that each one of the tiles can be wheither up or down.

At your turn, you roll the dice, then you pull down one or more tiles whose total corresponds to the sum of the dice. For example, if you roll 4 and 5, you can pull down tile 9 alone, tiles 2 and 7, or tiles 1, 3 and 5. Tiles that are already lowered can't be used again before the end of your turn.

You keep rolling the dice and pulling down tiles until obtaining a total on the dice, which you can't make on the remaining tiles. For example, with 7 on the dice and only tiles 2, 4 and 6, there is no possibility to make 7. Then is next player's turn.

At the end of your turn, you mark the number of points corresponding to pulled down tiles. Tile 1 is worth 1 point, tile 2 2 points, and so on. The set of all tiles is therefore worth 45 points.

If you manage to pull down all the tiles, then they are all raised and you can keep going again with all tiles. This allows you to win more than 45 points ina single turn. Your turn can last indefinitely if you have a little strategy and lots of luck !

The game ends when someone reaches some previously defined score, 250 points by default. Other players have then one turn left to equal or beat it before the game effectively finishes.

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