Greenwood Games: Odzee

Greenwood Games is a free, self-guided community game event along Greenwood Ave in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood. On July 25 from 1–6PM, participants pick up a playbook and spend the afternoon collecting clues, solving puzzles, and discovering locally made Washington games along the corridor from 65th to 80th.

Odzee is one of four games inside the playbook, and the only one that doesn't require visiting locations to unlock clues. Everything you need is a set of five dice and the scorepad on your playbook page which are available at Ridgewood Bottle & Tap or Holy Mountain Brewing.

How to play Odzee

Odzee is a dice game for 2 or more players. Share one set of five dice and take turns. Each player gets 6 turns total and up to 3 rolls per turn. If you think it sounds familiar, you're right...this is our special take on the popular game Yahtzee.

On your turn, roll all five dice. After each roll you can set aside any dice you want to keep and reroll the rest, just like Yahtzee. After your third roll (or sooner if you're happy with what you have), you must choose one category on your scorepad to fill in.

Here's the catch: you can only score each category once, and you can only score one category per turn. Choose wisely.

Only odd numbers count. Evens are worth nothing.

The Scorepad

1s — Add up all the 1s you rolled. Maximum 5 points.

3s — Add up all the 3s you rolled. Maximum 15 points.

5s — Add up all the 5s you rolled. Maximum 25 points.

135 — Score 15 points if you have at least one 1, one 3, and one 5 showing. Extra dice don't hurt you — 1, 1, 3, 5, 5 still qualifies.

Odzee — Add up every odd number showing on all five dice after your final roll. This is your wildcard category. Save it for a turn when your dice don't fit anywhere else but the odds are still strong. Scored once and only once.

Zeroes

If you roll all evens and can't score anything useful, you still have to fill in a category, it just gets a zero. Same goes if your best remaining category is already filled. Picking where to take your zero is part of the strategy.

Winning

Highest total score after all 6 turns wins. Add up everything in your scorepad and compare.

Strategy Tips

Save Odzee for later in the game. It's your safety net, the category you fill when nothing else fits. Use it too early and you might waste a great roll on a category you could have scored higher elsewhere.

Chase 5s early. Five 5s is 25 points, the highest possible single-category score. If you're rolling well on 5s in your first couple of turns, prioritize locking that in.

135 is more achievable than it looks. You only need one of each odd number showing across five dice. With three rolls per turn, the odds are in your favor.

Think about what's left. As your scorepad fills up, every turn gets more interesting. If your 1s, 3s, and Odzee are already scored and you roll a bunch of 1s, that score is going in your 5s or 135 row as a zero. Plan ahead.

Take your zeroes early when possible. If you know a category is going to be hard to fill (say you keep rolling nothing but 5s), consider taking the zero there early rather than being forced into it at the worst possible moment.

Good luck. May the odds be ever in your favor ;)