Ship, Captain, and Crew

👥 2–8 players 📍 Indoor📍 Anywhere ⚡ Calm 🧩 Simple ⏱ 20-30 minutes 🎂 Ages 4+

Quick Pitch

Ship, Captain, and Crew is a dice game where you need to roll a 6, then a 5, then a 4 before you can score — and once you've collected all three, your remaining two dice become your points.

Hook

You roll five dice hoping for a 6 (the ship), a 5 (the captain), and a 4 (the crew) — and you have to get them in that order, setting each aside as you roll it. Only once you've got all three can your last two dice count as cargo. High cargo wins. You get three rolls total, so if you get the whole combo early, you're deciding: take the safe points or roll again hoping for something better? Push too hard and you waste your turn.

Equipment Needed

  • 5 standard six-sided dice
  • Paper scorecard (one per player or shared)
  • Pencil or pen

Setup

  1. Each player tracks their own score
  2. Determine play order
  3. First player rolls first

Rules

Objective

Score the most points by rolling the Ship (6), Captain (5), and Crew (4), then using remaining dice for cargo.

Turn Structure

Phase 1: Find the Ship, Captain, and Crew

  1. Roll all 5 dice
  2. Look for any 6, 5, and 4
  3. Set aside any 6s, 5s, and 4s you rolled
  4. Reroll remaining dice
  5. Repeat until you've achieved all three numbers (6, 5, 4) or decided to stop trying

Phase 2: Score Your Cargo

Once you have the Ship (6), Captain (5), and Crew (4) set aside:

  • The remaining 2 dice become "cargo"
  • Add the values of these 2 cargo dice to your score
  • If you never roll all three required numbers, you score zero for the turn

Key Rules

  • You need all three: 6 (Ship), 5 (Captain), 4 (Crew). Without any one, you score 0
  • Three rerolls maximum: Most variants allow you to reroll the remaining dice up to three times total
  • Immediate lock: Once you roll a 6, it's locked in place. Same for 5 and 4
  • Cargo are the final two: Whatever numbers remain after you have 6, 5, 4 become cargo (usually 2 dice)
  • High cargo wins: If multiple players achieve the Ship-Captain-Crew combo, whoever has the highest cargo score wins

Reroll Strategy

After rolling and setting aside required numbers, decide:

  • Do I roll again to try to improve my cargo?
  • Or keep my current cargo and take the points?

Each reroll risks farkling if you can't keep your Ship/Captain/Crew (this varies by variant—see variations below).

Example Turn

  1. Roll 5 dice: 6-5-3-2-4 → Set aside 6, 5, 4 (found all three!) → Remaining: 3, 2 (cargo)
  2. Your score this turn: 3 + 2 = 5 points

Another example:

  1. Roll 5 dice: 6-2-3-5-1 → Set aside 6, 5 → Remaining: 2, 3, 1
  2. Reroll the three remaining: 4-5-6 → Now you have a second 5, second 6, and a 4 → All three found!
  3. Remaining: 5, 6 (cargo from second roll)
  4. Your score this turn: 5 + 6 = 11 points

Expert Player

Tips

  1. Secure the combo: Finding all three numbers is the priority. Nothing scores without them
  2. Reroll aggressively early: If you're missing one number, reroll everything except what you have
  3. Cargo reroll caution: Once you have the combo, reroll only if your current cargo is very low (3-4)
  4. Reroll limitations: Never reroll more than 2-3 times per turn
  5. Lock in low cargo: If you achieve the combo with high total (cargo 10+), take it immediately
  6. Mathematics: Average cargo is 7 (two dice average 3.5 each). Anything over 7-8 is good
  7. Early vs. late game: Early rounds, be aggressive with rerolls. Late game (within a few turns), play conservatively

Variations

  • Protect combo on reroll: When you reroll remaining dice, the 6, 5, 4 never "unlocked." You always keep them until the end
  • No reroll cap: Some groups allow unlimited rerolls (makes the game longer)
  • Standard reroll limit: Three total rerolls per turn (most common)
  • Sailor variant: After securing Ship-Captain-Crew, reroll all 5 dice for pure high roll potential (risky)
  • Minimum cargo: Some groups require 8+ to score (changes strategy significantly)
  • First to X points: Play until someone reaches 50 or 100 points instead of set rounds
Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Ship, Captain, and Crew emerged in mid-20th century America as a bar game and social dice game. Its strongest association has traditionally been with naval and military culture — the Ship (6), Captain (5), and Crew (4) framing reflects the hierarchical world of shipboard life, and the game spread through Navy circles and veterans' social clubs before becoming a general bar game staple. The dice cup and five-dice setup also fit naturally with the bar-game tradition of games like Liar's Dice and Farkle, where the table acts as the communal playing surface.

The game has no single credited inventor and is almost certainly folk-invented — its mechanics are simple enough to have been independently devised in multiple places. It appears in mid-century bar game collections and military recreation guides under various names including "See-Far-See" and "Battleship Dice."

Cultural Context

Ship, Captain, and Crew thrives in exactly the settings it was built for: bars, family gatherings, camping trips, and anywhere a fast and accessible group game is needed. The push-your-luck decision — whether to reroll after getting the combo in pursuit of better cargo — is simple enough for any player to understand immediately and just engaging enough to create real decisions. The built-in narrative (you're assembling a ship's crew before loading cargo) gives the game a slight personality that pure point-scoring lacks.

Its longevity as a bar game comes from pacing: rounds are short, the game scales easily from two to eight players, and the randomness keeps the stakes low and the atmosphere light.

See Also