5 Classic Dice Games You Can Play With an Online Dice Roller

Physical dice have a habit of disappearing. A set gets left at a friend's house, a die rolls under the sofa and is never seen again, or you simply want to play a dice game on a video call where nobody is in the same room. A virtual dice roller solves all of these problems: it works instantly in any browser, never goes missing, and produces genuinely random results every time. This guide walks through five classic dice games — Yahtzee, Farkle, Pig, Bunco, and Liar's Dice — and how to play each one using PickerToolbox's free dice roller.

Why use a virtual dice roller instead of physical dice

Beyond simple convenience, an online roller has a few real advantages over a handful of plastic cubes. PickerToolbox's dice roller uses window.crypto.getRandomValues(), the Web Cryptography API, which draws entropy from your device's hardware rather than relying on the physics of a bounce and a table surface — so there's no argument about whether a die landed leaning against a book or half off the table. It also supports up to six dice rolled simultaneously, which covers every game below without needing a full dice bag, and it works identically on a laptop, tablet, or phone, which matters when players are spread across different locations.

Yahtzee — score with five dice

Yahtzee is built around thirteen scoring categories filled in across thirteen turns, with each turn allowing up to three rolls of five dice. Set the dice count to 5 on the dice roller for your first throw. Physical Yahtzee lets you set aside dice you want to keep and re-roll only the rest — PickerToolbox's roller re-rolls the whole set fresh each time rather than holding individual dice, so treat your second and third rolls as new throws of however many dice you still want to re-roll, and keep a running note (on paper or in a notes app) of the values you've set aside. It takes a moment to adjust to, but the scoring itself — three of a kind, full house, large straight, Yahtzee, and the rest — works exactly the same as with physical dice.

Farkle — push your luck with six dice

Farkle rewards nerve as much as luck. Players roll all six dice, set aside any scoring combinations (single 1s and 5s, three-of-a-kinds, straights), and choose whether to bank their points or roll the remaining dice again for a bigger score — risking everything if the next roll "farkles" and produces no scoring dice at all. Set the dice count to 6 for your opening roll, then lower the count to match however many dice you have left in play as you set scoring dice aside each round. Because the roller supports the full six-dice throw in one click, a Farkle turn moves just as fast online as it does with a physical dice cup.

Pig — the simplest dice game you can learn in a minute

Pig needs only one die and almost no explanation, which makes it a good pick for younger kids or a quick game between rounds of something else. Set the dice count to 1. On your turn, roll repeatedly, adding each result to your turn total — but roll a 1 and you lose everything accumulated that turn and your turn ends immediately. You can choose to "hold" at any point and bank your turn total to your running score. First player to reach 100 wins. The tension of deciding whether to roll again is the entire game, and a single die rolled on a screen creates exactly the same push-your-luck feeling as a physical one.

Bunco — a fast, social party dice game

Bunco is designed for groups and rotates players between small tables, making it a natural fit for a game night with more people than a table can seat. Each round has a target number from 1 to 6. Set the dice count to 3 and roll: three dice matching the round's target number score a "Bunco" (usually 21 points), while any single die matching the target scores one point. Rounds move quickly, so a shared screen with the dice roller open works well for groups taking turns rolling in sequence — everyone can see the same result land in real time.

Liar's Dice — bluffing with hidden rolls

Liar's Dice depends on information other players can't see, which changes how you use the roller. Set the dice count to 5 (or fewer, depending on your house rules) and have each player take a private turn with the device — pass a single phone around out of sight of the table, or better, have each player open PickerToolbox's dice roller on their own device. Players then take turns bidding on how many of a certain face value exist across everyone's hidden dice combined, calling a previous bid a lie if they think it's too high. Because the roller never stores or transmits your roll anywhere, each player's result stays exactly as private as a cupped hand of physical dice.

Playing dice games remotely or across devices

All five of these games translate well to remote play precisely because the dice roller is just a webpage — nobody needs to install anything or create an account. For games with public rolls (Yahtzee, Farkle, Pig, Bunco), the host can share their screen so everyone sees the same throw. For games with private rolls (Liar's Dice), each player opens the same page independently and keeps their result to themselves, exactly as they would with a cup of dice held under the table. Press Space or Enter to roll instead of clicking, which speeds up games with a lot of repeated throws, like Farkle or Pig.

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