Yahtzee Score Sheets

The Yahtzee score card is used to keep track of the scores of players during a game of Yahtzee, making it a vital piece of game equipment. Playing Yahtzee online eliminates the requirement of a physical score sheet but loses the tactile sensation. A pack of scorecards, the Yahtzee scorepad, has naturally been included in all Yahtzee sets since the first production model was rolled out in 1956. The scorepad may seem endless when you first open your Yahtzee set but eventually you will come to the realization that only a few precious score cards are left. When this panic sets in, try to remain calm as there are a plethora of options available to keep your dice rolling.

Buy Yahtzee Score Cards Online

When your Yahtzee score card stash is running low, replenish your sheets with Scratch Pad: Yahtzee Score Sheets for the Dice Proletariat - over 100 pages of new score cards. That's more than 700 games!

Scratch Pad provides a plethora of score sheets to continue your high score quest. The easy-to-read 6-by-9" pages are non-perforated, ensuring they will remain secure for future generations to enjoy.

Yahtzee is a game that is accessible to players of all ages and skill levels, and it is a game that never gets old. So join the dice revolution today and pick up the Yahtzee score pad trusted by the pros!

Over 100 pages of Yahtzee Score Cards!
Score over 700 Games!
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Print Yahtzee Score Cards

The simplest way to obtain more Yahtzee score cards, also referred to as Yahtzee scoresheets, is to purchase a new scorepad from the manufacturer. Many Yahtzee players prefer to use the official scorecard as it exudes an air of dignity. In fact, most sanctioned Yahtzee tournaments require the use of official scorecards so it is always nice to have a stack at the ready. Then again, there is nothing in the rules that says you have to use a factory-made scoresheet. For the penny-pinching Yahtzeeist looking to save some dough or the radical dice roller who rejects the exploitative capitalist system entirely, you can select one of the templates below to print free scorecards online. Printable Yahtzee score sheets allow for ultimate customization, all from the comfort of your own home.

Yahtzee Scorecard Archive

The Yahtzee score card has been refined over the years to reflect the game's changing design esthetics. The changes are cosmetic only as the game mechanics have remained the same since its introduction in 1956. For archival purposes, some of these iterations are captured below. Note that these official Yahtzee score cards are protected by copyright and are for informational purposes only.

Classic Yahtzee Score Cards

There are few greater joys in life than a game of standard Yahtzee. The old-school classic has been around for decades yet just keeps getting better with age. Take a trip back in time with a vintage Yahtzee score card.

Other Yahtzee Score Cards

Yahtzee has been expanding with new game variants and formats ever since Travel Yahtzee in 1970. Over 50 years later it has cemented its place in popular culture yet continues to evolve. Download variant game score sheets so you never miss a turn. But you won’t find one for 1991's Showdown Yahtzee - it is the only Yahtzee game that doesn’t use a scorecard!

The International Yahtzee Score Card

Yahtzee is the most popular dice game in the world, played by millions of people all across the globe. The rules are easy to learn, and there's always the potential for exciting and unexpected outcomes with every roll of the dice. Because of Yahtzee’s universal appeal, the game has been translated into many languages, making it accessible to people all over the world. This has helped to spread the game's popularity even further, introducing it to new dice-rollers both young and old. Check out an international Yahtzee score card for yourself.

Yahtzee Score Card: The Breakdown

Understanding the Yahtzee score card is key to maximizing your score and becoming a master of the dice. It may appear intimidating for those who are unfamiliar with the rules of the game, but there is no need to worry. Check out The Yahtzee Manifesto’s comprehensive introduction to the Yahtzee score card, breaking down each section and providing clear explanations of how to fill it out correctly:

Upper Section - Refers to the section of the Yahtzee scorecard where players can score in each of the following categories: Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, and Sixes. The only dice that are counted are those that display the corresponding number on the scorepad.
Lower Section - Refers to the section of the Yahtzee scorecard where players can score in the following categories: Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind, Full House, Small Straight, Large Straight, Chance, and Yahtzee.
Three-of-a-Kind - A score that occurs when a player has three dice of the same value. The total of all five dice are counted and scored.
Four-of-a-Kind - A score that occurs when a player has four dice of the same value. The total of all five dice are counted and scored.
Full House - A score that occurs when a player has three of one kind and two of another kind. 25 points.
Small Straight - A score that occurs when a player has four consecutive values in a row. 30 points.
Large Straight - A score that occurs when a player has five consecutive values in a row. 40 points.
Yahtzee - A five-of-a-kind score that occurs when a player rolls five dice of the same value. This is the highest scoring category – 50 points - and the game’s ultimate prize.
Chance - A score that occurs when a player simply adds up all the dice values. The total of all five dice are counted and scored.

Once you know your way around the Yahtzee score card and start rolling, you'll want to learn how to safeguard your completed score cards. Until Yahtzee is inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, it's up to you to preserve these treasures. Read on to find out the best ways to protect your Yahtzee legacy.

Yahtzee Score Card Preservation

The feelings of joy that arise from playing Yahtzee with friends and family are undeniable. Nothing beats the sound of five dice rattling around in a plastic cup or dishing out high-fives after someone rolls a Yahtzee. But the fun doesn’t need to stop once the game ends. Yahtzee fans can derive hours of happiness in reliving prior games and momentous outcomes by reminiscing over old Yahtzee score cards. Many people simply discard their completed cards. Other players only save scorecards if they’ve rolled a really high score. But the World Yahtzee Institute recommends keeping them all for future generations to study and enjoy.

We often hear from Yahtzee fanatics who have been dismayed to discover that their toddler has defaced their old scorecards with crayon scribblings or whose dog chewed them to bits. These kinds of accidents typically occur when completed scorecards are simply kept in the Yahtzee box with the rest of the equipment. While this is perhaps the most logical spot to stash them, consideration should be given to creating a more permanent home for old Yahtzee scorecards where they can be better protected from the elements.

Any secure place where you would typically store valuables can be transformed into an appropriate Yahtzee scoresheet repository. Popular choices include a personal safe, gun locker, jewelry box, under the mattress, underwear drawer, cookie jar, or a bank’s safety deposit box to name but a few. The most important considerations in selecting a safe storage facility is to choose a spot where the records will kept free from moisture, flame, and potential tampering.

Losing a Yahtzee archive to a natural disaster is bad enough, but to have precious data intentionally altered or destroyed could cause serious psychological harm. Misguided attempts at scoresheet forgery can damage the integrity of your Yahtzee records even more than an act of god. Common types of Yahtzee vandalism include data erasure, score manipulation, and outright thievery. To deter potential hooligans, consider installing an alarm system that will alert you when the security of your Yahtzee repository is breached.

Yahtzee Scorecard where a player has written an insult at another player: Deb is a loser

A defaced scorecard with an insult aimed at another player

But change is unavoidable for all things in the universe so even the most meticulously insulated physical score cards will inevitably succumb to the ravages of time and entropic forces. Even absent any active vandalism or fraudulence, as evidenced by yellowed old books, baseball cards, and comic strips, the delicate nature of the scorecard paper itself renders it dangerously vulnerable to age-related decay.

So just as paper score cards replaced animal hide parchments, which in turn replaced stone tablet scorecards, technology is again taking Yahtzee scoresheet preservation to new levels. The certitude that all physical matter will degrade over time necessitates requires a longer-term solution than physical storage can provide. For long-term security, electronic means of preservation are the preferred method for maintaining an accurate record of Yahtzee scores.

One easy way to manage Yahtzee scores digitally is to forgo a paper scorecard entirely and use a simple computer spreadsheet to record your scores. This does require, or course, the use of a phone or computer during gameplay which may prove to be a hindrance to the flow of the game. Alternatively, the scores from a paper scorecard can be transcribed into the spreadsheet once the game has ended. Many players, however, like to include doodles or other artwork on their Yahtzee scorecards that cannot be translated into a spreadsheet format. In these cases it is good practice to electronically replicate the scorecards with a digital scanner or photographic technique.

Old man signing a document to secure his Yahtzee legacy

As the saying goes, nothing is certain except for death and taxes. While there is fortunately no tax on Yahtzee goodness, players should contemplate how to safeguard their scorecards after death. As a means of preserving their own Yahtzee legacy for posterity, scorecard depositories and associated data can be included in a personal will to be bequeathed to a loved one. The World Yahtzee Institute also accepts these records and will incorporate it into its master archive. With foresight and proper management, your Yahtzee scores can live on forever and you can take pride in your contribution to both Yahtzee history and its continued development.

Standard Yahtzee Notation

As an additional measure of score conservation, consider converting old scorecards into Standard Yahtzee Notation (SYN). SYN was developed during the European ‘Age of Enlightenment’ as a way to apply the latest scientific developments to the preservation of Yahtzee scores. Over the centuries it has become the benchmark method to chronicle Yahtzee scores for future study. Its functional simplicity has since been applied to other games, most notably chess. A major benefit in SYN is its ability to record the sequence of scores in a given game, a capacity not included in the standard Yahtzee score card. Even with the modern advent of the printable Yahtzee scorecard for at-home use, classic standard notation remains a powerful analytical tool.

Standard Yahtzee Notation Scorecard

Standard Yahtzee Notation varies from the standard method by using a custom scorecard to allow the player to record the sequence of their turns. The advantages of capturing this additional information is balanced by a slight increase in the time it takes to record one’s score. The SYN scorecard must be marked twice for each turn – once in the traditional way by scoring category which eases the total score calculation at the end of the game, and again to mark the sequence of the turn. It provides extra insight into a players' tactics and skill level and, as its name suggests, is the standard way to record a Yahtzee game in competitive leagues across the world.

One SYN unit is a record of one game of a single player. The unit consists of sixteen entries - thirteen representing each turn of one traditional Yahtzee game and three for the totals, Upper Section Total (UST), Lower Section Total (LST), and Grand Total (GT). These sixteen entries are indicated by parentheses, which are each followed by the game data. The game data is depicted as an abbreviation of the scoring category marked in a given turn and then its numerical score. The following is an example of one SYN unit:

(1)LS40 (2)3s9 (3)4s12 (4)4K27 (5)Y50 (6)Y100 J-6s30 (7)Y100 J-3K30 (8)SS30 (9)2s4 (10)C19 (11)5s15-B35 (12)FH25 (13)1s0 (UST)105 (LST)421 (GT)526

In this game the player started (1) by rolling a Large Straight (LS) which is always scored as 40 points. The second turn (2) resulted in scoring their Threes (3s) for nine points. Note that this game yielded three consecutive Yahtzees (Y), beginning on turn five (5). The subsequent Yahtzees on turns six (6) and seven (7) are recorded with ‘Y100’ to indicate the Yahtzee Bonus, followed by a ‘J’ notation to record the placement of their Joker score. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a high-scoring game as indicated by the Grand Total (GT) of 526 in the final entry.

Note in the completed SYN scorecard below that the first two rows are used to record scores by scoring category as on a traditional scorecard. The third row uses Standard Yahtzee Notation to record the sequence of turns, (1) through (13). The bottom row captures the Upper (UST) and Lower Section Totals (LST) and the Grand Total (GT) of the game.

A filled-in scoresheet using Standard Yahtzee Notation.

How to Make Your Own Yahtzee Score Cards

Printable scorecards are useless if you're out of ink. Or perhaps you are not inclined to fork over more of your hard-earned money to a corporate interest just to maintain your Yahtzee addiction. For the artistically-minded player seeking a new creative outlet, making a homemade Yahtzee score card is the perfect solution.

The best Yahtzee scorecard is subjective and depends on the preferences of the player. However, there are some general guidelines that can be used to determine the best scorecard for you.

Clarity: A scorecard with clear and easy-to-read font can make it easier to keep track of your scores and progress throughout the game.
Space: A scorecard with ample space for recording scores can be helpful, especially if you play multiple games in one sitting.
Durability: A scorecard made from durable materials such as card stock or plastic can help to ensure that it lasts for a long time.
Design: A scorecard with a visually pleasing design can make the game more enjoyable and engaging.
Extra features: Some scorecards come with extra features such as a rules sheet, or a dry-erase surface, which can be convenient for players.
Customizable: Some scorecards allow you to customize it with your own design, which can make it more personalized.

The Yahtzee Manifesto's own book of score cards, Scratch Pad: Yahtzee Score Sheets for the Dice Proletariat ticks all of these boxes. But ultimately, the best Yahtzee scorecard is one that meets your specific needs and preferences. Consider what is important to you, whether it is clarity, durability, or design, and select a scorecard that fits those criteria.

Opting to design your very own Yahtzee score card is a personally rewarding experience. Here are some tips for how to create your scoring masterpiece:

Step 1 – Choose Your Material

The cardboard backing of the official Yahtzee scorepad is perhaps the most obvious choice of material when a player has decided to create their own homemade Yahtzee scorecard. It will be staring you in the face once you’ve torn out the final scorecard. Its sturdiness will surely allow it to stand the test of time but any sort of paper or paper-like material will suffice. Search your surroundings to find the most useful paper for your purpose.

Step 2 – Plan Your Layout

The familiar carpentry motto, “Measure twice, cut once”, applies to Yahtzee scorecard construction as well. If you have a well-thought out plan of how you intend to use your available space before you put pen to paper, your chances of creating a great scorecard will be enhanced. There are several important questions that you must first ask yourself. How many games can I realistically fit onto this scorecard? Do I want to leave a blank space where I can draw good-luck pictures or other images? Have I remembered to include a line at the top for the player’s name and the current date? Do I have an official Yahtzee scorecard to use a reference so I can keep the scoring categories in their proper order?

Even if you plan ahead, mistakes are still possible. One common error is to forget to include a row for Bonus Yahtzees. Trying to squeeze them into the margins can be a major letdown when you’ve just rolled one these beauties! Let’s take a look at some examples:

Column width will differ according to a player's personal preference and writing size.

This score card has plenty of space
for notes and illustrations.

Step 3 – Create Your Yahtzee Score Card

Unless you are using graph paper or another type of paper with existing lines, you’d be well advised to use a ruler or another type of straight edge to fashion your Yahtzee score card. It can be quite difficult to draw all of the necessary lines free-hand. A pen or pencil are the recommended writing implements but depending on the players level of comfort with the device even crayons or magic markers will do the trick. Coloration and overall style may be of some importance to players who intend to display the completed scorecard publicly, such as on a refrigerator or in a frame. In any case, take care to store your finished product carefully to maintain a permanent record of your Yahtzee games!

This player should have used a ruler to more effectively manage the available page space.

A neat and orderly Yahtzee score sheet. Penmanship is becoming a lost art but homemade Yahtzee score cards are a great way to refine your skills.

A coffee-stained Yahtzee score card. Proper storage matters! Remember to protect completed sheets from accidents.

Learn More about Yahtzee Score Cards

Yahtzee score card goddess with large dice

A Yahtzee score card is a sheet of paper used to record and keep track of the scores in the game of Yahtzee. The card is divided into several sections, each corresponding to a different category of rolls, such as "Ones," "Twos," "Threes," "Fours," "Fives," "Sixes," "Three of a Kind," "Four of a Kind," "Full House," "Small Straight," "Large Straight," "Chance," and "Yahtzee." Players roll five dice and then score their roll in the appropriate category, with the goal of earning the highest total score at the end of the game. Put simply, a score card is a vital piece of Yahtzee equipment.

Yahtzee Variant Games - The delights of Yahtzee go much further than just the standard game. New versions like Triple Yahtzee, Word Yahtzee, and Casino Yahtzee have been released regularly over the years. Get an overview of the original six variants and learn how to record your scores under a whole new set of rules.

Yahtzee Equipment - Take a closer look into the tools of the trade. Explore the intricacies of Yahtzee equipment, from the standard set and beyond. Discover how proper care and regular maintenance will not only prolong the life of your game but uphold universal values of fair play.

How to Care for Your Yahtzee Set - We answer letters from readers who have specific questions about proper game maintenance. The answers to the trickiest Yahtzee inquiries are not always obvious. Join us on a deep dive into some of the more challenging equipment topics.

Yahtzee Incorporated - Modern Yahtzee score sheets were born from a corporate boardroom. Explore Yahtzee's history from a business point of view and learn how Yahtzee is able to annually generate billions of dollars worldwide.

Ask The Yahtzee Manifesto

E.S. Lowe Company Yahtzee envelope, ages 8 to adult

Experts at the World Yahtzee Institute work day and night on the world’s most pressing Yahtzee issues. But they can’t do it alone. It takes a community working together to plumb the depths of modern Yahtzee theory.

To help further humanity’s dice exploration, we answer readers’ letters on all things Yahtzee. This week’s letter poses a simple question about the Yahtzee score card but opens up a whole new can of worms with our researchers. Can something we take for granted every day – our very perception of the outside world – actually be trusted at all?

Yahtzee Score Card Bias

Dear Yahtzee Manifesto,

Did you ever wonder how they picked the order of scoring combinations on the Yahtzee scorecard? Why not put the Full House at the top, for example?

jimbo_eagle_talon55

Dear Jimbo,

The Full House is the Greenland of the Yahtzee score card. They have both been misrepresented for centuries, resulting in a myriad of misconceptions and overinflations of their importance. Don’t get me wrong, Greenland is a wonderful place with a unique landscape and a proud people. But early attempts at European colonization saddled the land with a massive case of false advertising that survives to this day. The name “Greenland” isn’t a fair representation of the land as it is mostly covered by the second-largest ice sheet in the world. Rather, it was a marketing ploy designed to lure Viking settlers. The discrepancy between the verdant name and its large swaths of frozen tundra surely became immediately clear to those first enterprising settlers. But Greenland has long been distorted in another, more subtle way that isn’t obvious to most people.

In 1569 the gold-standard of world maps was created. The so-called Mercator projection displayed the entire globe as a flat surface with perfectly straight latitude and longitude lines. Its simplicity proved to be a boon for nautical cartography and it is still used as the template for almost all navigational maps. It also found success in educational maps and can be found on classroom walls the world over. The major problem with the Mercator projection is that it necessarily distorts regions of the globe, particularly the polar areas, in order to represent the spherical Earth as a flat surface. Alaska, for example, appears to be the same size as Australia although in reality it is 4.5 times smaller. China looks like it is twice as big as the contiguous United States, when they are in fact about the same size. And Greenland appears to be the same size as the whole of Africa when Africa is actually a whopping 14 times larger. While it is true that Greenland is the world’s largest island, its super-sized appearance on world maps has misled generations of schoolchildren into geographical delinquency.

Now Princeton astrophysicists are righting the wrongs of the Mercator projection and have come up with the most accurate flat map ever made. Its creators first invented a system to quantify the six different types of distortions that flat maps can produce and then graded existing map types to determine how they could be improved. Their final product is a two-sided flat map that effectively eliminates all spatial distortions that can be introduced when flattening a sphere. It has the added benefit of centering each side of the map on the Earth’s poles which removes mapmaking’s political aspect of arbitrarily placing a given country or region at the center. And Greenland appears on the new map just as it should, not as a bloated monstrosity. While a two-sided map may not be ideal for a classroom wall, it seems that all is well in the world of cartography as the menace of the Mercator projection has finally been subdued.

Still with me, Jimbo? That brings us back to the Yahtzee score card. In the same way that old world maps misrepresent the true shape of landmasses and distances between them, the layout of a Yahtzee scorecard contains inherent biases that can mislead a player. The Yahtzee itself, for example, is the highest scoring category on the scoresheet but is traditionally located near the very bottom of the card. Because the player’s eye is naturally drawn to the uppermost categories first, this placement serves to undermine the importance of the Yahtzee. The Full House, meanwhile, is often considered to be the easiest category in the Lower Section aside from Chance. The popular mantra “Let the Full House come to you” serves as a reminder that a player is likely to roll many of them during a game and that it therefore needn’t become the center of attention. Yet it continues to occupy prime real estate on the Yahtzee scorecard at the upper reaches of the Lower Section. Inexperienced players who don’t know any better may be unwittingly drawn to the Full House due to its arbitrary location on the scoresheet. Much like Greenland, it has been granted an outsized importance as a result of an underlying bias in design.

Taking inspiration from the new two-sided world map, researchers at the World Yahtzee Institute have created a scoresheet that realigns the scoring categories in a more logical manner. Biases and arbitrary misrepresentations have been removed to the extent that is possible to create a more fair and just Yahtzee score sheet. Like its cartographical cousin, the scorecard is two-sided. This confers a sense of equality to the Upper and Lower Sections, which keep their conventional names but can be thought of as the “front” and “back” sections. Scoring categories have been reordered according to their statistical importance. And the Full House takes its rightful place at the bottom of the Lower Section where it belongs.

Don’t let yourself be chained in by the inherent constrictions of the traditional Yahtzee score card. If you feel the urge to correct inherent biases or just as a means of personal expression, homemade scorecards offer a level of freedom unobtainable from the standard set.

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