Cosmic Wimpout is a dice game

Dice game

Dice games are games that use or incorporate a die as their sole or central component, usually as a random device.-Collectible dice games:Patterned after the success of collectible card games, a number of collectible dice games have been published...

 produced by C3, Inc in 1976

1976 in games

This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 1976. For video and console games, see 1976 in video gaming.-Significant games-related events of 1976:...

. The game is played with five custom dice

Dice

A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...

, and may use a combination score board and rolling surface, in the form of a piece of cloth or felt available in various colors and designs. Players supply their own game piece for score keeping.

The game of Cosmic Wimpout has often been associated with the Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...

, and other free-form subcultures. An annual tournament takes place at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts

Greenfield, Massachusetts

Greenfield is a city in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,456 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Franklin County. Greenfield is home to Greenfield Community College, the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Franklin County Fair...

.

Gameplay

The Cosmic Wimpout dice are referred to as "cubes." The general rules for the game have evolved since its inception and there have been various minor modifications made to the colors and patterns of the face designs on the cubes.

The game is played by rolling all five cubes and adding up the player's score. Any fives or tens rolled are worth that amount. Rolling three of a kind of any number is a "flash" - the swirls are twos, the triangular glyphs are three, the lightning bolts are four, and the stars are sixes. A flash scores ten times the number of one of the dice in the flash. For example, rolling three twos is worth 20 points, and rolling three fives is worth fifty. When a player rolls scoring dice, they must set them aside, and may choose to either keep the points they have, or to roll the non scoring dice and try for more points.

There are three exceptions to this general guideline, which force rolls in certain cases:

1. Whenever all five have been set aside as scoring, a player must reroll all of them. This rule is known as "You May Not Want To But You Must", or "YMNWTBYM."
2. When a player has less than 35 points overall (this is called "getting into the game"), all non-scoring dice must be rerolled.
3. When a player rolls a flash, they must then "clear the flash" by rolling all remaining non-scoring dice (the "Futtless Rule"), until none of the dice match the Flash (the "Re-Roll Clause").

If a player rolls the dice and no points at all are scored, that player has "wimped out".>If the player rolled all five cubes and scores no points, this is a "train wreck". In any case, the player loses all points gained in that round. Herein lies most of the game's strategy: if a player keeps the points they get, those points are "safe" for the remainder of the game, and the player's score cannot drop below that value, house rules notwithstanding.

In his 2007 essay on the game, game designer Andrew Looney

Andrew Looney

Andrew J. Looney , better known as Andy Looney, is an award-winning game designer and computer programmer.- Biography :...

 described Cosmic Wimpout as the "single most influential game I've ever played" and that the game "has a clean, elegant set of rules that allows losing players to feel they still have a chance at a come-from-behind victory." Looney cites Cosmic Wimpouts influence from a French dice game called Dix Mille (Ten Thousand) and names other versions/variations of the game such as Bupkis, Greed

Greed (dice game)

Greed is a dice game for two or more players, using six six-sided dice. The object of the game is to be the first to achieve a score of 10,000 points or more. "Greed" is also known as "Stugots" and "Zilch" in some circles...

, Farkle, and Zonk

Zonk

-Creation of the game:This dice game has been played since at least the early 1970s with specific origins unknown. Claims that it originated as a drug-related game in the 1980s are less likely to be the origination of the game and more likely to be an adaptation of it.The basic premise of the game...

.

Variations

Cosmic Wimpout was created with the ability to modify or add additional rules while playing, known as the Guiding Light, given the consensus of all of the players. For example, some players use the Full House rule, which states that if a player rolls a flash, and rolls a pair with your remaining two die, they must roll again.

Another variation is the Cosmic Sampler variation, which featured in an electronic version for the Palm

Palm (PDA)

Palm handhelds were Personal Digital Assistants which ran the Palm OS. Palm devices have evolved from handhelds to smartphones which run Palm OS, WebOS, and Windows Mobile...

. A Sampler is when none of the dice on any roll match, similar to a large straight in Yahtzee. Scoring for a Sampler is 25 points.