You get up to three rolls of five dice to land a 6 (the ship), a 5 (the captain), and a 4 (the crew), in that exact order, and then your last two dice become your cargo. The higher the cargo, the better your round. It's traditionally played for a pot or as a social game, but it works just as well as a friendly race to the highest score. Below you'll find the complete rules, the strict 6-5-4 order, how cargo is scored, a worked example, strategy, and the best-known variants.
On this page
What do you need?
- Five dice. Ordinary six-sided dice are all you need.
- A cup (optional) for shaking and rolling, which keeps things fair when the game is played for a pot.
- 2 or more players. Everyone takes a turn; play goes around the table.
- Optionally something to keep score if you're playing multiple rounds to a target.
No dice on hand? Ship, Captain & Crew needs five, and you can roll them for free with the online dice roller. Set the dice count to five.
The goal of the game
Be the first to secure a ship (a 6), a captain (a 5), and a crew (a 4), and then score the highest cargo with your two remaining dice. If you never complete the ship, captain, and crew, you score nothing that round, so qualifying is often the hard part.
How a turn works
- Roll all five dice. Look for a 6 first. That's your ship.
- Set aside the qualifying dice (in order, see below) and re-roll the rest on your next roll.
- Repeat for up to three rolls in total, working your way from ship to captain to crew.
- Once you have the 6-5-4, the remaining two dice are your cargo. Their sum (2–12) is your score for the round. If you have any rolls left, you may re-roll the cargo dice to try for a higher total; your 6-5-4 stays locked in.
Traditionally the game is played for a pot everyone chips into, or simply as a social game, but you can just as easily play it as a friendly race to the highest score with nothing at stake.
The strict 6-5-4 order
New players often miss this rule: you must obtain the ship, captain, and crew in that strict order, the 6 first, then the 5, then the 4.
- You may only set aside a 5 once you already have a 6.
- You may only set aside a 4 once you have both the 6 and the 5.
So if your opening roll shows a 5 and a 4 but no 6, neither of them counts yet. You have to re-roll them until a 6 turns up. It happens a lot: you throw 5-5-4-3-2, with a captain and a crew right there, and because there's no 6 you put all five dice back into the cup with nothing banked.
The opposite case is what American players argue about most, and the answer is yes: the 6, the 5 and the 4 can all be taken from a single roll, as long as you claim them in that order. "In order" describes the sequence you bank them in, not how many rolls it has to take. Roll 6-5-4-3-3 on your opening throw and you set aside the ship, then the captain, then the crew from that one throw, leaving a cargo of 6 and two whole rolls still in hand to improve it. The same logic covers pairs: with the ship already banked, a roll showing both a 5 and a 4 lets you keep both at once.
Also known as: Ship, Captain, Mate; "6-5-4"; and, on some tables, Destroyer. The numbers and the order are the same whatever the name.
Scoring the cargo
Once your ship, captain, and crew are set aside, the two dice you have left are your cargo. Add them together for a total from 2 to 12. That's your score for the round. Two sixes give the best cargo, 12, and a pair of ones the worst, 2.
If you completed your 6-5-4 with rolls to spare, you may spend those remaining rolls re-rolling the cargo dice in the hope of a higher sum. You risk nothing you've already secured (the ship, captain, and crew stay put), but you can only improve the cargo if you have a roll left.
When everyone has had their turn, whoever has the highest cargo wins the round (and the pot, if you're playing that way). Ties are usually settled with a quick roll-off between the tied players, or the pot is split.
| What you set aside | Meaning | Counts toward score? |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Ship | No, a qualifier |
| 5 | Captain | No, a qualifier |
| 4 | Crew | No, a qualifier |
| The last two dice | Cargo | Yes, their sum (2–12) is your score |
A worked example
Say it's your turn. You roll all five dice and get 6, 5, 2, 2, 1. You have a ship (6) and a captain (5), so set both aside; you still need a 4. Re-roll the other three dice.
Second roll: the three dice come up 4, 6, 3. There's your crew, so set aside the 4. Now you have your full 6-5-4, and your cargo is the remaining two dice: the 6 and the 3, a total of 9. You have one roll left.
A cargo of 9 is decent but not great, so you gamble the last roll on the two cargo dice. They land 5 and 6, a cargo of 11. You stop there, two points better off.
Strategy: when to re-roll the cargo
Ship, Captain & Crew is mostly luck, but two decisions matter. The first is getting the 6-5-4 at all. That's the hard part, and many turns end with no score. Don't waste rolls: keep every qualifier as soon as it appears and never chase cargo before your crew is secured.
The second is whether to re-roll the cargo. Once your 6-5-4 is complete early with a roll or two to spare, only re-roll if the cargo is low. A general rule of thumb: keep an 11 or 12, and consider re-rolling anything under about 8. The average result of two fresh dice is 7, so a low cargo is worth the gamble while a high one usually isn't. The exact odds for two dice are on the page about dice probability.
Variants
House rules abound. The most common ones tweak how you qualify or how the pot is won.
| Variant | How it changes the game |
|---|---|
| Call / declare | You must announce ("call") each die you keep before your next roll; keep quiet and it doesn't count. |
| Anchor | Once you set aside your ship, captain, and crew you're "anchored" and must stop. You can't re-roll the cargo, so your first cargo total stands. |
| Beat the board | Your cargo must strictly beat the current best to win; if you only tie or fall short the pot grows and carries to the next round. |
| Play to a target | Rather than a single pot, play a set number of rounds or to a target number of round wins; whoever gets there first takes the game. |
Bar dice: the Wisconsin tavern version
In a corner tavern in Milwaukee or Green Bay there's a fair chance a leather cup with five dice is sitting on the counter. Bar dice is a Wisconsin tradition (you shake for the next round of drinks), and Ship, Captain & Crew is one of the games in the rotation, alongside local games like Threes (a 3 counts as zero and the lowest score wins, a Green Bay favorite), 7-14-21 (only ones count: the seventh one names the drink, the fourteenth drinks it, the twenty-first pays for it) and the house's own Shake of the Day.
Note that "bar dice" on its own usually means a different five-dice game: aces are wild, the biggest pile of matching numbers takes the hand, the high hand goes out, and whoever is left at the end buys. Ship, Captain & Crew is played out of the same cup for the same stakes, so the name gets stretched to cover both. Ask which one the bar means.
The house rules shift from bar to bar, and in Milwaukee they shift from one neighborhood to the next. The differences that actually change the game:
- How many shakes. On the city's East Side you get three and your best score counts. South Side bars traditionally give you one, and only once the game is down to two players does everyone get three.
- Who you play. Sometimes the whole bar, sometimes just the bartender, who tends to play generously; nobody wants to lose a regular over a dice game.
- What's at stake. Usually the next round. Some houses run a pot of dollar bills that rides from shake to shake until somebody hits the magic number.
- Whether the cargo can be re-rolled. Bars that play the "anchored" version make your first cargo total stand, which turns the game into a pure race to qualify.
None of these is the wrong version. They're all somebody's house rules, which is why the bartender gets the final word. Settle on the shake count before the first roll.
Bar dice is played for drinks, so that side of it is strictly for the 21-and-over crowd. The game works the same with nothing at stake. If there's no cup on the counter, the Android app casts five 3D dice to a Chromecast or Android TV, so a whole table can watch the same roll land instead of crowding around a cup.
Fancy another quick dice game to go with it? Try Cee-lo or the bluffing classic Liar's Dice, or browse the complete overview of dice games.
Frequently asked questions about Ship, Captain & Crew
How do you play Ship, Captain & Crew?
Each player gets up to three rolls of five dice per turn. You must set aside a 6 (the ship), then a 5 (the captain), then a 4 (the crew), in that strict order, re-rolling the other dice between rolls. Once you have your 6-5-4, the last two dice are your cargo and their sum is your score. The highest cargo wins the round.
What is the cargo in Ship, Captain & Crew?
The cargo is the two dice left over once you have secured your ship (6), captain (5), and crew (4). Their combined total, a number from 2 to 12, is your score for the round. If you have rolls left you may re-roll the cargo dice to chase a higher total; your 6-5-4 stays safe while you do.
Do you have to get the 6, 5, and 4 in order?
Yes. You must obtain them in strict order: the 6 first, then the 5, then the 4. You may only set aside a 5 once you already have a 6, and a 4 only once you have both the 6 and the 5. A 5 or 4 rolled before you have the ship cannot be kept yet. All three may come from a single roll, though: throw 6, 5 and 4 on your opening roll and you bank the ship, the captain and the crew from that one throw.
How many rolls do you get?
You get up to three rolls per turn. You roll all five dice, set aside any qualifying dice in order, and re-roll the rest. Any rolls you have not used once your 6-5-4 is complete can be spent re-rolling the cargo dice for a higher total, but you never have to use all three.
What happens if you don't get a ship, captain, and crew?
If you fail to complete the 6-5-4 within your three rolls, you score nothing for that round. Only players who secure a full ship, captain, and crew have a cargo total, and the highest cargo among them wins the round.
Is Ship, Captain & Crew the same as bar dice?
In Wisconsin taverns it is one of the games played under the bar dice name, shaken out of a cup on the counter to settle who buys the next round. On its own, though, bar dice usually means a different five-dice game in which aces are wild and the largest set of matching numbers takes the hand. House rules vary from bar to bar too: on Milwaukee's East Side you get three shakes, while South Side bars give you one until the game is down to two players. Ask which game and which rules the house means before you roll.