“When a man plays a game, be it tennis, football, golf, beer die, or snappa, the equipment he uses matters. The quality of a man's equipment must be world-class in both durability and style. It must be rugged yet elegant, pragmatic yet idealistic, utilitarian yet beautiful. At Toss Die, we take to heart this duality of man when we build our dice.”
Adam Gurary, Founder
Beer Die Rules - How to Play Beer Die
Form two teams of two tossers.
Find an available table, two dice at the very minimum, four cups, and four cans or bottles of beer (or an equally attractive non-alcoholic beverage) to start.
Claim one end of the table with your teammate.
Fill each cup with one beer and place one filled cup at each of the corners of the table with a finger’s length of margin from both the back and side of the table.
To determine which team will toss first, kindly ask your opponents “high or low?” and roll a dice. If the opponents called the roll correctly, that is they called “low” for a 1, 2, or 3 roll or “high” for a 4, 5, or 6 roll. Otherwise, you and your partner will toss first. Make sure that the players on the team tossing first each has a die in his hand.
Decide with your teammate which corner of the table, left or right, each of you will be guarding and tossing from. It is important that, depending on terrain, intoxication, and handedness, you make an optimal arrangement.
Decide with your opponents the minimum height a dice must reach for a point to count. A point is scored for the shooting team when a member from the shooting team throws a dice such that it lands on the opponents’ side of the table (passed the center line), bounces off the table, and touches the ground without being caught with one hand (one-handed catches only, and there is no “trapping” the die against one’s body allowed). It is important to set a reasonably high minimum height for good gameplay. More advanced players will often play with a higher minimum throw height.
Decide with your opponents on a scoring system. Games are often played until a team reaches 11, 12, or 14 points in a win-by-two fashion. A common scoring system is:
1 point for a die hitting the table and falling off without a successful catch.
2 points for a die hitting one of the opponents’ cups and falling off without a successful catch.
4 points for die landing in one of the opponents’ cups. This is called a “sink.”
Decide with your opponents on a drinking system. A common drinking system is that for every four points scored against a team, the players on that team must finish their respective beverages. In the case of a “sink,” it is often customary for all players at the table to finish their respective beverages.
Decide with your opponents on a sweep policy. A sweep is when a team loses having scored no points, and a common sweep policy includes the losing team buying a pizza for the group or running a “naked lap,” which is a predefined jog without clothing either around a property or to a landmark of choice and back. Sinking one’s own cup will also often trigger a naked lap or a pizza and is to be avoided.
Decide with your opponents on a “Fifa” policy. A Fifa can be initiated when a shooting team member tosses and his dice does not make contact with the table. In such a situation, a guarding team member can kick the die using his foot before it hits the ground such that his teammate can catch it. This will either mean a point gained for the guarding team or a point lost for the shooting team. Fifa will often be called off for a game depending on conditions and preference.
The player from the shooting team who is shooting first will now yell “die up,’ make eye contact with the players on the guarding team, ensuring they are ready to attempt to catch the die, and toss. Once the point has been played, the second player from the shooting team will also yell “die up,” ensure the opponents are ready, and toss. The team that guarded those two shots will now be the shooting team. It is highly recommended, for the sake of consistency, to decide with your teammate who will shoot first and who will shoot second and stick with that order the entire game.
At the end of the game, it is customary for the losing team to finish their beverages regardless of the scoring system.
Snappa Rules - How to Play Beer Die Inside
Snappa is played nearly identically to Beer Die with a few important differences. Snappa is most often played indoors with each player sitting in a chair and only leaving the chair as needed to catch and toss. Snappa will also usually have no point difference between a regular point and a point in which the die touched an opponent’s cup. A sink in Snappa is often worth 2 or 3 points instead of 4, and the game winning score is often lower than beer die, usually around 7.