How to play
Everyone starts with five dice and rolls them in secret, so you only ever see your own. Players take turns making a bid about all the dice on the table, yours and everyone else’s together: “4 fives” means at least four dice on the whole table show a five. Each bid must be higher than the last: more dice of any face, or the same number of dice on a higher face. “4 fives” can be raised to “4 sixes” or “5 twos”, but not to “4 threes”.
Instead of raising, you can call Liar! Then all the dice are shown and counted. If there are fewer than the bid said, the player who made the bid loses a die. If there are at least that many, the player who called loses a die. The loser starts the next round, everyone rolls again, and play goes on. When you lose your last die you’re out; the last player with dice wins.
House rules
Wild ones (on by default): a die showing one counts as every face, so it helps every bid, and nobody bids on ones. Turn it off to count ones only as ones. Spot on: instead of calling a lie, you can say the bid is exactly right. If the count matches the bid exactly you get a lost die back; if not, you lose one.
Tips
Do the sums. With wild ones, each die you can’t see shows a given face about one time in three, so with 15 hidden dice you can expect about five of any face, plus whatever you hold. Open with a face you have plenty of, and watch what the others bid: someone who keeps pushing fours probably has some. A bluff works best early, when there are lots of dice on the table and nobody can be sure.
Playing together
Seat up to six in any mix of people and computer players. With more than one person on one device, your dice stay hidden until you tap your name, so pass it round. For friends who aren’t in the same room, use Play online (when it’s available) and everyone rolls on their own phone.