This month has been dedicated to spending time with friends–cultivating old friendships, spending time with current friends, and appreciating all the great people in my life.
Spending more time with my spouse andย more meaningful, quality time with my kids.
One of the things that I did this month with friends was to re-start a Bunco group for my girlfriends.
Bunco is the ultimate girls’ night out activity because it’s easy, it’s quick, and it’s essentially pretty mindless. You can play and chat and not worry about using your brain all that much.
It’s been a bunco month. We didn’t stop with our girls’ night bunco; we even played a bit of family bunco.
I highly recommend it.
Here’s the skinny. . .
How to Play Bunco (A Super Fun GNO–Girls’ Night Out):ย
First things first. ย You need a group.
I was lucky in that we already had a Bunco group from a few years back, so I started with that list. Then I reached out to friends from my neighborhood, elementary school, preschool, summertime pool, and bookclub so the group would be diverse and fun.
I sent this initial email:
I’ve been chatting w/ some folks, and we were talking about how we’d LOVE to get into theย Buncoย swing for 2015!ยIf you are interested, we’d love to get rolling in February.ยWe’ll try to schedule a game the first Friday of each month with one person hosting and providing drinks and table snacks. Three other people can bring appetizers so that no one is really carrying too heavy a load.Really–there’s NO pressure here, if it’s not a good time or you’re not interested; maybe just reply back to let us know if you’re interested in being on the play list or sub list, and we’ll get a group going for Feb.ยAlso, if you want to include anyone else, reply back and let us know their name and email so we can reach out. The more, the merrier!Sound good?ยLet’s make 2015 the year we’re taking care of ourselves!! Girl time is SO important!!ย
If folks responded, awesome! If not, I took it as a hint.
I started a Google contacts group called ‘Bunco 2015’ to make sending emails easier.
And then I used VolunteerSpot as our sign-up. ย On VolunteerSpot, I made Bunco 2015 a group page with an event every month from February through June. ย Each month, I made three sign-ups for appetizers; one sign-up for host; and unlimited for players.
The cool thing about VolunteerSpot is that the hosts for each month can add a comment with their address, no one has to send out evites or multiple emails, and we can all share the link to invite other friends.
After we had our group,ย I started to gather supplies.
To play Bunco, you need:
- dice (you’ll need about twelve dice total)
- a bell
- score sheets
- table
- pens or pencils
- sometimes groups make players wearย crazy hats or fun necklaces or hold silly stuffed things when they get a bunco
Grab our score sheets and table cards here, and make sure that you print enough!
You’ll need the Score Cards which are printed two per sheet.
ย You can download the Score Sheets here:ย bunco printables | teachmama.com
And if you choose to share–which we hope you do!–please link to this post and not the attachment page! Thank you!
And you’ll need Table Cards.
The printables have enough for six tables, though that means you’ll have a really big group.ย You may only need three or four tables.
You can download the Table Cards here:ย bunco table cards _ teachmama.com
And if you choose to share–which we hope you do!–please link to this post and not the attachment page! Thank you!
To play Bunco:
- 12 players break into 3 tables of 4 players each.
- Tables are numbered; table 1 is the โhead tableโ; table 2 is middle; table 3 is last.
- Players sit across from their โtemporary teamโ member at each table.
- One player at head table rings bell to signal start of game.
- Players at each table take turns rolling 3 dice, trying to roll the same number as the round ย ย ย (ex: ย roll 1โs during the 1st round = points earned; 2โs during 2nd round, etc.).
- Players keep rolling until they score no points, after which time they hand the dice to the next player.ย A table scorekeeper tallies points for both teams.
- When the head table earns 21 points, the bell is rung, and the round is over.
- Points are added.ย Each table will have a winning team and a losing team. Players write their score on their personal score sheet and indicate win (W) or loss (L).
- Players either stay or move tables depending on whether they won or lost the round. Instructions are on the table cards.ย โTemporary teamโ members MUST switch after each game.
BUNCO = 3 of the same number rolled matches round number (ex: three 2โs during 2nd round = BUNCO!ย โย BUNCO = 21 points
Baby Bunco = 3 of same number rolled does not match round number (ex: three 2โs during the 4th round) = Baby Buncoย โย Baby Bunco = 5 points
You can download our Bunco Rules Sheet here:
You can download the Bunco Rules Sheetย here:ย bunco RULES _ family teachmama.com
And if you choose to share–which we hope you do!–please link to this post and not the attachment page! Thank you!
Remember, that the fun part about Bunco is the prizing!
Everyone pays $5 to play! And then, after all of the games are played, count the pot.
- 50% of total pot goes to the player with the most buncos
- 30% of total pot goes to the player with the high score
- 20% of total pot goes to the player with the most wins
- $5 goes to the player with the ย lowest score
- $5 goes to the player with the most losses
But you cannot forget about the Bunco snacks! Check out how we do snacks for our ย games: ย Best Bunco Snacks
The great thing about Bunco is that it’s crazy easy and that you need very little brain power to make it work. It’s the ideal game to play while chatting with friends, catching up, and trying to solve world problems.
This post is part of our #livefocused in 2015 series; February is our month to focus on friendship. It’s been a blast.
Find out more here:
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Thank you SO MUCH!!!! tHIs saved me so much time and helped me understand the game so much better. ๐
omg YAYYYYY!!!!!!
If 50% of the money collected goes to most Buncos, 30% goes to high score, and 20% goes to most wins, isnโt that 100% of the money collected? Where is the $5 for lowest score and $5 for most losses coming from?
okay, okay. . . so my math isnt’ the greatest. ๐
I was thinking the $5 + $5 came out first and then the balance divided into percentages. I might go $1 + $1, rhymes with “Fun”! ๐ Is this something like Yahtzee? Hmmm, and why can’t I use capital letters in this comment? Blessings from Port Huron Michigan.
WE PLAY Bunco at my house the 1st Thursday of each month. We have 4 snack ladies each time. When we started 4 years ago I thought they would bring chips, pretzels etc. Well, we have an entire meal! These ladies go all out and it is wonderful. We have a Bunco bear to which we attach a 5 dollar bill. When someone gets a Bunco the bear is tossed across the room to them. whoever has the bear at the end of the night gets to keep the money. We give $5. For the most snake eyes. (When you roll 3 ones you and your partner have your score wiped out and you start over.) We give $5 for the most losses, $10 for the most wins, $15 for the most mini Bunco and $20 for the most Bunco. The last $5 gets attached to Bunco bear. For December we are going to invite the spouses to join us. We love our Bunco night!!!
What happens when there is a tie on a round. There is no winner or loser to determine who switches tables. How do you decide? BTW, had a blast playing this games. The whole family loved it.
oh man, nancy. . . not sure. i think we just played a whole other round to replace the tie? what’d you end up doing?