How to Play the Dice Game Up Down Safe

The dice game Up Down Safe is similar to the dice game Obsession from 1977. (There is now a popular board game Obsession not to get the two confused.)

This dice game has a lot of strategy to it and some push-your-luck game play to it.  Other games like this are the Knucklebones game and Bank Dice.

Let’s get into the rules and game play of Up Down, Safe.

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What you Need For Up Down Safe

You will need two dice, 20 movers and the game board. You can make your own or you can get your copy in our Family Game Shelf shop.

Playing Up Down Safe

To start, each player places one mover on their down position numbers. We love to use glass beads for our movers, but bingo chips work nicely too.

Now, decide who will play first by doing a dice roll. The highest number gets to start.

Player one rolls both dice. Now she can choose to move the two numbers on the dice or move the sum of the umbers. For example, if she rolls a 3 and 6 she can move the 3 and 6 or the 9 mover. You can only move the mover from the down position to the up position.

She rolls the dice again and again decides what to move. She continues rolling until she can no longer use both numbers rolled (either at face value or the sum.)

Now it is player two’s turn. He rolls both dice and now has the choice to move the two numbers from the down position to up, move the sum of the dice to the up position or move player one’s movers that match to the down position.

Example

For example if he rolls a 4 and 5 he may…
A move his 4 and 5 movers to the up position
B move his 9 mover to up
C move his 4 to up and her 5 to down
D move her 4 to down and his 5 to up
E move her 9 to down

He continues rolling and moving his movers up and hers down until he can no longer use both dice in a roll—either on their own or as a sum.

When his turn is over, any of player one’s movers that are in the up position are moved to her safety position. He will no longer be able to move these. That is, an opponent can’t move any of his opponent’s movers that are in the safety position.

Turn Two

Now for player one’s second turn, she rolls both dice. As before, she can move any of her movers to the up position and any of his movers from the up to the down position. She may also move any of her movers from safe to up. This would be done to prolong her turn. For example, if she rolled a 1 and 1 and her 1 and 2 were safe and his 1 and 2 were safe, she could move her 2 from safe to up and get to roll again.

When her turn is over, any of player two’s movers that are still in the up position are moved to the safe position.

Winning Up Down Safe

When a player has all of her movers out of the down position—either all safe, all up or a combination of them—she wins the game.

Variations

There is one game variation that I found in my research and that is for scoring.

Before starting, players need to decide on how many points they want to play to. 50 points seems to be a good amount. When a round is over, any moves in the down position count against you as their value. So if you have a 4 and 2 in the down position when the game ends, you score 6 points. The first player to reach 50 points loses the game.

You’re Safe From Boredom

With this dice game you will have hours of fun trying to decide what moves to make and seeing how they play out. Players of all ages will love the simplicity of it as well as the challenge. Visit the shop to get your copy today!

If you’re looking for more fun with dice check out our Dice Sticks game, Burger Dice and Whacky Putt mini golf dice game. And if you need more dice, we love to play where everyone has a set in their favorite colour, shop here. Canadians can shop here.