Roll and Cover Dice Game: Rules and Odds

Roll and Cover is a simple board game for the classroom or the kitchen table. Each player has a strip of squares numbered 2 to 12. You roll two dice, add them up and cover that number. The first player to cover every square wins. Children practise adding without noticing, and after a few games they start asking why 7 always fills up first while 2 and 12 take forever.

What You Need

• Two six-sided dice per group, or our Dice Roller set to two dice on the board or a tablet.
• A board for each player: a row of 11 squares numbered 2 to 12, drawn on paper or printed.
• Counters to cover the squares: buttons, cubes, coins or small pieces of paper. A pencil cross works too.
• Two to four players per board group, or the whole class with one shared roller.

Who Goes First

Put the names of the group into our Random Name Picker and spin it once. The name it picks rolls first, and play goes to the left. With a whole class, the teacher can spin the picker for a different child to press the roll button each turn, so everyone gets a go.

How to Play

There are many home-made versions of this game. These are the most common rules, so agree on any changes before you start.

1. Roll two dice and add the two numbers together.
2. Cover the sum on your own board with a counter.
3. Already covered? Nothing happens, and the dice pass to the next player.
4. Say the sum out loud (“four plus three is seven”) so the group can check it.
5. First to cover all 11 squares wins.

For a whole-class version, everyone has their own board and the teacher rolls for the whole room. Each child covers the sum on their own board, and the first to fill the board calls out. Because everyone gets the same rolls, the whole class finishes at the same moment. To make it a real race, let each child roll their own dice instead.

Which Squares Fill First?

Two dice can land in 36 equally likely ways, but the sums are not equally likely. There is only one way to make 2 (1 and 1), while there are six ways to make 7 (1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4, and the same pairs the other way round). In the table, “Sum” is the number on the square, “Ways” is how many of the 36 results add up to it, “Chance” is the exact chance on one roll, and “Rolls to first hit” is the average number of rolls before that sum first comes up.

So the middle of the board fills quickly and the two ends are the slow part. A 7 shows up on average every 6 rolls, while a 2 or a 12 takes 36 rolls on average. This is the same pattern explained in our dice probability guide.

How Long Does a Game Take?

We simulated 200,000 single-board games and 100,000 games each for 2 and 4 players, one roll per turn. These are simulated estimates. Covering a full board alone took about 61 rolls on average, and half of the games were finished within 52 rolls. One game in ten took 108 rolls or more. With two players racing, someone usually finished in about 39 rounds, and with four players in about 31 rounds.

The last empty square is almost always at the edge of the board. In the table, “Last square” is the number that was still open when the board was nearly full, and “How often it is last” is the share of simulated games where it was the final square to be covered.

If a game feels too long for young players, use one of the faster variations below.

Teaching Ideas

• Predict first: before the game, ask the class which number they think will be covered first and which last. Write the guesses on the board and check them afterwards.
• Tally chart: keep a class tally of every sum rolled. After 50 or 100 rolls, the tally makes a hill shape with 7 at the top.
• Find the ways: ask pairs of children to list every way two dice can make 7, then 2, then 12. This explains the table above without any formulas.
• Fair or not? Ask whether it would be fair to give a prize to whoever picks 12 before the game. It opens a good talk about chance and fairness.
• Number bonds: younger children can count the dots, older children can add them in their heads, and both can play on the same board.

For more short games that use our free tools in lessons, see our classroom games with a random picker and the Heads or Tails classroom game.

Variations

• One die, squares 1 to 6: great for the youngest players. A solo board took about 15 rolls on average in our simulation.
• Sum or either die: after a roll of 2 and 5 you may cover 2, 5 or 7. Boards with squares 1 to 12 fill much faster this way.
• Difference: take the smaller number from the bigger one and cover 0 to 5. A difference of 1 is the most common (10 of the 36 results) and 5 is the rarest (2 of 36).
• Times tables: multiply the dice and use a board of products such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 30 and 36.
• Uncover: start with a full board and remove the counter for each sum rolled. If the square is already empty, you put a counter back.
• Weighted board: draw a bigger board where 7 has six squares and 2 has one. Children can design their own and test whether it plays faster.

Where Does the Game Come From?

Roll and Cover is a classroom game rather than a published board game. Teachers have shared many versions on worksheets and in maths lessons, and we found no reliable record of who made the first one. It is closely related to dice games such as Shut the Box, where you also cover numbers with the sum of the dice.

To turn the same sums into a race the whole class can cheer for, try the Horse Race Dice Game.

FAQ

How do you play Roll and Cover?

Each player has squares numbered 2 to 12. Roll two dice, add them, and cover that number. If it is already covered, your turn ends. The first player to cover every square wins.

Which number is rolled most often with two dice?

7. Six of the 36 possible results add up to 7, so it comes up 1 time in 6 on average.

Why are 2 and 12 so hard to cover?

Only one result makes each of them (double 1 and double 6), so the chance is 1 in 36 per roll. In our simulation, 2 or 12 was the last square in about two games out of three.

How long does a game of Roll and Cover take?

Covering a full 2 to 12 board alone took about 61 rolls on average in our simulation. With four players racing, someone usually finished in about 31 rounds.

What age is Roll and Cover for?

The one-die version suits children who are learning to count. The two-dice version is good for practising addition up to 12, and the times-table version for older children.

Can you play Roll and Cover with an online dice roller?

Yes. Set our free Dice Roller to two dice and show it on the board, and use our Random Name Picker to choose who rolls next.