Reiner Knizia, one of the biggest game designer of all times, in his book "Dice Games Properly Explained" gives a very interesting way of playing category dice games, like Yahtzi, General and others. The whole idea is not to count and add points collected in each category and sum them at the bottom, but to reward the first player to score in each category OR the one who scored the highest point in category. There are two types categories. 1-6 categories, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, 5, 6, Chance and the second type which include fixed points like straights, Towers, Cars or Full House. So, the player who gets the highest score in the first type category (let's say 12 points when 3's are scored) gets 2 points for this row. In the second type of categories (with fixed points) the player who gets there FIRST scores 1 point.

In my opinion this way of playing makes the game more exciting. It's more like fighting for the holes on golf course. We are not fighting for the overall score but for each and every category. It changes our tactics and strategy significantly.

Andy.