How to play Mia
You can learn it in two minutes: roll in secret, call a score higher than the last one, and whoever gets the cup decides whether to believe you.
Each player rolls two dice under a cup, looks, and calls a score higher than the previous one, true or not. The next player can believe it and roll in turn, or lift the cup: if the score was a bluff, the caller loses a life; if it was true, whoever lifted loses one. 21, called Mia, beats everything.
What you need
- Two six-sided dice.
- An opaque cup and a saucer or coaster to turn it over on.
- At least two players; it's best with three or more.
- A way to count lives: most versions give each player 3 or 6, and some people track them with a third die.
How to read the dice
The score isn't the sum. The higher die is the tens and the lower die the units: 5 and 3 reads 53, 6 and 2 reads 62. From strongest to weakest:
- 21, a 2 and a 1: this is Mia, the highest score.
- Doubles, from double 6 down to double 1.
- Everything else, from 65 down to 31, the lowest score.
Your turn
- Shake the cup, turn it over on the saucer and look at the dice without showing anyone.
- Call a score out loud. It must be higher than the score called before you; if you open the round, anything goes.
- You can tell the truth or bluff: all that matters is that your call beats the previous one.
- Pass the covered cup to the next player.
Believe it or lift
Whoever receives the cup has two choices:
- Believe it: roll again without looking at the previous dice, and call an even higher score.
- Lift: raise the cup in front of everyone. If the dice show at least the score called, it was true and whoever lifted loses a life. If they show less, it was a bluff and the caller loses a life.
When someone calls Mia
Nothing beats 21, so the round ends there. Whoever receives the cup can:
- accept without looking and lose one life;
- lift: if it really is 21 they lose two lives, otherwise the caller loses one.
The next round and the end
On Lizumo the player who just lost a life opens the next round; in other traditions the next player does. When you run out of lives you're out, and the last player standing wins.
House rules vary a lot from table to table: you'll find the most common ones on the Variants page.