Friday night I visited the Kyle’s in Madison. It was a Friday night “happy hour” that lasted until 10pm. Snapper and all of Snapper’s family and friends were there for good food, Mojitos and a few twist-off beers. The night was nice with the red heads all hanging out together and the adults chatting around the kitchen bar. Four reds at a kitchen table can be a dangerous thing.
Three bottle caps sat in front of Snapper or the lead DiCarlo red head. As the evening was almost over she shakes the three bottle caps in her hands like dice, it was almost like she was shooting craps or playing Yahtzee. The original thought was just to see how many bottle caps landed cap up or with the logo up. I pulled a forth cap out of my pocket to make four caps in the make shift game. One roll led to another roll then Lisa or red head number 3 at the table says, “Let me try!” Cheers roared from the table after each roll of the bottle caps. I don’t think Bud Lite Lime ever got this much positive attention. The cheers were so contagious that the “adults” started to get interested. We started making up rules and cheering louder and louder.
By the end of the night with only a few twist-off bottle caps a game with rules was invented. The first name for the game was Beer Yahtzee because Beer Craps was already taken. We wanted to license the name and we would need many lawyers to take the name Beer Yahtzee. We settled on Draft Cap and here are “the rules”.
Official Rules for Draft Cap
1. Draft Cap can be played with two or more players
2. Draft Cap is played with four twist-off bottle caps. It is preferred to have two of the four twist-off caps different (see sudden death)
3. The object is to roll as many of the four bottle caps up during three rounds of play.
4. After each roll the bottle caps that are up are removed from play. For example, after the first roll there are three caps up and one cap down. There will be only one cap left to roll in the second round.
5. At the end of three rounds or three rolls of the bottle caps who ever has the most caps up wins.
6. If four caps are rolled face up the only way to win is to roll four caps up in less rounds or tie by rolling four bottle caps up in the same number of rounds.
7. SUDDEN DEATH – If at the end of three rounds there is a tie, both players roll two bottle caps at the same time. Whoever has the most up wins. There are three rounds of sudden death.
8. If there is a tie after sudden death the player will call a one cap roll. The player will call up or down before they roll.
9. If a cap lands on the table bumping arms of players or bottle of players the rolls are legal. If one or more caps rolls off the table the turn must be re-done. If there are three consecutive rolls that fall off the table in a row the player is disqualified.
10. The winner will play the next challenger in the game. The challenger will roll first and winner or Draft Cap Champ will roll last.
You would think that a game just made up at Mrs. Kyle’s dining room table would have been kind of silly. This game is amazing. The game lasted for two hours and if we had more beer, there would have been a double elimination tournament. We had everyone in the room playing, cheers roaring, and people asking for statistics. Lisa and Julie are looking in to merchandising options and Snapper is making an iPad application to try the stats.
Play it… it is amazing!