Description

Mia is an ancient bluffing dice game using two dice and a cup to conceal the dice. There are affinities with Perudo (and the card game Cheat), but also some interesting differences. Mia is often purported to have been played by the Vikings.

Players take turns rolling the dice beneath a cup and announcing a higher roll than the previous roll. This announcement can be challenged, with the roller losing a life if caught lying, and the challenger losing a life if the roller was truthful (players typically start with three lives). There is also the option (instead of rolling the dice oneself or challenging the previous roller) of passing your turn (without viewing the roll under the cup) to the next player. In this case the passer assumes responsibility for the roll as if he or she had rolled it him- or herself. (Thus, if the next player challenges the announced value, it is the passer who stands to lose a life if the value under the cup is not that which was announced.)

One interesting feature of Mia is the non-standard ordering of rolls. "21" is "Mia", the highest roll. Next come the doubles in ascending order: 11 is the second best roll, then 22, 33, 44, 55, 66. From there the numbers descend, with the higher die always naming the tens value and the lower die naming the ones value: 65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 54, 53, 52, 51, 43, 42, 41, 32, and 31 as the lowest value.