How to score every game

Darts is not one scoring system but several. What the board is worth never changes — a single is its face value, a double is twice it, a treble three times, the outer bull is 25 and the bullseye 50 — but what you do with those numbers depends on the game.

Yahtzee is thirteen rounds and thirteen boxes. Each turn you roll five dice, may re-roll any of them twice, then must write a score in one box — and once a box is used it is closed for the rest of the game.

Skull King is a trick-taking game where you do not score for winning tricks — you score for predicting how many you will win. Bid too low and a won trick hurts you; bid too high and you lose points for every trick you fall short.

Phase 10 is a race through ten set collections, in order. You cannot skip one and you cannot jump ahead: complete your current phase to advance, fail it and you attempt the same phase again next hand.

Mölkky is a Finnish throwing game with twelve numbered pins and a wooden baton. The scoring has one quirk that decides almost every game: you must land on exactly 50, not more.

Cribbage is a race to 121 points, pegged around a board. Points come in twice per hand: once while the cards are being played, and once when hands are counted out afterwards.

Pig is the simplest gambling-shaped game there is: one die, one decision, repeated. Keep rolling to build your turn total, or stop and bank it.

Tennis counts on three levels at once. Points build a game, games build a set, sets build the match — and each level has its own rule for what counts as winning by enough.

Pickleball scoring confuses newcomers for one reason: only the serving side can score, and in doubles the score is called as three numbers rather than two.

Squash has scored two different ways in living memory, and club players still meet both. The modern system, used everywhere in competition, is point-a-rally to 11.

In French Tarot, one player — the taker — plays alone against everyone else, and the whole score hinges on whether they reach a point target. The target is not fixed: it depends on how many bouts they end up holding.