Based on the official rules of BANK! by ThunderHive Games, adapted with Desert Dynasty tournament scoring.
Two Different Meanings of “Round” — Read This First
This game has two levels of “round,” and they’re easy to mix up:
- Tournament Round (1–4): the scoring unit on your sheet. Each Tournament Round is one complete game session of the BANK app, played all the way through.
- App Round (1–10): the individual dice-rounds inside one BANK app session — the Bank total resets, everyone rolls/banks or busts, repeat. A full BANK app session is set to 10 App Rounds.
So: 4 Tournament Rounds × 10 App Rounds each = 40 total dice-rounds of play across the whole Bank competition. Everything below about scoring and tiebreakers happens at the Tournament Round level — i.e., based on each player’s cumulative personal total after all 10 App Rounds of that session, not after any single dice-round.
Setup
- One person is designated Banker (scorekeeper) — manages the BANK app and running totals. The Banker can still play.
- Players take turns rolling two dice, going in order around the table (clockwise is easiest).
- Only the person who rolled may call out their own number — this keeps the Banker from getting confused by cross-talk.
- Set the app to 10 App Rounds per session — that’s one full Tournament Round on our combine score tracking sheet.
How an App Round Works
The first 3 rolls of each App Round are “safe rolls”:
- Each roll’s total is added to that App Round’s cumulative Bank total.
- If a 7 is rolled during these first 3 rolls, it’s worth +70 points added to the Bank (it does not end the App Round).
- If doubles are rolled during these first 3 rolls, only the face value is added (e.g., two 5s = 10 points, not doubled).
Starting with the 4th roll, the risk kicks in:
- Rolling a 7 immediately ends the App Round — anyone who hasn’t banked yet scores zero for that App Round.
- Rolling doubles doubles the entire current Bank total. This can happen more than once in an App Round and compounds each time.
Banking:
- At any point, any player (not just the one whose turn it is) can call out “BANK” to lock in the current Bank total as their personal score for that App Round.
- Once a player banks, they sit out for the rest of that App Round — they can’t roll again or bank again until the next App Round.
- Each player can only bank once per App Round.
- An App Round ends when either (a) a 7 is rolled after the first 3 rolls, or (b) everyone has banked.
- House rule carried over from the official rules: anyone who says “bank” at any time — even by accident — is locked into banking at that moment. Keeps things clean and avoids arguments.
- A player’s personal score accumulates across all 10 App Rounds within the session — this running total is what determines Tournament Round scoring below.
Desert Dynasty Format
- 4 Tournament Rounds total.
- Each Tournament Round = one full BANK app session of 10 App Rounds.
- Everyone’s personal Bank total resets to zero at the start of each new Tournament Round (fresh 10-App-Round session).
Scoring Per Tournament Round
After all 10 App Rounds of a session are complete, rank all players by their cumulative personal Bank total for that session. The top 5 finishers earn points; 6th and beyond get nothing that Tournament Round.
| Place (Tournament Round) | Awarded Points |
|---|---|
| 1st | 3 |
| 2nd | 2 |
| 3rd | 1.5 |
| 4th | 1 |
| 5th | 0.5 |
Tournament Bonus
+3 points if a player finishes 1st in all 4 Tournament Rounds (a total of 12 points from rounds alone, before the bonus is added).
Tie-Breaker
Only applies to ties within the top 5 of a Tournament Round’s final standings — i.e., ties in cumulative totals after all 10 App Rounds. Ties for 6th place and below don’t matter, since no points are on the line down there.
Sudden-death reroll. Any players tied for a top-5 placement each roll the two dice once, simultaneously or in turn — highest single roll wins the tie and takes the higher placement’s points; the rest slot in below in the order they rolled. Fast, uses no new equipment, and keeps the “roll the dice” spirit of the game. If there’s a tie on the reroll itself, just reroll again between those specific players until it breaks.