Petals Around the Rose

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The answer to this roll is six

Petals Around the Rose is a lateral thinking mind game traditionally played with five dice.

It is played by computer program or with physical dice that are rolled by a Potentate of the Rose, a person who knows the secret of the game. For each roll of all dice, there is a single numerical solution. The players then attempt to arrive at this solution. If they do not, the Potentate of the Rose will tell it to them, and it is their task to figure out the solution for the next roll.

There are three, and only three, rules:

The name of the game is "Petals Around the Rose", and the name is significant.
The answer is always zero or an even number.
Anyone who knows the game may give the answer to any roll, but they must not disclose the reasoning.

Traditionally, the Potenate can only tell others these three rules, as well as the "answer" to each roll.

1 Solutions
2 Petals and Roots
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Solutions

The "rose" is the center dot on any face that has one (i.e. 1, 3, and 5) and the "petals" are all dots around it -- the 1 face has no petals, the 3 face has two petals and the 5 face has four petals. The die faces without center dots (i.e. 2, 4, and 6) do not count. Counting the total petal dots yields that round's answer.

Alternately, one may sum the faces of odd dice, and then subtract the number of them. Thus, in a roll of 1, 3, 4, 5, and 3, the odd faces sum to 12. There are four odd dice, so the solution is 12-4, or 8.

[edit] Petals and Roots

One of the more obscure extensions to the game Petals Around the Rose is a similar game called "Petals and Roots", also known as "Fish under the Icehole" (in regards to the alternate title of Petals Around the Rose "Polar Bears Around an Icehole")

In this extension, the player is given three similar rules to those given in Petals around the Rose.