dice

Click to play our newest game, yahtzee!

dice

Ring Toss Game Rules

Celebrities Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah play a humouros game of
Theo Wargo/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Ring toss and its numerous variants have fairly simple instructions: throw rings from a distance, aiming to get the rings over a post. Each ring that lands over a post scores points. The player with the most points wins.

Details and Slight Variations

Each player or team picks a color and gathers all the rings of that color. Players or teams take turns tossing the rings from a starting line, which may vary based on age or skill level, toward one or more posts. The posts may be soda bottles in a homemade game. The player or team that lands the most rings over the posts or bottle necks wins.

In some versions of the game, several posts are set up on a base. Posts have specific point values, such as three points for a middle post or one point for an outlying post. After the players have tossed their rings, they add up the points for each color. Only rings that stay over the posts are scored -- if a ring hits a post and bounces away, it does not score points.

Some versions of the game feature two posts, much like horseshoes, with players or teams standing near each post, tossing rings at the opposite post. In this version, a ring over the post scores two points, and a ring leaning against the post scores one. The winner is the first player or team to reach 21 points.

Our Passtimes