stone hand¹ is a common bar game across the Sea of Flowers where players take turns throwing three 8-sided dice to determine who has to pay out money to who.

before the game starts, all players agree on an amount of money to wager, ideally in even units (ie: everyone plays with 25 rod in 1r pieces)². starting with an initial player³, players throw the dice and see what and see what values come up. easch possible throw has a "type", the general pattern of the numbers showing, and a "score", a point value based on one of the numbers in the throw. the throw types and how they score are:

• home throw - a specific combo that varies from player to player. when thrown, the rest of the players continue as normal, but the player that threw their home throw wins automatically. if multiple players get a home throw, they're tied.
• triple - three identical numbers (ie: 2-2-2). the score is whatever number is showing on the dice. lower-scoring triples beat higher-scoring triples and all runs or pairs.
• run - three sequential numbers (ie: 2-3-4). the score is the value of the middle number. lower-scoring runs beat higher-scoring runs and all pairs.
• pair - two identical numbers, plus one off number (ie: 2-2-3). the score is the value of the off number. lower-scoring pairs beat higher-scoring pairs.
• show-up - the specific roll 2-4-6.⁴ instead of scoring on its own, show-ups give the player a free rethrow and increase the table score by one.
• double show-up: the specific roll 4-6-8.⁵ like a show-up, the player gets a free rethrow, and the table score is increased by two.
• junk - any unmatching combination (ie: 2-5-6, assuming it isn't someone's home throw). a player has three chances to not throw junk. if they don't manage to do so, the player takes the middle number showing on their last throw. junk usually only beats other, higher-scoring junk.⁶
• empty - the specific combinations of 1-4-7 and 2-5-8. when thrown, the rest of the players continue as normal, but the player that threw empty has to pay out regardless.

during a round, rolls determine a table score, generally equal to the lowest score (regardless of throw type) that's been thrown. once every player has thrown, the player with the worst score (by type and score) has to pay the player with the best score⁷ an amount of their wager equal to the table score. the next round starts with the loser of the last round throwing first. with how the game is structured, players are able to join and leave pretty leisurely, but if necessary, players can be eliminated when they run out of money, with the final player winning.

as an old-ass bar game, there's some variations and added rules that have emerged in certain places, including:

• along the Opal River (and especially in Loëz), the first player in the round can decide to rethrow any throw, not just junk, up to two times (giving them three throws). if they do, every player that follows them gets the same number of throws that they took. this is alsowly becoming a more widespread rule generally.
• a weird scattershot of places use a money pool: instead of paying the winning player directly, the losing player pays their money to a central pool. when all but one player has ran out of money, the last player gets all the money in the pool. this also generally effects how home throws and empty work: home throws restart the round with the player that threw it safely sitting out the round, and empty immediately ends the round and forces the player to pay out. generally, players either pay out a fixed amount or make a wager per-round when playing like this.
• in one specific arcade chain, instead of transfering money, the winning player gets points on a scoreboard the establishment maintains, and hitting certain point thresholds gives them a prize.

generally, the game is played with three dice and a table score marker (some kinda marked stick with a clip on it), though it can be (and in casino settings often is) played with individual sets of dice and shakers per player. bars tend to have a little corner to play it at or have the equipment available behind the counter if people want to play and didn't bring dice themselves.

the specific value of a home throw is often tied to a player's home or to whoever they learned the game from. in informal games it's common for players to all share their home throws with the table, talk a minute, and then play through with all of their home throws in effect for the duration of the game. naturally this doesn't really happen in formal establishments, where instead the house decides a home throw.⁸

footnotes

¹ - also known by other names like home throw, home stone, triple stone, the dice game, etc.

² - this is mostly a convenience thing. players are entirely able to bring any amount of moeny they want and pay out in whatever way works, but having it be agreed on in advance helps with fairness, especially if players are planning to stick around for an elimination game.

³ - in formal settings this is usually just the house. informally it's just random.

⁴ - in some versions, 1-3-5 is also considered a show-up.

⁵ - similarly, 3-5-7 is sometimes considered a double show-up.

⁶ - in some variants, lower-scoring junk will actually beat higher-scoring pairs.

⁷ - if there's a tie in the best-scoring throw, both tied players throw again until they aren't tied. if there's a tie in the worst-scoring throw, all tied players pay out to the winner.

⁸ - oftentimes this is just some number the house decided would be their home throw, but it's becoming more common to see the game attendant throwing the dice and taking the first junk value that shows as the home throw for a given game.