Here’s a great party game you can play when you have a large number of people wanting to throw some darts. I have always called the game Killer, but after checking out the rules for other dart games, I’ve found there are a few different games that go by that name. Not one I’ve found is played the same as this version, and I have been unable to find an alternate name for it.
My version of Killer is for any number of players, the more the merrier! You can play with two players, but the game will get dull quickly. Alcohol is recommended but not essential, and good natured ribbing is strongly encouraged.
First off, you will have to decide the throwing order of all the players. This can be done however you see fit. Draw names from a hat, diddle for the middle, oldest to youngest, whatever—they are all good. Once you have the order sorted, write the names on a scoreboard, and leave room to write marks under each name.
The idea of the game is to beat the last person’s score. Each player has three lives, and if you fail to beat the previous score, you lose a life.
The first person to throw has it easy. They throw their three darts at the board, and add up the total of the darts. Then it is up to the next player to beat that score. If they beat the score, it moves on to the next player, and they try to beat the new score. The play goes round the players, and the score keeps going up until a player is unable to beat the last person’s score. If you tie the last person’s score, you have not beaten it.
When a player is unable to beat a score, they lose a life. At this point, the next player in line gets a free throw and sets the new score to beat. Then play continues as before, with each player trying to beat the previous player’s score.
Once you have lost all three lives, you are out of the game. Play continues until one player is left with any number of lives remaining.
This is a great, fast-moving game to play with a lot of people. As the score resets quite often, less experienced players have a good chance of surviving in this game, and better players can fall early depending on the order of play.
To make the game even more competitive, we often put in a dollar or two each, and the winner takes it all. It’s not a lot of money, but usually can get you a pint or two.
That is the game I know as Killer, and it’s the best party dart game I know. A number of games share the name Killer, so if you have played this game or something very similar, I’d love to find out what you call this game.