All players start with six lives. Usually the players use a die to keep track of their lives, counting down from 6 to 1 as they lose lives.
The first player rolls the dice and keeps their value concealed from the other players. The player then has three choices:
- Tell the truth and announce what has been rolled.
- Lie and announce a greater value than rolled.
- Lie and announce a lesser value, but high enough to beat the previous.
The concealed dice are then passed to the next player in a clockwise fashion. The receiving player now has two options:
- Believe the passer, roll the dice and pass it on, announcing a higher value, with or without looking at them. For a poor liar it may be sensible to not look at the dice.
- Call the passer a liar and look at the dice. If the dice show a lower value than that announced, the passer loses a life and the receiving player starts a new round. However, if the dice show a greater or equal value, the current player loses a life and the next player starts a new round. In case there are more than two players, the remain players continue the game.
- Some players play with a third option: Pass the dice to the next player without rolling or looking at them by just announcing a higher value. This relieves the original passer of all responsibility. This choice rests on the assumption that the previous player announced a lesser value than they rolled, which may be a sensible choice if they want to get at a player further down the line.
Note that each player must always announce a value greater than the previous announced value, unless she or he is passed a Mia in which case the round ends.
If Mia is announced, the next player has two choices:
- They may give up without looking at the dice and lose one life.
- They may look at the dice. If it was a Mia, they lose two lives. If it wasn't, the previous player loses one life as usual.
The first player to lose all of their lives loses the game.
Unlike most dice games, the value of the roll is not the sum of the dice. Instead, the highest die is multiplied by ten and then added to the other die. So a 2 and a 1 is 21 and a 5 and 6 is 65. The highest roll is 21 which is called Mia, followed by the doubles from 66 to 11, and then all other rolls from 65 down to 31. Thus, the complete order of rolls (from highest to lowest) is 21 (Mia), 66, 55, 44, 33, 22, 11, 65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 54, 53, 52, 51, 43, 42, 41, 32, 31.
For scoring by points, the looser gets an increased based on configured 'ScoreDecrement', the winner score increases by 'ScoreIncrement'.
The appeal of Mia resides primarily in the potential it affords for bluffing. As with other games of bluff, this is partly a psychological challenge. It is important to know the other players and master the subtleties of more or less conscious interpersonal communication. A common strategy is to develop a "character". A player may, for instance pretend to be a truthful person, a notorious liar, a constantly lucky roller, or one that usually tries to get at players beyond the next player. This will make the actions of the other players more predictable, which will give the player an advantage.