Ludo
A race for two to four players, with just enough spite in it to keep everybody interested. Ludo has no single agreed rule book, so the exact set this site plays is written out below rather than assumed.
The rules
- Each player has four tokens, which all start in their yard.
- A six is needed to bring a token out of the yard and onto its entry square.
- Rolling a six earns you another roll. Three sixes in a row forfeits the whole turn, and nothing from that turn is played.
- Move one token the number rolled, around the track towards your own home.
- Landing on a square holding a single opposing token sends that token back to its yard, to start again from the beginning.
- Each colour's entry square is safe. A token standing there cannot be sent home.
- Two tokens of the same colour on one square hold it: nothing may land there. They do not stop other tokens passing over.
- A token needs the exact roll to reach home. You may not overshoot, so a token close to home may have to wait for the right number.
How a game ends
- The first player to get all four of their tokens home wins.
- All four, not two or three: a game continues until somebody finishes the whole set.
- A resignation or a missed deadline ends the game against that player.
Ludo genuinely has no canonical rules, and the versions people grew up with differ on almost every point above. The list here is the one this site implements, published so there is nothing to argue about halfway through a game. The dice come from the game's seed, which is published at the end, so every roll can be checked afterwards.
Ludo terms
- The yard
- Where your four tokens start, and where they return if they are sent home. A six is needed to leave it.
- Entry square
- The square a token enters the track on. It is safe: nothing can be sent home from it.
- A block
- Two tokens of one colour on a single square. Nothing can land on it, but tokens may pass over it.
- Sending home
- Landing on a lone opposing token, which returns it to its owner's yard.