Ludo Rules

Ludo takes about a minute to learn. Every rule below is enforced automatically when you play here, so this is for reference rather than homework.

The Aim of the Game

Each player has four tokens starting in their yard. The aim is to bring all four around the board and into your home column. The first player to get all four home wins.

How to Start

A token cannot leave the yard until you roll a 6. Rolling a 6 moves one token onto your coloured starting square and earns you another roll. If you have no token on the board and do not roll a 6, your turn simply passes.

Moving

Roll the dice and move one token that many squares forward. All tokens travel the same direction around the fifty-two square track. If you have more than one legal move you choose which token to move; if only one move is legal, it is played for you.

If no move is legal at all, for example every token is in the yard and you rolled a 3, the turn passes to the next player.

Capturing

Landing exactly on a square occupied by an opponent sends their token back to its yard, and it has to start its lap over. Capturing earns you another roll.

You can never capture your own token, two of your tokens may share a square safely.

Safe Squares

Eight squares on the track are safe: the four coloured starting squares and the four marked with a star. No capture can happen on any of them, so an opponent landing on your token there simply shares the square with you.

Safe squares are the backbone of good defensive play. A token parked on one is untouchable, which matters most when an opponent has several tokens close behind it.

Getting Home

After a full lap your token turns into your own home column, which only you can enter, no opponent can follow it in or capture it there.

Finishing requires an exact roll. A token three squares from home moves only on a 3; a 4, 5 or 6 cannot move it at all. Bringing a token home earns another roll.

Extra Turns

Three things each earn you another roll:

• Rolling a 6
• Capturing an opponent's token
• Bringing a token home

But three sixes in a row forfeits the turn, the third six is not played and the turn passes on. Without that rule a lucky streak could run indefinitely.

Rules We Do Not Use

Some versions of Ludo let two tokens on one square form a block that opponents cannot pass. We deliberately leave that out: it makes casual games drag, and it is the rule most often dropped in online Ludo. Here, opponents can always move past a stack.

That is the whole game. Try it on the four-player board or start a game now.