Ludoलुडो

The board and the tokens

The board is a cross with a yard in each corner. A track of 52 squares runs round the cross, and each colour has its own home column of five squares leading to the centre.

Each player has four tokens of one colour: red, green, yellow or blue. With two players the colours sit in opposite corners (red and yellow); with three, red, green and yellow play.

All tokens start in their yard. Red moves first and the turn passes clockwise.

Taking a turn

Roll the die, then choose which of your tokens to move by that number. Tokens always move clockwise round the track.

If only one move is possible, or all your movable tokens are in the yard or stacked on one square, the move is made for you. If no token can use the roll, your turn passes.

Coming out of the yard

A token can leave the yard only when you roll a 6 (or, if the table chose it, a 1 or a 6). It moves onto your start square, the coloured square just outside your yard, and that uses the whole roll.

You may bring out a new token or move one already on the board: the choice is yours.

Sixes and extra rolls

You roll again after:

• rolling a 6, even if no token could use it;
• capturing an opponent's token (unless the table switched this off);
• getting a token into the centre.

Three 6s in a row lose the turn: the third 6 is not moved and play passes on. Moves you made with the first two 6s stay.

Capturing

If your token ends its move on a square where an opponent's token stands, that token is captured and goes back to its yard. If several of their tokens share the square, all of them go back. Passing over a token does nothing; only the square you land on counts.

Your own tokens may share a square. Two tokens of one colour do not block anyone in this version.

Safe squares

Eight squares are safe: the four start squares and the four star squares (eight squares past each start). Nobody can be captured on a safe square, so tokens of different colours can share it.

Bringing a token out never captures, because start squares are safe.

Each home column is used only by its own colour, so a token there is safe for the rest of the game.

Going home

A token travels 50 squares round the track from its start square, then turns into its home column. From the start square to the centre is 56 steps.

You need the exact number to reach the centre. If the roll is bigger than the steps a token has left, that token cannot move; move another one instead.

Capture before home (option)

Many families in Nepal and India play that your tokens may not enter the home column until you have captured at least one token. When this option is on, a token that reaches its turning while you have not captured simply carries on round the track for another lap.

Once you have captured any token, all your tokens may go home, even if the capturing token is sent back later.

Winning

The first player to bring all four tokens into the centre wins, and the game ends there.

The other players are ranked by how many tokens they got home, then by how far their remaining tokens still had to go.

Where these rules come from

Ludo has no single rulebook, and Nepali families argue happily about the details. This table uses the rules most sources and the Ludo apps people play in Nepal agree on:

• A 6 to come out, a 6 to roll again, three 6s losing the turn, and an exact roll to finish: Wikipedia's Ludo article and the Official Game Rules page.
• Start squares and star squares as safe squares: the star square in each quadrant is noted for South Asian boards on Wikipedia and is how the popular Ludo apps mark the board.
• An extra roll for a capture and for getting a token home: Official Game Rules and Board Game Arena. The capture bonus is an option because some tables do not play it.
• Coming out on a 1 as well as a 6: offered by Ludo Neo-Classic, a Nepali-made Ludo app whose developer built it around switchable rules because players disagree, and by the Indian mode of Ludo Squares.
• Capture before home: the Indian mode of Ludo Squares and the rule options in other apps. Wikipedia records the same rule in African play. It is off by default because the most played app rules do not require it.
• Capturing every token on the landing square, and no blocks: blocks are a separate option in the apps that have them, so this version leaves them out.
• The game ends when the first player finishes, so nobody waits for places to be played out.

Capture before home

Your tokens may enter the home column only after you have captured an opponent's token. Until then they keep going round. Off by default.

Extra roll for a capture

On by default. Switch it off and a capture simply ends your move, unless you rolled a 6.

Leave home on a 1 or a 6

A 1 also brings a token out of the yard. It does not earn an extra roll; only a 6 does.