Snakes and Laddersसाँप र भर्याङ

The board

The board has 100 squares in ten rows of ten. Square 1 is in the bottom-left corner. The numbers run left to right along the bottom row, right to left along the next, and so on, snaking up to square 100 in the top-left corner.

This board has its own layout, made for this site: eight ladders and eight snakes spread over every row.

• Ladders: 3 to 22, 8 to 30, 20 to 41, 27 to 64, 35 to 55, 50 to 69, 63 to 81, 72 to 91.
• Snakes: 17 to 4, 33 to 12, 46 to 25, 59 to 38, 66 to 44, 78 to 57, 89 to 52, 97 to 61.

No ladder ends on a snake's head and no snake ends at the foot of a ladder, so every move has at most one climb or slide.

Taking a turn

Everyone starts off the board. Your first roll puts your token on the square of that number: roll a 4 and you stand on square 4. You do not need a 6 to start.

Each turn, roll the die and move forward exactly that many squares. Nobody chooses anything, so the move is made for you.

Any number of tokens can share a square. Landing on another player does nothing to them.

Ladders and snakes

If your move ends on the foot of a ladder, climb straight to its top. If it ends on a snake's head, slide down to its tail.

Only the square you finish on counts. Passing over a ladder or a snake on the way does nothing.

Sixes

Roll a 6 and you move, then roll again. A 6 that cannot be moved near the end still earns the extra roll.

Three 6s in a row lose the turn: the third 6 is not moved and play passes to the next player.

Reaching 100

You must land exactly on 100. If your roll would take you past it, your token stays where it is and your turn ends. From square 97 you need a 3; a 4, 5 or 6 does not move you.

The first player to reach 100 wins. The others are ranked by how close they got.

Where these rules come from

Snakes and Ladders is played the same way almost everywhere; tables differ in a few small details:

• A 6 rolling again and the board numbered back and forth from the bottom-left: Wikipedia's Snakes and ladders article, and the way the game is printed and played in Nepal and India.
• The exact roll to finish is the most common house rule and is on by default here. Some families bounce back from 100 instead; this version keeps it simple and lets you switch the exact roll off, so that any roll reaching 100 wins.
• Three 6s in a row losing the turn is the same rule as in Ludo, so a lucky streak cannot run forever.
• No special roll is needed to start, as in most tables.
• The layout of snakes and ladders is original to this site and checked so that an average game takes about 40 rolls for one player, close to the classic printed boards.

No exact roll at the end

Any roll that reaches or passes 100 wins. Games are a little shorter.

No extra roll on a 6

A 6 moves six squares and the turn passes like any other roll.