Ludo

How to play

Goal

Each player has four pieces of one colour. The first player to move all four pieces from their base around the whole board into their home row wins.

Board and turn order

• The track has 40 squares. Each colour has a base with four pieces in its corner, a coloured start square on the track and four home squares in the middle of its arm.
• Pieces move clockwise, as the arrows next to the start squares show. Turns pass clockwise too.
• Red goes first. Two players play red and green, three players play red, blue and green.

A turn

1. Roll the die and move one of your pieces that many squares. If more than one piece can move, you choose.
2. A piece leaves the base for the start square only on a six. When you roll a six and a piece is waiting in your base, you must bring it out, unless your own piece blocks the start square.
3. While pieces wait in your base, the start square has to be cleared as soon as possible. If your piece stands on it, you move that piece first, if it can move.
4. After a six you roll again.
5. If you have no piece in play, meaning all are in the base or standing in the home row where they can no longer move, you get three tries to roll a six.
6. If no piece can move, the turn is lost. The game says so, passes the die on after a short pause and keeps a note of what happened below the turn card.

Capturing

• If your piece ends its move on a square with an opponent's piece, that piece goes back to its base. This also applies when you bring a piece out onto your start square.
• You cannot land on your own piece. Jumping over any pieces is allowed.

Home row

• After a full lap a piece turns into its own home row. Other colours may not enter it.
• You need an exact roll. A piece may not go past the last home square or land on your own piece. Inside the home row pieces may still move forward and jump.
• The game ends when the first player has all four pieces in the home row.

Variants

Three house rules can be switched on before the game. All are off by default, so the game follows the official rules.

• Capturing is compulsory: if you can capture a piece, you must. This does not apply when you have to bring a piece out or clear your start square.
• Bringing out is optional: after a six you do not have to bring a piece out of your base or clear your start square right away.
• No jumping in the home row: a piece in the home row may not jump over another piece.

Playing with friends using a code

The Play with friends using a code button opens a room, and friends join with its code or QR code. Two to four can play, and the computer can take empty seats. Each player gets a colour at the start and sees it next to their name. Who goes first is drawn at random. Only the player whose turn it is rolls and moves, the others see the roll and the move. If someone loses their connection, the game waits 45 seconds for them, then the computer plays for them until they are back. If you reload the page, you go back to your seat.

Controls

Roll with the Roll the die button or by tapping the die. Pieces that can move hop inside a white circle with a dark edge, and their target square gets a dashed ring. When more than one piece can move, each piece and its target show the same number.

With a mouse, click a piece or its target, or drag the piece onto its target. On a touch screen, tap a piece or its target to move it. When only one piece can move, it moves by itself. On a keyboard, space rolls and keys 1 to 4 pick the piece with that number.

Each colour also has a mark on the piece's head and on its start square: red a dot, blue a diamond, green a bar and yellow a triangle.

A game in progress is saved in your browser and continues when you come back.

The piece shape is redrawn from the Pawn icon by Lorc on game-icons.net, licensed under CC BY 3.0.