Ludo

Ludo is a simple board game played mainly by children, in which each player must move their four tokens from their starting positions round the board to their final allocated position. The first to do so wins. The game is a simplification of the traditional Indian game Pachisi. It originally appeared in 1896 (the game was patented in England, as patent 14636). Ludo has also been released more recently in a commercial (trademarked) version, Parcheesi.

To make a move, a player rolls a single die. If the player rolls a six, the player can bring a new piece into play, providing that there are some not already in play, or choose to move a piece of theirs already in play six places around the board. After rolling a six, a player gets another turn. (Some house rules[?] speed the game by letting a player bring out a piece on a roll of one if the player has no other pieces in play; in this case, the player does not get an extra turn.) If they roll any other number, they move one of their existing pieces the indicated number of spaces around the board. If, after completing its moves, a piece lands on a piece owned by another player, the other player's piece is removed from play and must begin its journey again. In some variations of the rules, if they land on one of their own pieces, they form a "block" which cannot be passed by any opponent's pieces (other variations simply do not permit players to move pieces such that they land on top of their own pieces).

Once a piece has been around the board completely, it can enter the "home straight", a stretch of four spaces which no other pieces can enter (and is thus safe from capture). For a piece to complete its journey, a piece must travel up the home straight and land exactly on the "home triangle" at the end of the straight (by rolling the correct amount).

The minimum of strategy in the game makes it of primary interest to younger children.

Additional Resources

• Hasbro sells a Trouble brand ludo set ( http://www.boardgames.com/boardgames/poptroub ) and a more complicated variation called Sorry[?]! ( http://www.boardgames.com/boardgames/sorry ).