Ludo

The parchís is a Spanish board game derived from pachisi and similar to Eile mit Weile, parqués and parcheesi. It is very popular in Spain, Europe and Morocco.

It is a game for 2 to 4 players although there are versions for more players. It requires a characteristic board made up of a circuit of 100 squares and 4 "houses" of different colors: yellow, red, green and blue. Each player has 4 chips of the same color as their "house" and a dice but in other versions it is played with two dice, especially on the internet. The objective of the game is to take all the tiles from your home to the finish line by going around the entire circuit, trying to "eat" or capture the rest of the tiles on the way. The first to get it will be the winner.

History of ludo

Portrait of Emperor Akbar.

Pachisi is a game originating in India created in the 16th century. Parcheesi is a variation of this game, as are parcheesi, ludo or parquet. The current board, in the shape of a cross, is only a representation of the original, which was none other than the garden of Emperor Akbar the Great. The center of the board represents the throne on which the emperor was placed in the center of the courtyard. For their part, all the pieces were the most beautiful Indian girls who moved from square to square and disputed the honor of playing for the emperor. The dice that decided the luck of the participants consisted of cowries, mollusk shells that counted one point if they landed with the hole on top.

The name of ludo comes from the word pacisi, which means twenty-five in Hindi, since twenty-five was the maximum possible result that could be obtained by throwing the shells that served as dice.

Rules and conventions

There is no single rulebook for ludo, although any rulebook can be considered a variant of the following set of rules:

Required to play

2 to 4 players can play on a regular parcheesi board. Each player has 4 counters of the same color (yellow, red, green or blue) and a six-sided die. Players normally use a cup to roll the dice.

Variants:

• There are variants for 6 players (hexagonal number) or 8 players (octogonal number) and with different numbers of chips (2, 6, 8, etc).

Terminology

Terminology

Typical terminology is as follows:

Before starting the game

Each player will choose a color: yellow, blue, red or green. Players will roll the dice and whoever gets the highest score will start the game.

Variants:

• In some variant the yellow player always starts, or if he does not play, the first on the right of the yellow.

Basic rules

1. At the start of the game all the chips are in the house of their color.
2. The game takes place in shifts. Each player will throw the dice once in every turn, except if he pulls out 6, he can repeat shift.
3. Players are required to pull a chip out of the house or advance a chip whenever possible according to the result of the dice.
4. The chips move in the opposite direction to the clock needles from the output of their color to the goal of their color. The tiles that are in the house and in the goal cannot move.

Remove tab

1. The player who draws a 5 with the dice must remove a chip from his home to the check-out box.
2. If this is not possible because there are already two chips of the same color in the output or because it no longer has more chips to remove, you will have to move 5 boxes with another tab.

Variants:

• Start the game with 1 or 2 chips already at stake.
• Remove 2 chips with the first 5.
• Use the number 6 instead of 5 to get a chip.

Repeat Turn

1. The player who pulls out a 6 will be able to repeat shifts. If he pulls out another six he can repeat again. If you pull a six in the third round, the last chip you moved will come home, except if the last chip you moved is in the hallway of your goal.
2. A tile that has entered the finishing hall or the goal itself cannot go back to the starting point even if I take a third 6.

Bridges or barriers

1. The barriers can be made only with chips of the same color in any box.
2. If there is a barrier outside a insurance can be captured; and only a tab of the opponent will be captured.
3. If a player has a barrier and draws a 6 with the dice, he must open the barrier. The only exception to this rule will occur when the barrier tab must move forward and it cannot, because it encounters another barrier in the middle of the route or because the target box is already occupied by two chips. If a player has multiple barriers, he can choose which to open them.
4. The player who has formed the bridge or barrier can cross the same, if it is the last piece of the board that can move.
5. The player who has a formed barrier or bridge and does not have any other chips, which are not the two that form the barrier, would have to necessarily move one of the two chips.

Variants:

• Some variants allow bridges formed by different color tiles in insurance.
• In some variants you can in no way pass a bridge or barrier, even if you have.

Eat or capture

1. If a chip falls into a white and numbered box occupied by a chip of another color, it will be eaten. The food chip will go to your original home (of its same color).
2. The player who has made the capture will have 20 with one of his chips, except that he cannot do it with any of them, because he finds a barrier in the middle, because he lacks less than 20 boxes to reach goal or because the target box is already occupied by two chips.
3. In the Output boxes and the insurance It is not possible to eat and therefore there can be two different color tiles.

Variants:

• After having 20 with a chip you can't move it again or the player can't repeat turn.
• Count 10 instead of 20.

Goal and game over

1. The chips can only enter the target with an exact number in the given or with other actions.
2. The player who puts a chip in the goal should move 10 boxes with another one of their chips.
3. Win the player who first puts his 4 chips into his goal. The rest of the players can continue playing for the second and third place.

Variants:

• When a player puts a chip in the target, he advances 10 with one of his other chips, and throws the dice again.
• It is not necessary the exact number to reach goal or the tab can “rebound”, which consists in counting the dice to the target and then backing the boxes to complete the value of the dice.
• When the player only has one chip left to crown on the target, you can choose whether to move a chip or not.
• In some variants, in the event that there was a barrier of the opposing team that would prevent counting 10 when a row has reached the target, the barrier is automatically jumped.

Parchís in pairs

In parcheesi in pairs, partners sit on opposite ends of the board, with one pair using blue and green and the other using red and yellow.

The rules are the same as in individual parcheesi with the following differences:

1. Win the couple that first put their chips
2. When a couple player gets their four chips, the spin of their turn will count for their partner.

Pachisi with 2 dice

A version of the game popular on the Internet is ludo with 2 dice. This modality allows a much more strategic and fast game, since the players can move 2 chips with the value of each dice in their turn.

The rules of this modality are a reflection of those of the game with 1 dice. Where all the rules that applied when rolling a 6 now apply when rolling the same number on both dice (double). For example: instead of rolling a 6 to repeat the turn, the same value must be rolled with the 2 dice (a double); to get a token from home, it is enough that both dice add up to 5; etc

This modality was originally created in 2004 by the Spanish video game studio Exelweiss Entertainment for the Mundijuegos web portal, and it quickly prevailed over the classic one-dice modality. Due to its popularity, in 2006 it was adapted for mobile phones, and other web portals and mobile applications adopted these rules in their ludo games. On September 27, 2010, he would get the Guinness World Record with the largest number of simultaneous ludo players.

Variants:

• In a variant, when playing Parchís with 2 dice, the rules applicable when obtaining a 5, change their execution by obtaining a 6.

Betting on Parcheesi

Version of the game with bets that can be played both individually and in pairs. It consists in that each time a player's token is eaten, he must pay a previously established amount. That same amount must also be paid for each token that has not been put into the goal to all the players who have. The winner will receive, apart from the prizes in food and tokens inserted, an amount - previously agreed - from each of the other players. In the event of drawing a third consecutive 6, in addition to the fact that the last tile moved goes back to jail or home, an amount of money will also be paid at the end of the game to the player who is the winner.

Parchís for blind people

adapted

There are ludo games adapted for blind people, both the chips, the board and the dice are adapted so that blind or partially sighted people can play. Each tab has at its top a symbol to identify them. The upper signs of the tiles can vary, the usual thing is that the blue tiles have a point, the green ones 2 points, the red ones a line and the yellow ones 2 lines. Each square on the board has 2 holes to place the chips.