Ludo (from Latin ludus, "game") 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 Cross and Circle game Pachisi. It originally appeared in 1896 (the game was patented in England, as patent 14636).



A Ludo board

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, provided the starting space is free, 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, provided they have a piece out. Should all four pieces still be in the 'base', then the die must be passed to the next player. If 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. If a piece lands on the same space as the another piece of the same player's colour, then the moved piece must take the following space. If this subsequent space is occupied by a piece from any team, then the moved piece must return to its base.

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 one of the four spaces.

The rap group Dream Warriors' album And Now, the Legacy Begins features the song "Ludi", a nostalgic trubute to a variation on ludo which is played in the Caribbean.