LudoLive Rules vs Common Ludo House Rules
Ludo is played a little differently in almost every household. When a move on LudoLive surprises you, it is usually because the game follows a different variation from the one you grew up with. Here is each common variation next to what LudoLive does — no version is the “correct” one, but it helps to know which one you're playing.
Last reviewed against the game:
Moving and blocking
Blocks
- Common variation
- Two tokens of the same colour on one square form a block (sometimes called a joda or a wall) that opponents can't pass or land on.
- On LudoLive
- No blocking. Your tokens may share a square, but a stack never stops anyone passing. An opponent landing on it off a safe square captures the whole stack.
Using the roll
- Common variation
- Some tables play with two dice and let you split them between tokens, or let you move fewer squares than you rolled.
- On LudoLive
- One die, and one token moves the full number. If no token can use the number, the turn passes.
Sixes and leaving the yard
A third six in a row
- Common variation
- Rolling three sixes in a row forfeits the turn, and in some homes the token that moved goes back.
- On LudoLive
- Nothing is forfeited. A turn can hold at most two sixes; after the second, the next roll is dealt from 1 to 5 and the turn carries on normally.
Leaving the yard
- Common variation
- Some families let a token come out on a 1 as well as a 6, or need a 6 followed by another roll to move it.
- On LudoLive
- Only a 6 brings a token out, straight onto its start square — and the six earns another roll as usual.
Coming out onto an opponent
- Common variation
- Entering the board can capture an opponent standing on your start square.
- On LudoLive
- Start squares are safe squares, so nobody is captured there. Your new token shares the square.
Capturing and safe squares
Capture before home
- Common variation
- A player must capture at least one opponent before any of their tokens may enter the home column.
- On LudoLive
- No capture is required. Every token turns into its home column after a full lap.
Safe squares
- Common variation
- Starred squares protect tokens on them; some tables play with no safe squares at all.
- On LudoLive
- Start squares and stars are safe. But if a move leaves five or more tokens on one safe square, it gives way and every token on it goes back to its yard — including the mover's. The blast isn't a capture, so it earns no extra roll by itself.
Extra roll for a capture
- Common variation
- Varies — some tables give a bonus roll (or a fixed number of squares) for a capture, others give nothing.
- On LudoLive
- A capture always earns one extra roll, whatever number made it.
Finishing
Overshooting home
- Common variation
- A roll that is too big bounces the token back from the centre by the extra squares.
- On LudoLive
- An exact roll is needed. A roll that would overshoot is simply not a legal move for that token.
Extra roll for a finished token
- Common variation
- Often no reward for bringing a token home.
- On LudoLive
- Bringing a token home earns another roll — except your fourth, which places you and passes the turn.
When the game ends
- Common variation
- The game stops as soon as the first player gets all four tokens home.
- On LudoLive
- The race continues for second, third and so on. When only one player is left, they are placed automatically.
Things a tabletop game doesn't have
Taking too long
- Common variation
- Nobody times you at the kitchen table.
- On LudoLive
- A dice timer (30 seconds by default; 10, 60 or off in settings) only times the wait to roll. If it runs out, that turn is skipped — nothing is rolled or moved for you. Choosing which token to move is never timed.
The dice
- Common variation
- A physical die, where any face can come up any number of times in a row.
- On LudoLive
- Each player draws from their own shuffled set of faces, so every face keeps its one-in-six share but long droughts and streaks are rarer. The rules page explains how it works.
What the differences change in practice
Most of them remove waiting rather than add rules. Without blocks, a game can't stall behind a wall nobody can roll past; with the two-six ceiling, one player can't hold the dice for a long run of sixes, and nobody loses a turn for rolling well; and playing on after the first finisher keeps everyone at the table involved. The five-token limit means a safe square is a shelter, not permanent parking — which you'll notice most at crowded five- and six-player tables.
The full rules are on the Ludo rules page, and the strategy guide covers how to play well with them.